Fertilizer is probably something all gardeners use, at least from time to time. It comes in many forms from chemical to animal manure, or perhaps homemade in the form of ‘tea’ made from compost, manure or green plants. There are also fertilizers claiming to be organic. Some are added to the ground, and others applied to the leaves of the plants (foliar feeding). Some are strong and others weak. Of course there are also the component parts; nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (N,P and K), and fertilizers are given numerical ratings of these components like 10-20-10. It can all seem confusing and opaque, especially at the beginning.
In particular many people feel somehow that fertilizer is an important element of gardening, and since other people use it, they have to as well. An extension to this is the knowledge that organic gardeners don’t use chemical fertilizers, therefore you have to find an organic alternative like manure.
The Habit
This feeling like fertilizer is somehow an important part of gardening, can lead to a sort of addiction or dependence on fertilizer, that works something like this.
First you add fertilizer to your garden and you notice everything grows faster and looks greener and healthier. This is particularly true with fertilizer high in nitrogen, and it’s very easy to get the feeling that if some fertilizer makes the plants look so good, more must be better.
At this point you might give your plants so much they experience sudden death, but more likely you keep giving them small amounts over time, perhaps a little extra when you sense it’s needed. Since fertilizers usually contain more than one nutrient (NPK), probably over time the nutrients in your garden are getting more and more out of balance. Since this probably leads to your plants not growing well, it can easily make you think you need more fertilizer.
By the time you’ve added so much that you finally realize you are causing the problem and not solving it, you can be faced with a situation that’s very difficult to deal with.
As someone who has spent the past decade or so moving their garden around, and needing to borrow spots from other people, I can tell you it’s a very common problem in my area.
A related problem can be if your garden is former pasture land, or otherwise has a lot of recently applied animal manure.
When do you need fertilizer?
As a rule, for most people, a well managed and established garden does not need any fertilizer. It’s too complicated a topic to make such a broad statement, but this is the general rule.
It’s possible when you first start a garden you will have some problems, usually a shortage of organic material. In this case it’s likely you will have to do something about the existing problems, and this might involve using some fertilizer. Often fertilizer is not necessary, but sometimes it is.
If you are unable to practice good principles of crop rotation, you may need some fertilizer to compensate. It’s worth pointing out you’ll likely end up with a whole host of other problems too if you don’t practice proper rotations.
Potted plants often require fertilizer.
Unless you are sure you need fertilizer, it’s best not to use any at all. If you do need to use it, it’s best to use something weak like fish emulsion or homemade teas from green leaves or compost. Fresh animal manure should almost never be used in your garden, rather it should be composted first.
If you live somewhere soil tests are available, get an analysis of your ground before you add any fertilizer. This will give you an idea if anything is needed.
What can you do once the damage is done?
Besides hoping for rain, and just waiting for it all to wash away, one of the first things you should try to address in over-fertilized ground is nitrogen (N) levels. Too much nitrogen, and your plants will be stressed and the weeds will grow faster than anything else you may try to grow. Not enough, and your plants will be weak and small.
In my experience, the problem manifests itself like this. In a healthy garden nitrogen fixing plants are the primary source of nitrogen, and the ground will be rich in fixed nitrogen. Another much less important source of fixed nitrogen is compost. Fixed nitrogen remains in the ground, and tends to become available when as the plants need it. Any other source of nitrogen that gets added to the garden, whether from natural sources like manure or chemical fertilizer, will be soluble. Soluble nitrogen is available immediately, and can stress or kill plants. Soluble nitrogen can wash away, but it can also accumulate in large amounts in the ground. In the presence of soluble nitrogen, nitrogen fixing plants will fix less, so there will be less fixed nitrogen in the ground. In addition, if your ground is low in organic material, it may not have the capability to retain fixed nitrogen.
If your ground has too much soluble nitrogen, for example has a lot of animal manure added, try covering the garden with a high carbon mulch material like wood chips or straw. In extreme cases you may want to mix a small amount of this material into the ground, but this can cause other problems as well, so don’t do it unless you think it’s really needed. High carbon material will remove nitrogen from the ground.
If your garden is lacking nitrogen, consider a weak nitrogen fertilizer like fish/kelp emulsion, or homemade fertilizers like ‘teas’ in the short run, but nitrogen fixing plants are key to the long term. Consider planting one or more nitrogen fixing trees like Alders or Sea Buckthorn in temperate climates. For other climates you’ll have to research the issue and see what’s available. Growing nitrogen fixing crops like beans and peas is also a good solution, perhaps as companion plants. This is a situation that may take a few years to get stabilized, and if you’re using a chemical fertilizer now and intend to stop, you may want to cut back as a first step, for just this reason.
For other nutrient imbalances, I don’t have any good suggestions. If you are unsure of the state of your ground, adding compost is always a safe thing to do. If you can, let your ground lay fallow for a year or more before using it again as a garden.
