In article , "Mike"
wrote:

Just got "America's Master Gardener's (r)" book _Backyard Problem Solver_
The guy with all the wacky schemes, you know. Like to keep cats away
sprinkle vinegar around where you don't want them. Anyways, he calls for
ammonia (highly diluted of course) as a source of nitrogen fertilization.
How do you buy ammonia?

Is Jerry Baker often regarded as an idiot? I've heard so many bad advice
bits blamed on him. The advice isn't baseless, but it's not ideal. It has
roughly the same effect as having a dog pee on your plants, or being on
them yourself, which can be benificial or not, a little unpredictably
depending on soil type & the amount of of urea & amonia in the pee.

You can buy it in any grocery store for scant pennies. A teaspoon to a
tablespoon per gallon won't kill the plants, & some people do recommend it
as a mild nitrogen fertilizer. However, anhydrous ammonia converts to
nitrogen WAY slowly & ends up delivering very little nitrogen even in
acidic soil, but in alkaline soil it converts hardly at all. In either
case it will likely wash through the soil from watering & rainfall before
it has done much good.

If you have alkaline soils, there will be no nitrogen effect, so some have
suggested adding twice as much vinegar as ammonia in order to acidify the
soil when the dilute ammonia is poored around a plant. Tinkering randomly
with pH is not necessarily a good thing for the plants, however, & it
remains that rainfall & average watering will wash it out of the soil
before it breaks down into nitrogen.

Additionally, check labels, some ammonia is sold with other ingredients in it.

Good nitrogen production is done by microorganisms in the soil, not by
adding chemicals which upset the microorganism balance. You'll get better
nitrogen in the soil by mixing in some steer manure & alfalfa powder &
keeping the area moist, than by adding any kind of liquid nitrogen or
ammonia. This isn't because there's lots of nitrogen in manure compost or
alfalfa (there isn't), it's because these encourage the required
microorganisms to produce nitrogen continuously as it is required, in a
form that is the most accessible to plants. If the ammonia or
ammonia-&-vinegar soil-rinses managed to kill rather than feed
microorganisms, you've done more harm than good.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com