(ORDO NEWS) — Most books and videos replicate the same myths about fertilizers, and manufacturers create more myths to sell you unnecessary products.
Is it really worth using fertilizers? Here are 5 of the most common myths that surround these mixtures that we constantly feed the plants in our garden.
We will use the term “fertilizer” to refer to both synthetic and organic fertilizers. Both types of these mixtures deliver nutrients to the soil and help feed the plants, which is why both are fertilizers. And here are the 5 most common myths that surround these funds:
Fertilizers are needed to feed the plants
We do not feed plants the way we feed ourselves or our pets. Plants get the nutrients they need from the soil. They do not absorb the fertilizer you just applied to the soil.
The job of summer residents is to deliver the missing nutrients to the soil. If they are already in the soil, you do not need to fertilize it.
This may seem like a simple semantic – whether we feed the plants or add the missing nutrients, but the difference in these two statements has a huge impact on how and what we use for fertilizer.
If there is not enough nitrogen in the soil, we need to add nitrogen to grow roses or any other plant. If the soil is deficient in potassium, you need to add potassium.
Salt is harmful to plants
The general public uses the word “salt” to refer to table or road salt. Salt is made up of sodium and chlorine atoms. Sodium is very toxic to plants, and this can be seen in the way plants along the road wither when they get too much sodium. Many plants will not grow along seashores for the same reason.
But salts are different: for example, any saltpeter and phosphates are also salts. No one will argue that these fertilizers are important for plant nutrition. Obviously, synthetic fertilizers do not harm plants when used correctly – you should not overdo it even with the most seemingly safe mixtures.
Organic fertilizers are better than synthetic ones
Unfortunately, many people are used to equating “synthetic” with “harmful”. It is not true. One of the deadliest compounds on earth is ricin, from a plant called the castor bean. It is a natural organic compound and is deadly.
When a synthetic fertilizer is applied to the soil, water dissolves it and quickly converts it into nutrient ions ready for use by plants. Organic fertilizers work differently.
They are mainly made up of large molecules such as protein, starch, lignin, DNA, and chlorophyll. Proteins contain nitrogen and sulfur, but plants cannot use them until the protein is decomposed.
Microbes convert large protein molecules into smaller sequences and then into amino acids, and finally nitrate and sulfate ions are released. Only then will plants be able to use them.
Salt kills bacteria
You can often see gardeners calling out not to use synthetic fertilizers because they kill microbial life in the soil. It is not true.
Microbes, animals, plants, and even humans need the same nutrients. They all need nitrate molecules. If synthetic nitrates killed microbes, they would also kill plants and us.
Fertilizers must be used
Remember that fertilizer is a supplement to missing nutrients, and many garden soils are fertile enough that they do not have micronutrient deficiencies. In this case, you do not need to fertilize the land.
The vegetable garden may need more nutrients during the short season. Fast growth is then needed to produce a crop, but even then only the missing nutrients need to be added.
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