How would you advise someone who has a relatively new property (in our case this is our 4th season). The land has been used for farming but not for 10 years at least. We have centipede grass invading everything. We’ve been using a little bit of 10-10-10, but I want to get away from it. We garden in small plots approximately 40’x 40′ so we can rotate. We have a modern type compost system at the moment but we are going to implement an experimental terra preta pit. We also companion plant.
Hi Jo,
Wow, you want my advice? I’m flattered. It sounds more like I should be getting advice from you. I think you have it all figured out.
I just did a little surfing on centipede grass, and came across the fact that it doesn’t like soil pH above 7. You might be able to take advantage of this by heavily liming part of your garden where it’s particularly a problem, then planting other plants that can tolerate a high pH like fruit trees or soft fruits (not blueberries or cranberries, which are acid loving), maybe some cole family plants.
Otherwise, mulching is really key to controlling weeds. I don’t know what kinds of materials you might have locally, but straw, wood chips or even garden waste, are all good materials to use. If you are willing to use plastic in your garden, you might also consider black landscaping fabric, as it’s inexpensive when you consider it will last a few years at least. Locally we have two grades of landscaping fabric, and I recommend the higher grade, as the cheaper stuff falls apart too quickly. I suggest starting on the garden perimeter, then working your way towards the center, until the established weeds are gone.
As far as the 10-10-10 goes, I think you need to consider why you are using it. If you’re just using it because it makes the plants look nice and green, you should really stop as soon as possible. If you have some other problems with your ground, you should find other ways to address this. It’s unlikely fertilizer like this is of any real benefit to your garden or plants. Problems that may cause you to need a little fertilizer are usually solved within a year or two of doing exactly what you are doing.
Good ways of figuring out what problems you might have are either a soil test or indicator plants. If you like, take an inventory of all your weeds with an indication of which ones are more of an issue, and I’ll see if I can find out anything about your soil.
Remember, when you stop using fertilizer, you’ll almost certainly have problems stabilizing your nitrogen levels, depending on how much fertilizer you’ve been using.
::laughing:: Thank you for the lovely compliment! However, where I need help, I REALLY need help. Weed ID is something I have been hoping to find but can’t get a knowledgeable body to come and take the time to walk around and teach me what I need to know.
Anyhow, the reason for the 10-10-10 is “because Morris says we have to.” Morris is our neighbor and has lived here all his life. His family has lived and farmed here for more than a hundred years. We got this 2 acre property because Morris’ father gave it to his youngest son who lost it to the bank.
I’ve gotten Mike to limit use to where we are putting down corn and potatoes and just a smattering with other veg. We are trying to use something we were told was “organic”. More to get my husband’s head turned away from using it all together.
Also, when things start to put on fruit, “Morris says” we need to put down “sodee”. “Sodee” is actually amonium calcium nitrate. The label also calls it 15.5-0-0. While it apprears to do a fabulous job of setting and growing fruit, I’m none to happy about putting out strange chemicals.
On top of this, we will be putting down 4 tons of lime on a 4000 square foot area of the garden. The purpose here is to bring the ph up to about 8. We will then be planting hazelnut and oak trees at a 10′ density. The roots of the trees have been innoculated with perigord truffle spore. The spore needs and enviroment of at least 7.5 to grow and 8 to fruit. It won’t fruit until the plants are in ground at least 5 to 8 years. Meanwhile, we will be able to harvest small hazelnuts and I will also interplant lavender and I’m looking to source commiphora myrrha. Both grow well in in lime and will produce a fairly valuable crop while waiting for the truffles to produce.
Hi Jo,
The truffles and other plants sound great. I’ll bet that’ll be a lot of fun to watch grow.
As far as the fertilizer goes, you’re in a pretty typical situation. Stopping with the fertilizer is not going to come without pain, especially the ‘Sodee’. There will be plenty of time for others to point to your poorly growing plants and say they told you so. Giving in from time to time and using a bit of fertilizer is only going to prolong the transition time. You’ll be rewarded with much healthier and productive land as well as less money spent on chemicals after everything stabilizes, but it’s going to take some time. If you need to phase in the changes, I suggest setting aside parts of your land as chemical free, rather than slowly cutting down on the chemicals overall.
Since you have 2 acres, which is quite a large space, you might want to consider some nitrogen fixing trees or bushes. If you plant these now, when the time comes you stop using the chemicals, these will take the place in terms of nitrogen. You can cut them down when they get in the way.
For potatoes, you might try growing beans with them as an alternative.
For the corn, it’s a little more complicated. I assume he’s growing a commercial F1 variety. Since the same companies that make these varieties (Dow, Monsanto, etc) also make the chemicals that go along with them including fertilizers, they are unlikely to grow without the chemicals. These companies make more money by creating chemical dependent varieties. Maybe he’s willing to grow heirloom varieties that don’t need the chemicals, but if it’s a commercial crop I guess this wouldn’t be a good alternative.
