Organic Vs. Inorganic Fertilizer Showdown!
It’s gardening day here at Greenthinkers (for no other reason than it’s warm outside) and so we’re going to turn the reins over for a few minutes to the University of Saskatchewan’s GardenLine for their take on organic fertilizers vs. inorganic fertilizers. Yes, that’s right, it’s time for a throw down.
There has been much controversy over organic versus inorganic fertilizers. It is important to realize that plants do not recognize the difference between organic and inorganic fertilizers. Their tiny root hairs can absorb only nutrients that have been broken down into inorganic, water-soluble forms. It makes no difference to your tomato plant if the atom of nitrogen it is absorbing has come from a compost pile or a fertilizer factory. There are, however, advantages and disadvantages to each form of fertilizer, organic and inorganic.
Organic Fertilizer Advantages
Organic nutrients and sources
Less danger of over-fertilization
Improves soil structure or “workability”
Vastly improves the water-holding capacities of sandy soils, an especially distinct advantage in arid climates.
Organic Fertilizer Disadvantages
For the most part, organic fertilizer is not immediately available to the plants due to the slow release.
Information on the amount of nutrients and the exact elements in an organic fertilizer such as manure is not readily available to the home gardener.
Possibility of nitrogen depletion.
Inorganic Commercial Fertilizer Advantages
Nutrients are immediately available to the plants.
The exact amounts of a given element can be calculated and given to plants.
Inorganic Commercial Fertilizer Disadvantages
Commercial fertilizer, especially nitrogen, is easily washed below the level of the plant’s root system through the leaching of rain or irrigation.
An application which is too heavy or too close to the roots of the plants may cause “burning” (actually a process of desiccation by the chemical salts in the fertilizer).
Overly heavy applications of commercial fertilizers can build up toxic concentrations of salts in the soil, thus creating chemical imbalances.
Expense.
All good to know. Thanks USask!
Nathan was thinking green at 9:24 AM on March 27, 2007
Comments are sorta kinda broken right now. We're working on it but to save energy can only work in daytime when solar system is at peak performance.
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