When anyone talks about fertilizer there is one discussion that consistently comes to mind. Should you use organic fertilizer or chemical fertilizer to make your lawn green?
Let’s take a look at what each fertilizer is and what they do.
In order to sustain plant growth chemical fertilizers are used. Chemical fertilizers are defined as non-living materials of entirely moderately artificial origin. Because these chemical fertilizers do not replace trace mineral elements it is said that these chemical fertilizers are doing more damage than good. However there is very little scientific evidence to prove this. Some examples of chemical fertilizers are ammonium nitrate, potassium sulfate, and superphosphate, or triple superphosphate.
Organic fertilizer which is sometimes called Natural organic fertilizer refers to any fertilizer that uses substances derived from animal or plant matter. Some examples of organic fertilizers are manure and slurry, urine, cottonseed meal, peat, seaweed, guano and fish emulsion. Plants require potassium, nitrogen and phosphorus which are needed for plant growth. All of these nutrients can be found in organic fertilizers and are also not harmful to the environment. Decomposing crop residue is also sometimes considered organic but is not really considered to be a “fertilizer”.
So which fertilizer is better chemical fertilizer or organic fertilizer?
A prevailing problem among many farmers and gardeners is how to use the fertilizers to target areas of your garden which is lacking in soil nutrients. Because chemical fertilizers have (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) they have an enormous advantage over organic fertilizers. Organic fertilizers usually contain some levels of each nutrient or they could contain low levels of each nutrient.
Chemical fertilizers are usually obtained from stores or horticulturists, because they are used in large quantities this can be very expensive. Organic fertilizers can be used as a cost-effective alternative to chemical fertilizers as a person can create their own organic fertilizer by using a mixture of any type if manure with different types of organic matters.
Organic fertilizer by nature mobilizes a slow release of nutrients in order to achieve improved soil structure and also wastes less. This deliberate release is meant to happen over a longer period of time rather than using normal fertilizers all at once. This slow release can be helpful but can also be harmful. Organic fertilizers are typically a water downed source of nutrients compared to inorganic fertilizers. In order to properly and profitably yield a better crop very large amounts of organic fertilizers must be continually applied to the soil.