ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Natural Fertilizers

Updated on February 3, 2017
Robie Benve profile image

Robie is a big fan of healthy lifestyles with a positive attitude. She also loves gardening, a passion passed on by her grandparents.

Plants Need Nutrients

Plants need certain nutrients to grow healthy and at their full potential. Fertilizers supplement the nutrition elements already present in the soil, creating for plants a comprehensive food resource.

Compost, a Natural Fertilizer

A handful of healthy compost.
A handful of healthy compost. | Source

What Is the Best Fertilizer?

Generally speaking, depending on the soil type that you have to work with, you'll need to have different approaches to soil treatment, and the best fertilizer for one soil may not help another.

With the soil type you must also consider what you are trying to grow: lawns, trees and shrubs, or flowers and vegetables have different needs in terms of soil condition and chemical nutrients.

In the fertilizer family there are two main types: organic (or natural) and inorganic ones.

Inorganic Fertilizers

Inorganic fertilizers, usually available in a granular form, are produced by a chemical process in a factory. These fertilizers quickly release nutrients to the soil, and the amount of the three main nutrients is clearly indicated on the package by three numbers.

The numbers always indicate the chemicals in order: Nitrogen-Phosphorus-Potassium.

For example if the label says 15-5-10, the fertilizer contains 15% Nitrogen, 5% Phosphorus, and 10% Potassium. The remainder 70% is inert filler. There are many combinations of fertilizer to meet specific needs.

Synthetic fertilizers don’t improve the soil life or add any organic matter. Their release of chemicals is pretty fast, and an over-dosage of fertilizer can damage or kill the plants.

As nutrients are readily available to plants, they are also easy to wash out and waste, with a big rain or excessive watering.

A tomato’s nutrient requirements change as the plant grows.
A tomato’s nutrient requirements change as the plant grows. | Source

Organic Fertilizers

In nature, plants don’t need fertilizing because they get their nutrition from decaying dead plants and animals, eroding rocks, and other naturally occurring processes that release the needed chemicals in the soil, becoming available to the roots as food.

Organic fertilizers rely on the same natural principles, and use organic matter to produce plant nutrients, rather that utilizing synthetic sources. They can be of animal, vegetal, or mineral nature and, depending on the type, they’ll provide different chemicals and nutrients.

There is some confusion on the word organic, due to the fact that organic is used in different way and meanings. For the purpose of this article, Organic and Natural are used as synonyms, to indicate fertilizers derived from organic and natural matter, such as leaves, bone, or manure.

Advantages of Using Natural Fertilizers

  • Natural, or organic, fertilizers, release their chemicals slowly, so the plant can take advantage of the nutrients for a longer time.
  • The nutrients are in complex molecules, and they can resist rain, without being washed away.
  • They are beneficial to the soil microbes and earth worms that contribute making nutrients available to plants, hence enhancing the soil health.
  • It is difficult to over-feed your plants, since only what is broken down by the soil life will be available to the plants.
  • They enhance the structure of the soil, adding organic matter and humus that also help retain soil moisture.

Fertilizer does no good in a heap, but a little spread around works miracles all over.

— Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Using Compost as Fertilizer

One of the easier natural fertilizers for anyone to produce at home is compost.

Compost can be used in many ways by a gardener, but the main way is usually to be dug into the soil in order to improve texture and fertility.

Unless you create compost from high-nutrient matter, such as manure, the chemical nutrients present in compost are not enough to provide a good fertilization of your soil. The main purpose of compost is to improve the structure, aeration, and nutrient holding capacity of the soil.

Compost can also be spread on the lawn as top dressing, or around flowers, shrubs, and vegetables to stimulate growth.

All You Need to Know About Building a Compost Pile

How Do You Compost at Home?

Pretty much any organic material can go into the compost pile or bin, as long as it's shredded small enough to process. Avoid meat scraps because they attract animal pests.

Other than that you can throw in: weeds, grass clippings, leaves, table scraps, wood shavings, sawdust, animal manures, peat moss, and even commercial fertilizers. Fall is a great supplier for the compost pile, with all the lawn and yard waste.

A good compost pile will get quite hot in the center, with all the chemical reaction breaking down the organic matter. After a few weeks turn it over, working the outer layers into the center, so that the all thing gets processed.

Manure

Horse Manure
Horse Manure | Source

Animal Manure as Fertilizer

Animal manure is a great provider of nutrients for the soil.

You can use manure from all kinds of animals: chickens, rabbits, cows, horses, etc. Avoid using manures from cats, dogs, and pigs, because they may contain pathogens that can survive composting and remain infectious for people.

Before manure can be used as fertilizer, it needs to fully compost. Raw manure can damage roots, burn plants, increase the acidity of the soil, pollute ground water, and contaminate edibles.

Guano, a very efficient fertilizer, is also a kind of manure; in fact it is made with the droppings of sea birds, bats, and seals.

Bone Meal as Fertilizer

Bone meal is made from ground bones, and it’s a rich fertilizer, that provides all three the main nutrients N, P, and K, with about 12% of Phosphorus. It works well for acid soil, and it releases its nutrients slowly, but when finely ground the release is faster.

About the different “meals”. Bone meal and blood meal are made from slaughterhouse leftovers. Seed meals are taken from what's left after cotton is harvested or certain oil seeds are processed.

Roles of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium in Fertilizers

Chemical
Uses
Nitrogen (N)
Stimulates plant growth, and a deeper green color.
Phosphorus (P)
Helps root development and prevents stunted growth.
Potassium (K)
Helps the plants to produce sugar and starches, that are used by the plant as energy food, and helps also disease resistance.

Grade of Fertilizer and Suggested Lawn Uses

GRADE
WHEN TO USE
5-20-10
For lawns testing low in Phosphorus
5-10-10
For lawns not regularly fertilized, or for a new lawn's seedbed
10-10-10
For lawns in need of extra Phosphorus and Potassium, but not impoverished
15-10-10
For lawns fertilized regularly but in need of more Phosphorus
20-10-5
Lawn stimulation; too little Potassium for regular use, too high Nitrogen to be healty used regularly.

Some fertilizer grades and suggestions for what uses they could have on the lawn.

© 2012 Robie Benve

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)