USAGE OF ORGANIC MANURE chemical fertilizers are usually salts of various elements and do nothing to feed the soil.

Thus long term use of such things will leave the soil depleted and devoid of life which is not a good thing. They also are not broad spectrum, most supplying 3 to 5 nutrients, the basic three being NPK (Nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus). Chemical fertilizers originally came to being because there was so much left over bomb making waste from the world wars, especially WWII Organic fertilizers are broad spectrum containing at least 20 nutrients (and often more). things like manure, compost and green manures add organic matter to the soil and feed the life that lives within the soil (healthy soil should have around a billion critters per teaspoon). Other ferts such as hard rock phosphate are not broad spectrum and add certain nutrients nutrients to the soil over a very long time (15 to 20 years in the case of this example) So the advantage of organic over chemical (both can be commercial) is organic actually feeds and builds soil which in turn means the plants planted in that soil will be healthier and more able to fend off pests and diseases. the other advantage is a lot of organic inputs can be made by the grower thus cheaper and you know exactly what's in there. not to mention the formation of chemical fertilizers use a lot of petroleum and put out a lot of pollution.

Organic manure is safe for earth as well as for people. If you use organic manure on your lawn, kids can play on it. whereas if you use chemicals for your lawn, you can't leave babys to play on your lawn as they can pick the grass and put it in their mouth. The other advantage of using organic manure is, when it rains, some of the manure is washed into the streams which finally end up in our drinking water. If you use chemicals, some of its residue will be left in the drinking water even after it is processed. disadvantage - it costs a little more than the chemical fertilizers. But you can make the compost at your home.Again, you need to spend money to bbuy the compost machine. effect on soil - it is always good to use natural stuff on nature. so, it is good to use oraganic products instead of chemicals.

ORGANIC Manure is used to grow Organic Foods . It is a Methods of Organic Farming. When it comes to the cultivation of farms, Green Manure refers to a type of cover crop. These crops are grown primarily to provide nourishment to the soil. Green Manure helps to enhance the nutritive value of the soil. It also helps to add organic matter to the soil. Keeping to this very characteristic found in Green Manure, that farmers resorting to the organic mode of food cultivation in the production of food substances, turn to. Organic foods refer to foods grown without the use of chemicals like those found in pesticides or artificial fertilizers. These are popularly used in food cultivation. However, farmers

carrying out the organic method of farming do not resort to them. This is as because they are working towards a certain ideal. This is maintaining the purity of the atmosphere. They want to implement all the natural techniques of food production. This helps to maintain a harmonic balance between man and nature. Green Manure is grown for a specific period of time. It is then ploughed beneath the soil and and finally fixed in to the soil. The benefits of using Green Manure are that is helps in supplying organic matter to the soil. It also helps in providing the much needed grip the soil requires. Humus which evolves out of green manure helps to increase the soil's capacity of absorption. This of food, water and nutrients. It also helps in bringing about aeration, drainage and granulation of the soil. This helps in the smooth and healthy growth of organic food substances, be it fruits or vegetables. The other advantages of Green Manure are helping in supplementing the soil with nitrogen. If the Green Manure is in the nature of a leguminous crop, it helps in the nitrogen cycle. This helps in the nitrogenous content of the soil in going up. This is a boon to the soil. Organic food crops grow to levels never known better. The Green Manure crop helps in increasing the biochemical activity by acting as a source for food micro-organisms found in the soil. This is helpful for the growth of the organic food plant. Above all it proves to be very effective means in increasing crop yield. Crops which act as a source of Green Manure are both leguminous and non- leguminous crops. However, non- legumes are used to a limited extent as crops for Green Manure. Examples of these crops are Maize, Carrot, Mustard, Wheat to name a few. Examples of leguminous crops which are used as Green Manure are Lentils, ?Guar? and ?Mung? to name a few. In general there have been crops like Clove, Fenugreek, Alfalfa and Winter field beans to name a few which have been successfully used as Green Manure. This time and again. Green Manure thereby helps both in improving the quality of the soil as well as protecting it. Notwithstanding, crops of this nature have gone on to play a major role in Organic farming. The vast majority of questions I get regarding organic fertilizer fall into two groups. The largest number run along the lines of "Why should I use organic fertilizer?". Running a respectable second is "What exactly is an organic fertilizer?". I've intended to write about this for some time, and a recent letter has prompted me to finally do it. I am a proponent of organic fertilizers, but I'm going to try steering away from the hype and towards the facts. There is often a lot of confusion about organic fertilizers. Some of what I'll discuss will be slightly technical, but it's not really that difficult of a subject. Part of the problem

