Fertilizers typically provide, in varying proportions, the three major plant

nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium), the secondary plant

nutrients (calcium, sulfur, magnesium), and sometimes trace elements (or
micronutrients) with a role in plant nutrition: boron, manganese, iron, zinc,
copper and molybdenum.

Advantages of Organic Fertilizers

Improve the structure of the soil.

Retain soil moisture.

Release nitrogen slowly and consistently.

Mobilize existing soil nutrients.

Do not burn the plants like some chemical fertilizers

Less subject to leaching

Disadvantages of Organic Fertilizers

• Often Organic fertilizers, especially those that contain animal and plant feces are
contaminated with pathogens. Make sure they are properly composted to reduce
the risk of pathogens.
• The composition of organic fertilizers is variable thus it becomes a very dilute and
inaccurate source of nutrients compared to Inorganic type of fertilizers. For
profitable yields, significantly large amounts of fertilizers should be used to cope
up with nutrient requirements.

TYPES OF FERTILIZER

Granular Fertilizer is the most common form of fertilizer. It is usually packed in a bag,
and can be applied with a drop spreader, spin spreader or hydro seeder. One of the
advantages of this type of fertilizer is that they can be made to release the nutrients into
the soil over a period of time. Another advantage is low cost.

Water Soluble Fertilizer is designed to dissolve in water. These often are a blue
powder. These fertilizers are often a little more expensive than granular fertilizer, and
usually are not a time release fertilizer. Manufacturers of these fertilizers claim that
when used with a hydro seeding system the nutrients will enter the outer layer of the
seed and will speed up germination.

Liquid Fertilizer offers much of the same advantages and disadvantages as water
soluble, fertilizers. The difference is that it is already in a liquid form and to use it you
dilute it with water.
Organic Fertilizer are made from natural products such as bone meal, manure, dried blood, kelp
and sea weed. They are popular with organic gardeners, and those who want to avoid man
made chemicals and their effects on the body. Organic fertilizers are usually expensive and do
not have a high level of nutrients.

WHAT THEY DO?

Any package of fertilizer will have three numbers which stand for (N) Nitrogen, (P) Phosphorus,
and (K) Potassium. These are the three main ingredients that plants need, and they are always
listed in that order.

NITROGEN (N) promotes green growth. Leafy plants such as grass need plenty of nitrogen to
have nice color and rapid growth. The higher the nitrogen number, the more nitrogen that will be
in the fertilizer. This is an important part of fertilizers used on an established lawn.

PHOSPHORUS (P) is very beneficial to promoting a healthy root system. Fertilizers that are
designed to be used when seeding grass are usually high in phosphorus. High phosphorus
fertilizers are also used with perennials, bulbs, newly planted trees and shrubs and for flowers.
The most common type of fertilizers that are high in phosphorus are STARTER and FALL
fertilizers.

POTASSIUM (K) will improve the overall health of plants. It will also aid plants in withstanding
cold and hot temperatures.

Other chemicals in a fertilizer may include Magnesium which will aid in seed formation and helps
plants have a dark green color. Calcium to help promote rooting, Sulfur for vigor and Iron for a
dark green color

To make plants grow faster, what you need to do is supply the elements that the plants need in
readily available forms. That is the goal of fertilizer. Most fertilizers supply just nitrogen,
phosphorus and potassium because the other chemicals are needed in much lower quantities
and are generally available in most soils. Nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium availability is the
big limit to growth.

So 12-8-10 fertilizer has 12-percent nitrogen, 8-percent phosphorous and 10-percent potassium.
In a 100-pound bag

Inorganic fertilizers

• Examples of naturally-occurring inorganic fertilizers include diatomaceous

earth and limestone.
• Examples of manufactured or chemically-synthesized inorganic fertilizers
include ammonium nitrate, potassium sulfate, and superphosphate, or triple
superphosphate.

Synthesized materials are also called artificial fertilizers, and may be described as

straight, where the product predominantly contains the three primary ingredients of

nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium/potash (K), often described as NPK

fertilizers. They are named or labelled according to the content of these three

elements, thus a 5-10-5 fertilizer would have 10 percent phosphate in its

ingredients. If nitrogen is the main element, they are often described as nitrogen

fertilizers.