These days, everyone from backyard gardeners to big agri-businesses are increasingly using organic fertilizers. This is due in part to an increased consumer demand for organic produce. It’s also partly due to the positive press earned by “going green” and eco friendly.

The average person, however, may wonder if there’s any substance to all these buzz words. Are synthetic fertilizers really that bad for agriculture and dangerous to animals and people? Are organic fertilizer really all that much better and safer? If so, why? And what are “organic fertilizers” anyway? This article will try to answer these questions for you.

WHAT ARE ORGANIC FERTILIZERS?

Non organic fertilizers are made from synthetic or artificial chemicals while the organic fertilizers are made from natural elements and materials. It may seem easy to differentiate the inorganic with the organic, but there are some facts about the organic that can be misleading. One example of issue is the misunderstanding of the composition of the mineral limestone, saltpeter and mine rock phosphate. People know that these are technically inorganic, but they are used for centuries as safe and good organic fertilizers since these are natural minerals.

Organic fertilizers are generally created as other organic material that rots and decays. As plant and animal matter rots, the organic material breaks down into its component water and minerals. The resulting biomass is very high in nutrient quality.

Organic fertilizers are easy to create. The simple and common form of this is the compost from animal manures. Since this is readily available, contains a high nutrient value, and more affordable, many farmers and backyard gardeners use the compost as organic fertilizers. Some farmers also use directly on soil some dead plants or leaves, grasses, seaweed, peat, food leftovers, and many more.

WHAT’S WRONG WITH INORGANIC CHEMICAL FERTILIZERS?

Inorganic fertilizers are artificially made fertilizers and these contain chemical substances that can harm not only nature but also the body of the consumers. As the soil continues to contain chemicals as fertilizers, the whole ecosystem and the environment is affected adversely from inorganic chemicals and fertilizers.

Although most of the agricultural farms are far from the central cities and towns, the chemicals from the synthetic fertilizers will still have affect out water tables and in doing so affects fish and other water and wildlife. This happens whenever it rains, as the rainfall washes the chemicals from the plants into rainwater runoff that will flows into ponds, streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans, even to the groundwater, which animals and humans alike drink.

Finally, some crops will absorb these synthetic chemicals into their plant matter as they grow. When people buy such produce and eat it, these chemicals are introduced to their bodies. One meal of such produce may be harmless, but over a lifetime of eating such produce, these synthetic chemicals can build up in the body.

WHAT MAKES ORGANIC FERTILIZER BETTER?

Organic fertilizers are made from natural occurring organic materials, which include plants and animal matter, and because of this there was no problem introducing it into the local environment.

When it comes to crop growth, using organic fertilizers resulted to positive outcome. Synthetic fertilizers come as concentrated chemicals which means less is used, whereas the organic fertilizers are already diluted and requires the use of more. Even though this is the case and it does take more organic fertilizer to do the same as synthetic fertilizer, the benefits of using organic material far out weight inorganic products. When using organic material the soil will slowly release the nutrients into the soil, which will eventually increase the crop growth rate for a better production.

Lastly, organic fertilizers were studied over for 32 years in Sweden and based on this study, organic fertilizers have been found to be better than synthetic fertilizers, because they recorded high yields of 65% with organic compared to 50% with synthetic.

We hope this article has answered some of your questions about organic fertilizers, and it’s uses in organic gardening and organic farming. This article, however, is just the tip of the iceberg, there is much more to learn. If you want to try using organic fertilizers, we suggest doing more research so you can find just the right fertilizer for your garden.

DISCLAIMER

The article is intended for informational purposes only. The information has been taken from secondary sources and should not be considered scientific or expert. We recommend you conduct your own research with expert & scientific sources to determine the right fertilizer and technique for your garden or farm.