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| Gardeners can give soil fertility a boost with organic matter |
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URBANA, Ill. — Organic matter plays an important role in our gardens, said a University of Illinois extension horticulture specialist.
“This is true in terms of the available nutrients for plant growth and quality vegetable and fruit growth – healthy vegetables with lots of fruit or a shrub that has good bloom, berries or seed pods and fall color,” said Richard Hentschel. “The elements that should be of the most concern to us are those used by the plants in the greatest quantity: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.”
When nitrogen is limited, the plant’s growth is stunted, off-color and can have smaller leaves than normal.
“Even though organic matter releases nitrogen continuously during the season, additional nitrogen can be given to the plants during their period of maximum vegetative or reproductive stages after flowers have formed,” he said. “This can be accomplished by the addition of composted manure, dried blood and fish emulsion or cottonseed meal.
“These additional materials need to be applied at planting time to guarantee the release of nutrients at the proper time. This is the one nutrient that may need to be applied using a commercial inorganic fertilizer source to keep up with the nutritional demands of the plant for a short period of time.”
Phosphorus may be lacking in sufficient quantity for quick-growing vegetables. Soils with pH levels of 5.5 or lower tend to tie up the phosphorus in a form unavailable to the plant’s roots.
“Organic materials such as steamed bone meal, finely ground rock phosphate and fresh manure can be added,” he said. “Warm-season vegetables are often impacted during cool wet weather that can be seen by the red or purplish color in the leaves.”
Potassium is usually in sufficient supply if the garden or flower beds have been receiving annual applications of composted organic matter or manure or have had commercial inorganic fertilizers applied. Gardeners can apply fresh manure or wood ash to the soil. Organic matter will help sandy soils hold more water and nutrients and will aid the ability of a heavy clay soil to drain excessive soil moisture by adding porosity. To be effective in supplying all the nutrients a plant will need, applications of organic matter need to be done annually.
“There are concerns today for our environment that gardeners do not overfertilize, increasing the chance of groundwater contamination or causing algae blooms in our retention ponds, streams and creeks,” he said. “Gardeners should have a soil test done to determine which nutrients if any need to be built up in our soils. Most often, if the pH of our soils is between 6 and 7, then the plants will have plenty of food to grow.” |
| 4/8/2009 |
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