stems from the fact that "organic" is used in several different ways, yet people tend to lump them all together. At the most basic level, organic fertilizer simply means a fertilizer derived from organic matter, such as cotton, bone, kelp, or manure. Chemical fertilizers are often processed from things like petroleum, or some of the gasses that are found in places where petroleum exists. Sometimes things get a bit confusing, because people who use organic fertilizers also use mineral rocks (such as Jersey Greensand or Dolomite limestone) and call them "organic fertilizer", when actually they are not organic in this strict sense of the word. People also use organic to refer to methods that are perceived as being more earthfriendly. Additionally, the term organic is used when referring to fertilization methods that require some sort of soil action to make the nutrients available (which is how mineral fertilizers fit into the picture). Chemical fertilizers, when mixed with water, generally are in a form a plant can use immediately. Nitrogen is present as nitrate salts or urea, which dissolve in water into the nitrate ion (among other things). Phosphorus is incorporated as phosphate, which provides the phosphate ion. Potassium is generally in the form of potash, which ... well off-hand I forget what the form of potassium is that the plants actually take up (I'm sure someone will write and remind me!). Of course there are also somewhere around 20 micronutrients, but I'm not going to go into all of them! Chemicals are more easily overapplied since they are essentially 100% available right away. Also chemicals are much more easily removed from the root zone since they are water soluble, and some people water WAY too much... but that's another story! Additionally, as I brought up before, chemical fertilizers generally are derived from non-renewable resources. Organics are intrinsically different. They are not in a form the plants can use right away. Organics require the presence of soil microlife (various bacteria and fungi) to break them down, and convert them to the chemical form that is "available" for the plants. From a strictly "how to feed your plants" point of view, organics have several advantages: 1) It's much harder to over-feed your plants, since they will only have available what is broken down by the soil microlife. 2) You can't wash an entire "feeding" away. You can certainly wash away what's been broken down at a given point in time, but it won't take long for the soil life to make more available. 3) Most importantly, you get a much more even feeding over a long term, which basically follows the same logic I used in #2. Just how long term the action is depends to a large degree on your soil temperature. Here in the Maritime Northwest, where soils just don't get that hot, I can generally feed a plant once (at sowing or transplanting time) and that takes care of it. One thing many people don't realize is that chemical fertilizers can and do feed many of the soil microbes as well. However, I think there is some decent evidence that some of the common source chemicals (ammonium sulfate, for instance) are harmful to some of the soil's macrolife, such as earthworms. However I'm not an authority on that aspect of

things; I believe it, but if you're skeptical it'd be better to do your own reading and make your own decisions. An additional "earth-friendly" benefit of organics is that many of them are just byproducts of some other already-existing process. 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. Since I prefer the products I use to be as lowimpact on the earth as is practical, I don't like one common organic amendment, rock phosphate, because it is mined. Bone meal is a better source of phosphorus from this point of view. Occasionally you'll hear an additional argument for organic fertilizers. Usually it'll come from permaculturists or others found on the fringe of the organic movement. It runs like this: The big advantage to organic fertilizers is that their breakdown results in positive ions (cations), while chemicals overwhelmingly break down into negative ions (anions). Since clay and humus hold cations better than anions, organics are superior because they don't leach as readily. Well, I don't buy this for several reasons. First, the only time this even would apply is in the case of overwatering, which (hopefully!) is a pretty limited circumstance to begin with. Second, the form that plants take in most nutrients is as anions. Plants (or their root-dwelling fungi) take in nutrients using a mechanism called an ion pump (which I'm not going to explain!), and that's just how they work. Because of this, chemical fertilizers produce negative ions by design, while this argument presupposes that it's a weakness. Finally, since the nutrients in cationic form have to be converted to some sort of anion before they can be absorbed, they can be leached just as easily as the chemical that started out as an anion. So there it is. I've tried to show why organic fertilizers are worth considering, even if you aren't an organic gardener. I hope that in future articles we perhaps can discuss other benefits to the organic method.