Episode 1544: Seg 2 of S10E9 understanding fertilizers chemical vs non chemical - The Gardening with Joey and Holly Radio Show

Welcome back to the Garden with Jordan Holly Radio Show. Happy to have you along. Thank you so

much for taking time out of your day. Want to find out more information about those companies you

heard and all their coupon availability. You can find them at our parent website,

though, Wisconsin vegetable gardener dot com, underneath the money tab for coupon codes and the

season 10 tab for all sponsors. We are going to talk about understanding fertilizer. Now,

we've always been told in the organic realm, organic fertilizer, good chemical fertilizer, bad

keep them apart. Don't use either or the other and your garden's going to be happy and healthy.

Not necessarily true. No, and this is something that I also believe for a long time. And after doing

some research and we actually had a guest last year, two years ago, two years ago, who spoke on

this as well. And he's written several books about it. So chemical, so just understand the

difference between chemical or synthetic, whatever you want to call it versus organic is chemical,

is synthetic, which means manmade. And then organic is essentially from the earth so that can

include like compost, manure, kelp. You could even consider something like bullmail, blood

mill. It's basically anything that's from the earth. So a lot of times we're going to kind of

reference nitrogen here, but this can apply to any sort of NPK situation. NPK is the three,

the three main components of fertilizer. And as a nitrogen, P is the fast-versed in case the

potassium. So just kind of a breakdown there in case you always see those numbers on fertilizer

bags. If you're new to gardening, you're defertilizing, you're like, what is 10, 5, 8, or whatever,

it's the NPK. So it's the nitrogen, fast-versed in potassium. But we're not going to get into the depths

of that. We're going to talk about the difference between the chemical and organic and how that can

impact your garden or how it might not make a difference. So people are often told that chemical

fertilizer is best, especially for vegetables, but that's not exactly true. The big important thing

I'm going to say this again is to make sure you're following the directions of the application.

So don't think, okay, if one cup per square yard is good, two cups is better.

One, because in organic, you can burn your plants, and then also, or you could just waste money.

Right. In both situations. Robert Poloverse, P-A-V-I-L, I think that's, I'm saying it incorrectly.

Pavley. Pavley is the individual. He also said that putting thums underneath your tomato plant for

blossom in rot does work, but you need 80 thums to have their per plant, to have the correct

amount of calcium for the uptake when you just really need to water. But that's a side note.

I wonder if plants like the fruity thums, I don't think it's irrelevant because it's not effective.

Back with the understanding of the fertilizer process here.

All right. So basically, you want to make sure you are following the application rates.

So the chemical fertilizer, when you sprinkle it on your plants, the weight works is

any sort of fertilizer, they're usually granular, but you know, there's liquid fertilizer,

but you're sprinkling it on the plants for watering it, and what happens is chemical fertilizers

it feeds the microbes, and then it feeds the plants. Pretty simple, most chemical fertilizers are

granular, and that's what happens. Organic fertilizer can be anything from a gun manure,

compost, kelp, etc. A lot of times, it's a little bit of a slower process. So a chemical

typically does work faster. Organic, if you are just using like maybe your own homemade compost,

it might take longer because the microbes may have to break down things further.

Say you're putting your own compost in and the banana peels aren't broken down all the way.

It's going to take a little bit longer for the microbes to break it down.

It's got to break down the material and then break it down to a usable form for the plants.

Yeah, so if that is the point, if that is the process, once they are broken down, then they are

going to feed the plants. So if you are using maybe a granular organic fertilizer,

that's going to work faster than compost, whatever.

And liquid fertilizer is going to work even quicker because liquid is in the form of the uptake

in which the plant can utilize right away than a granular. And with the liquid, organic,

or inorganic, it's a diluted, you've got to dilute it to a certain ratio per gallon or x

amount of gallons. And synthetic fertilizers, the application may need to be applied more frequently

than in the organic method. So scientifically speaking, when you're looking at the chemical

elements, you think about the periodic table elements. When it comes to organic versus

inorganic or synthetic, where we're going to call it, the nutrients aren't the same scientific

makeup. So nitrogen is nitrogen, phosphorus is phosphorus, potassium is potassium. So there's

no difference there. So those plants are getting the same nutrients, they're just getting it a

different way. It's kind of like the origins of that nutrients is coming from a different

means. But the end result is still the end result regardless of which way you go with it.

