What is a Organic fertilizers?

• Why use organic fertilizers?
• How to apply organic fertilizers to your soil to improve soil activity.
•  Beginers Guide

Organic fertilizer, the organic meaning” that the nutrients contained in the product is derived solely from the remains or a by-product of an organism".

Some examples of organic fertilizers are chook manure, blood & bone, guano, mineral fertilizers, lime, fish emulsions, fish hydrolytes, kelp products, humic products, sulphate of potassium, plus many different blends using compost as there base.

All organic fertilizers have their fertilizer ratio stated on the package label. Composted manures are normally sold as soil conditioners

Organic fertilizers nutrients are in the form of slow release. The nutrients can take up to 4-6 weeks to relies into the soil as organic fertilizers are natural form. Organic fertilizers depend on soil organisms to break them down to release nutrients; therefore, it is good to apply them when the soil is moist and warm enough for the microorganisms to be active. Nutrient release by microbial activity sometimes occurs over a length of time .that’s why it is good idea to apply soil inoculants that contain microorganism over the growing period to help breakdown the nutrients.

There are many different types of organic fertilizers that can be used in organic farming. You need to make shore that the organic fertilizer that you are using is certified by your register organic body if you are certified organic grower.

When growing organic crops commercially you should all ways test your soil, after crop harvest for nutrient level before apply organic fertilizers to see were you soil is at. It is better to test to see what your soil is lacking before you go applying organic fertilizers that have a lot of a particular nutrient that your soil already has in good supply.

Organic fertiliser is best applied after harvest.Balancing the minerals in your soil will help to improve soil structure and increase general fertility.

Adding microbial inoculants (micro-organisms) to your soil will greatly improve soil activity, micro-organisms will help to improve soil structure and nutrient Recycling by repopulating the soil with beneficial soil biology.

There are many Foliage fertilizers on the market. They are a very good source of nutrient input. Foliage fertilizer can help to get nutrients into the plant system as their nutrients are available for plant uptake. Appling foliage organic fertilizers can help with disease suppression on the plants. Many agronomists now say that you should be applying foliage fertilizers every 2 – 4 weeks.

In Comparison to synthetic fertilizer, organic fertilizers contain lower levels of nutrients, but they perform important functions which the synthetic fertilizers do not. They increase the organic content and consequently the water-holding capacity of the soil. They improve the physical structure of the soil which allows more air to get to plant roots. If you apply organic fertilizers, the bacterial and fungal activity increases in the soil. Mycorrhizal fungi which make other nutrients more available to plants thrive in soil where the organic matter content is high. Organically derived plant nutrients are slow to leach from the soil making them less likely to contribute to water pollution than synthetic fertilizers.