If you want to post pictures of weeds on your blog, then maybe leave a comment here or send me an email so I know to have a look, I’ll try to help you figure out what they are. You have a nice looking blog by the way.
Johnny Jump Up’s and TONS of wild onions and dandelions. The viola’s are only this time of year. The onions are constant. I don’t mess with the onions because of their ability to ward off certain pests. There are some others that I’ll have to photograph and I put them up on my blog if you don’t mind checking them out there.
THANK YOU for offering to help out!
Oh yes! I could “show” you our soil analysis? I have it scanned into my computer. THAT is where my skill really fail as I’m not schooled in chemistry or math.
Well, there is some give and take with my husband and the weaning off of fertilizer. There just won’t be any money for it next year. That simple. However, what kinds of trees and bushes are nitrogen fixers? I know about peas and beans and we’ll be planting hairy vetch mixed with winter rye this fall, but I didn’t know about any tree/bush type plants!
With regard to corn, we are planting 4 different heirloom varieties purchased from Baker Creek Heirloom seeds. They are guaranteed to be GMO free. However, there is only 25 seeds per packet so I MIGHT get a few Golden Queen or Bodacious seed sourced from Wyatt-Quarles to ensure we have enough corn for the year. I’ll save seed from the heirlooms to make sure we have enough “good” seed for the upcoming years.
I have heard of growing beans with corn, but never with potatoes! I’ll have to ponder that a bit. We have our potatoes down for this year, but the rows might be spaced wide enough that I can put beans next to them this year. If not, I’ll do it next year.
Thanks for the compliment on my blog! I don’t have time to keep it up as I would like. On the other hand, I do have other stuff on my “plate” so to speak.
By the by, the farmer we share a border with plants “Round-Up Ready” corn and soybeans. You may be familiar with what that mean. If not, I’ll fill you in. It ain’t good, that’s for certain. I’m hoping to somehow acquire the property. If that happens, it will all be turned to silvopasture agroforest. That’s the real dream there.
Hi Jo,
The thing to understand with indicator plants, is you need to have several of them to really be able to draw a lot of conclusions.
On my computer it’s hard to read, but this page has a lot of good information:
http://www.yardorganics.com/indicator.html
In particular:
Dandelion has a deep taprooted, stemless
perennial. It has deeply cut leaves and a single
yellow flower at the end of each hollow stalk. Its
presence indicates very low calcium, very high
potassium, high chlorine, and low humus.
Wild onions are cool-season perennial with
slender, hollow cylindrical leaves. Its presence
indicates very low calcium, high magnesium, low
humus and a low bacterial count.
Violas are not mentioned, but I read else where they only indicate wet ground and shade.
So based on this, I would say your ground is probably low on humus and calcium. Since 10-10-10 has been used for a long time on your land I guess, it’s wouldn’t surprise me at all if your potassium levels were very high as well, which is not very healthy.
It’s also a common problem when chemical fertilizers are used that the ground gets ‘killed’ (low bacteria count), which seems to go along with the presence of the wild onions.
Yes, if you want to email me the soil analysis, I could have a look. weblogq@patnsteph.net
By the way, what state do you live in, and what major city are you near?
25 seeds of corn per packet is not very much! Not really enough to save your own seeds, as you should preferably have 200+ plants for that. If you are next to Round-Up ready corn, it’s going to be difficult to keep it isolated as well.
Acacia trees are nitrogen fixing, but you need a warm climate for them. If you live in a more temperate climate Alders or Sea Buckthorn might be a better choice. If you tell me where you live, I could have a look for more specific plants for your climate.
If you grow beans, peas or cover crops, at most they will fix nitrogen to several inches. Fava beans by the way have long tap roots, and will fix nitrogen much deeper. The advantage of a tree however, is it will fix nitrogen several feet down. Of course it’s also bigger and will shade your other plants.
Interesting. Well, we have about a dozen weeds that are structurally similar to the dandelions. We live in Coastal North Carolina, an hour north of Wilmington.
I agree that 25 seeds per packet are not much, but then the cost is much less. Also, if we were “normal” gardeners, we wouldn’t need much more seed than that. I didn’t realize that we should have 200+ plants though! Well, we won’t try to save this year then. Not a major hardship because this years main goal was to determine a “favorite” variety. See how they grow, flavor, etc. Our farmer grows soy one year and corn the next, this is a corn year. And it isn’t eating corn by the way.
We do have garden peas set out in a couple areas and we will be planting several varieties of beans including black garbanzo beans. Didn’t know about the fava beans though. I’ll look into doing them next year. I’m thinking a falafel fest if all goes well! I’ll also check out the trees you’ve suggested.
Hi Jo,
You might want to read a post I did a while ago on the bacteria that goes with nitrogen fixing plants:
http://www.patnsteph.net/weblog/?p=56
In particular, you should understand there are many different kinds, and for example garbanzo beans need a special one. Also nitrogen fixing trees will probably all each need a different one.
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How to Make Organic Fertilizer