It's kind of like, you know, like everybody's all about drinking electrolytes these days. It's

kind of like whatever brand, right? Like you might drink X brand, I'm going to drink Y brand,

we're still getting. When you look at when you break it down to the rare, the raw form,

there's still 75 electrolytes in both bottles in the same fluid ounces.

Or maybe just adding salt to your water, whatever. And that's one of the big keys is salt.

Yeah. So fertilizer is fertilizer, basically. It is food for microbes. Nitrogen is one of the

main foods out there, especially when it comes to large-scale agriculture. There's a lot of

nitrogen that is being applied to the crops. So when you look at corn, corn is extremely

heavy feeder, whether in big ag industry or backyard gardening, the nitrogen amount is

tremendous because you've got to get that plant to grow all the way 5, 6, 7, 8-foot tall,

put on all the green foliage and then it starts developing the ear. In lawn care, the fertilizers

are like 90, 0, 0. It's all nitrogen because you're wanting that green, green, green to make it look

pretty. Exactly. So there was many, there's been a number of studies done within the past

five to 10 years. So not like super old, but in the past five to 10 years, where a large-scale

agricultural, so actual farm crops that there's no significant difference in chemical versus organic.

And even when it comes to the bacteria or the fungi that grows the things that break down,

those microbes that break down the chemicals, there's no large significant difference either.

But there is one difference is that when you use the synthetic fertilizer, it'll cause,

and this is not a difference in how the plants get their nutrients, but it is a difference

in how it applies. So the synthetic fertilizer will cause a spike of micro production,

and then it'll even out. But there is no harm or harm to the plants from microbes in that process.

So synthetic fertilizer gives it a boost, but then eventually balances back out. Organic fertilizer

is more of like a, like a, a trickle. Yeah. So is there one better than the other? Is there a long

term environmental disadvantage to using a synthetic fertilizer versus a chemical fertilizer?

So long term, no, there is not a large impact. But the way I look at it is that I will forever,

ever, ever be an organic vegetable gardener because I think about things like the soil. I also

think about things like possible runoff, what's it called, erosion, things like that, not saying that

synthetic fertilizer causes more erosion or anything like that, but I think to myself, what is my

long term impact? Am I feeding the soil or am I feeding the plants from microbes? Well, you look at

the long term effect in the big ag industry, and this is more towards the glyphosate rather than

the synthetic fertilizers is the dead zone at the Gulf of New Mexico, or Gulf of America, whatever you

want to call it, because there's hundreds and thousands of acres of all that glyphosate and

chemicals that have flushed down there that has killed all that vegetation. Now that's not directly

related to, oh, that's synthetic fertilizer versus organic fertilizer. That's a different realm,

but the long term effect is still the same. But the nitrogen, there's a lot of nitrogen there,

yeah. And that's under the impact. And that also algae bloom in lakes and streams, like Michigan

always has a big algae bloom issue every couple of years that really impacts the aquatic life,

and that's due to the runoff of that nitrogen. And you can do the same bad with organic nitrogen,

as you can chemical nitrogen or inorganic nitrogen, if you apply it incorrectly. Oh, let's just dump

the whole bag. Well, now you're just as you're using just as much and doing just as a negative

effect. Great. But for me, I also think about like my my footprint, essentially, if I am creating my own

fertilizer, whether it be compost, basically, is what I would be using. You have access to your own

fertilizer, why go out and buy some, right? It was not needed. Now, learning this, I do grow flowers,

and I'm thinking, you know, since I do grow flowers, I could use this synthetic, because it might

help me have nicer flowers. Because you're not going to eat the flowers, you're you're looking

them for self pleasure. And this is, this is in a small scale, I grew them in containers. So maybe

if it provides me some bigger, prettier flowers and my little containers. And you follow the

application right as the company has instructed and don't go bonkers and going, I'm just can keep

pouring it on. The long term effect will be very minimal, because there's not going to be the

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