Organic Fertilizers - How They are Used in Organic Farming

Organic farming began in the form of small-scale enterprises, each farm having from less than one acre to 100 acres. Most are still small. Only organic grain farms have grown large.

Organic farming and Organic Gardening both use natural, organic fertilizers. Organic fertilizers are non-manmade, non-chemical fertilizers.

How Do They Use Natural Fertilizers in Organic Farming?

Natural fertilizers in organic farming are called organic fertilizers. They include various types of compost and additives. Organic Gardening and organic farming should be identical when it comes to the use of organic fertilizers. The only difference should be the amount of organic fertilizer used.

Organic farming and Organic Gardening may use any of these animal or mineral natural organic fertilizers.

* Animal manure
* Green manure
* Compost
* Bone meal
* Blood meal
* Rock phosphate
* Greensand

The organic farmer works these organic fertilizers into the soil. He follows the adage: Feed the soil and the soil will feed your plants.

How Do They Use Natural Fertilizers in Organic Farming and Still Get Adequate Yields?

Can farmers get large crops without resorting to chemical farming? Doesn’t it come down to a choice between organic fertilizers and profit?

The choice is not really between organic fertilizers and profit. Firstly, the use of compost and animal manures is inexpensive compared to chemical fertilizers. Also, organic fertilizers provide all the nutrition needed by plants, producing adequate yields.

Organic Fertilizers

Animal manure is probably the best known organic fertilizer. Animal waste is dried, and then spread on fields.

Green manure is a crop that is grown predominantly to add nutrients to the soil. The crop is grown for a specific period, during the winter perhaps. It is then plowed into the soil so that its nutrients can improve the soil. Some green manure crops, such as clover, fix atmospheric nitrogen in a form plants can use. Other organic fertilizer crops have roots that go deep into the soil, bringing up nutrients that shallow roots would never reach. Green manure crops were once a simple matter of allowing a field to lie fallow for a year.

Compost is enriched humus made by the decomposition of biodegradable matter. The decomposition is mainly the work of aerobes. Ants, worms, and nematodes also help make compost. The gardener or farmer wanting organic fertilizer creates the compost pit or pile. For more information, see our article on compost making by clicking here.

Bone meal is a mixture of animal bones that have been crushed and coarsely ground for organic fertilizer. It is a source of phosphorous.

Blood meal is dried animal blood that has been powdered for use as an organic fertilizer. It is rich in nitrogen.

The other two organic fertilizers in our list above are natural minerals.