Many orchardists gain skill when they gain insight into the plants we grow. When I was a much younger man growing hay I would sometimes cheat the hay and put 100 pounds of nitrogen on each acre if nitrogen fertilizer was expensive that year or 300 pounds if nitrogen fertilizer was cheaper that year. The Nitrogen cycle is complexed but the most important thing to know is plants are roughly 4 percent nitrogen. The atmosphere of the planet is 78 percent nitrogen and 21 percent oxygen, 1% carbon dioxide & other miscellaneous gases and water vapors. To add insult to injury most plants cannot directly extract nitrogen from the atmosphere though they need it desperately. According to this article http://www.cropnutrition.com/efu-nitrogen Soil nitrogen exists in three general forms: “organic nitrogen compounds, ammonium (NH4+) ions and nitrate (NO3-) ions.“ none of which do you want in our rivers and ponds because nitrogen runoff kills fish. You have heard every gardener out there carrying on about the good effects of rain water which is because 20 pounds of nitrogen per year per acre is applied by rain on average. I will post later about other nutrients but wanted to discuss a little bit about nitrogen first since it’s one of the most important things to plants and ultimately us. Alan posted a fascinating discussion recently on solely nitrogen http://www.growingfruit.org/t/the-miracle-of-nitrogen/17197. I would like to expand this topic further and allow everyone a chance to discuss macro and micro nutrients and the important role water plays as plants uses cations and anions. Would love to tie in an organic versus chemical fertilizer discussion. I use a lot of cow manure which is “3 percent nitrogen, 2 percent phosphorus, and 1 percent potassium (3-2-1 NPK).” According to this article Composting Cow Manure: Using Cow Manure Fertilizer In The Garden.
I prefer cow manure over chemical fertilizer because it’s a long term soil improver. The manure I applied 7 years ago I still see the benefit of today. I use thousands of dollars of both chemical and organic fertilizers every year and have done so for over 20 years. There is 2000 pounds per ton and we apply nitrogen by the ton every year on the hay fields.
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this has been extensively covered on premies.com. look under bryant redhawks posts there. hes a expert with a phd in soil health and nutrition. he’s covered everything about soil you can think of. a great read!
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I think that link may be incorrect and you meant https://permies.com/mobile/u/169269/Bryant-RedHawk. Perhaps Bryant will consider joining this forum.
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Here is a list of his soil series threads. There my be more.
https://permies.com/wiki/77424/List-Bryant-RedHawk-Epic-Soil
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Bryant Redhawk is brilliant. I get smarter each time I read one of his posts. I usually have to read them 3 times though.
John S
PDX OR
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