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Improve Your Garden Soil By Using Fertilizers.

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Improve Your Garden Soil By Using Fertilizers.

By: Rick Skew

Over the years a huge mythology has grown up around the magic of fertilizers. The head gardeners of the pre-war estates had their own unique secret potions. Today you will discover feeds that are claimed to be ideal for everything in a garden.

The truth is very much less thrilling. All nutrient-providing ingredients need to be reduced to the exact same simple compounds before the roots are able to absorb them. This means the nutrients in the liquid fertilizer containing organic salts can be immediately there for the plant roots, on the other hand the plant foods locked up in the coarsely-ground organic mix may have to wait months before release.

There is not a good or bad here, the required speed of release and the ideal balance of nutrients will depend on the soil type, the season as well as the plant. No single fertilizer is the perfect one in all situations.

Every agriculture expert agrees that nitrogen, phosphates and potash needs to be added to the soil. The fertilizers which provide these nutrients are described as either 'organic' or 'inorganic'. Most authorities agree that both kinds do important but rather different jobs.

Organic Fertilizers:
These materials are of animal or vegetable origin. Most of these provide nitrogen, and this organic nitrogen has to be transformed into a simple inorganic form before it can be absorbed by the roots. This breakdown is performed by soil bacteria. It is important not to forget that these organisms are not usually active in cold, acid or waterlogged soils, so the speed of action is determined by your soil condition.

Inorganic Fertilizers:
Some of the fertilizers are minerals extracted from the earth - Chilean Nitrate is every bit as natural as Bone Meal. Others are manufactured and they have earned the titles of 'synthetic' or 'artificial' fertilizers. Plants are unable to tell the difference between plant foods from natural or synthetic sources - breakdown to the same nutrients occurs before any uptake by the plant.

Inorganics are generally quick-acting, providing plants with a supercharge when used as a top dressing. They are nomally cheaper than organics and have become a lot more popular than the old-time favourites. Only one organic fertilizer, Bone Meal, has kept its place amongst the best-selling plant foods.

Solid fertilizers:
Garden shops exhibit a big selection of solid fertilizers, powders or granules which are sprinkled on top of soil by hand or applied through a fertilizer distributor. Powders are dustier to apply than granules but are generally quicker acting. Sticks of concentrated fertilizer for insertion in the soil are also obtainable.

Liquid fertilizers:
Liquid feeding means applying fertilizer diluted with water around the plants. In the beginning it began with soaking bags of manure in a barrel of water, bottles of concentrated liquid fertilizer then became popular and in recent years soluble powders have taken pride of place. All are applied through a watering can or hose-end diluter.

Straight fertilizers:
A straight fertilizer is based on a particular active ingredient. It nearly always contains just one major plant nutrient, although a handful (e.g Bone Meal) contain a small amount of another one.

Compound fertilizers:
A compound fertilizer is based on a mixture of active components. It nearly always contains all three major plant nutrients, although a few contain only nitrogen and phosphates.

Foliar fertilizers:
Several foliar feeds are solid, either as leaf-feeding fertilizers or mixed with pesticides as multipurpose products. When sprayed onto leaves the nutrients enter the sap-stream within in a couple of hours, even where root action is restricted by poor soil conditions. A useful technique especially for Roses and sick plants. For optimum effect make sure that sufficient leaf growth exists and spray in the evening when rain is not forecast.

Steady release fertilizers:
Many popular compound fertilizers contain both quick and easy slow-releasing sources of nutrients, so feeding goes on for some time. A real steady-release fertilizer, however, is a complex chemical which provides a prolonged supply of nutrients as it breaks down in the soil or as the outer coating dissolves. One of the best known example is Urea-formaldehyde.

Article Source: http://articles.tiptopweb.info

An incredible period of my time is spent in my garden, but as I am getting older and things are getting harder to do. I have decided to use a firm called Landscape Gardeners. So far they have given me all the help and advice that I have asked for. I still do a bit of pottering around my own garden.

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