On Tue, 24 Feb 2004 18:23:01 GMT, (The Watcher)
wrote:

On Mon, 16 Feb 2004 12:50:20 GMT, Frogleg wrote:

(snip)
It's your own fault. You introduced the transportation issue. :-)
You're advising the previous poster to spend a couple of days a week
chasing around to restaurants and race tracks to find and transport
large-volume materials to replace a couple of bags of the chemical
nutrients plants require?

I don't understand why 'artificial' fertilizers have such vociferous
opponents. AFAIK, plants don't care whether their nitrogen and
phosphorous comes from cowpats or granules.

That's still being investigated. It's been claimed that our bodies don't absorb
nutrients from pills the same way they absorb nutrients from food. I've seen
many organic advocates make the same claim about plants.

The previous poster is looking at real-life issues, and doubtless
already uses all the 'organic' processes he can manage. *His*
cost/benefit analysis appears to have come down on the side of
manufactured fertilizer. Makes sense to me. He's not talking about
wholesale DDT spraying, or lowering the water table to keep his
golfcourse green.

Another thing about chemical fertilizers is they only provide what is
put in the bag, what "science" has decided what plants need. Just like
when we buy vitamins, there are only certain vitamins and minerals
added, only those that "science" has decided we need.

Relying only on chemical amendments and chemical vitamins might be ok,
but there may be some essential trace minerals that we do not know
about yet, so it's still a good idea even if you use chemical
fertilizers and vitamins to "feed" your land and yourself with a wide
variety of nutritional sources.

There are people who say chemical fertilizers are the devil incarnate,
and would not use them no matter what, and others who aren't that hard
line. I figure that if you are trying to get a compost to heat and
you don't happen to have or don't want to use blood meal, some
chemical nitrogen won't end the world as we know it if you toss a
handful in now and then. But, I wouldn't run out and buy some today,
but I'd probably use it up if I already had some.

If my garden is deficient of boron.. I think it was epsom salts you
can spray on it .. those crystals you can soak your sore tired feet
in, or take as a laxative. They're boxed or bagged up, but they've
been around forever. Chemical or organic? Or they mined crystals, or
artificially "induced" to crystal? Does the ground care?

The main thing wrong with using chemical fertilizers other than their
limiting factors, is they seemingly burn the organic matter from the
soil! Or maybe it's just that it doesn't add any, and it builds up
salts in the soil, which will soon ruin your soil. If there is lots
organic matter used, it buffers those salts, water etc.

If you need to use the chemical fertilizers, use LOTS of organic
matter too.

Janice