Types And Use Of Mineral Fertilizers

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Read the previous part ← Types and use of organic fertilizers

What fertilizers do a gardener need, when and how to apply them correctly

Mineral fertilizers, or in other words, tuki - inorganic compounds containing nutrients necessary for plants. Mineral fertilizers contain nutrients in the form of various mineral salts.

The main characteristics and specifications of mineral fertilizers are: concentration of nutrients in a form assimilable by plant organisms, hygroscopicity, caking, dispersibility, as well as suitability for application in one way or another. Mineral fertilizers also differ in their chemical composition, content of nutrients in them, solubility and their availability to plants.

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Of the mineral nitrogen fertilizers, gardeners must have two fertilizers - ammonium nitrate, containing 34% nitrogen, and urea, in which nitrogen is 46%. Ammonium nitrate is designed to enrich the soil with nitrogen in the spring; it is used for the main application for digging to a depth of 18 cm for all crops. Ammonium nitrate is also good for early spring feeding of perennial fruit and berry crops, flowering plants, perennial grasses on lawns and flower beds immediately after the snow melts, when frosts still persist and a frozen crust is formed on the ground, when the soil is not yet cultivated.

Therefore, fertilizer is applied over the crust-shard without embedding by simple spreading. During the day, when the crust thaws, the fertilizer itself is well embedded in the soil, dissolves and supplies plants hungry after wintering with nitrogen. Ammonium nitrate, together with potassium chloride, is also used for inter-row cultivation of row crops in June before the tops of the plants close in the aisles.

The second essential nitrogen fertilizer is urea. It cannot replace ammonium nitrate in soil fertilization in spring, since when applied on a surface it quickly decomposes to ammonium carbonate, which is unstable and decomposes into gaseous products, while urea nitrogen is lost without benefit to the soil, plants, and the gardener. Urea is good for foliar feeding of plants: you can feed - with a 0.3-0.5% solution - perennial fruit and berry plants before flowering, during flowering, especially during rapid flowering, when plants spend a lot of nitrogen for this process.

Therefore, they need support in nutrition, as well as after flowering, so that less ovaries and fruits fall off. Urea can also be used as the main fertilizer in the spring for digging the soil to a depth of 18 cm instead of ammonium nitrate. It is forbidden to apply urea superficially without embedding, as well as with shallow tillage to a depth of 5-10 cm, otherwise nitrogen from it will fly into the air in the form of ammonia.

Phosphorus fertilizers should be presented by the gardener with simple granular (20% phosphorus) or double (45% phosphorus) granular superphosphate. Superphosphate is a water-soluble fertilizer readily available to plants and therefore essential in the practice of horticulture and horticulture. Both fertilizers are the same in efficiency and are intended for the main application in the spring for digging the soil to a depth of 18 cm and during sowing and planting of various crops in rows and holes as a pre-sowing fertilizer.

At this time, there is almost no phosphorus available to plants in the soil, there is also little of it in the seeds, therefore, when seedlings emerge, plants are in dire need of phosphorus, and it can easily be given just when sowing or planting plants. This method of applying superphosphate is considered a must for all crops and on all soils.

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Potash fertilizers are essential for nutrition for all plants, without exception. Gardeners can choose either potassium chloride (52-56% potassium) or potassium sulfate (48% potassium) for their site. In terms of efficiency, both fertilizers are equivalent, however, there is a slight advantage in potassium sulfate when applied under cruciferous crops, which are favorable to sulfur, and in greenhouses, when high doses of fertilizers are applied.

This is done in order not to cause some excess chlorine in the vegetable crop. Potash fertilizers are applied before sowing in the spring for digging the soil into a wet layer, so as not to cause a strong fixation of potassium during surface application, especially when alternately drying and moistening the upper soil layer. Potash fertilizers can also be applied to top dressing during inter-row cultivation of row crops with feeders to a depth of 10-12 cm together with ammonium nitrate. You can also enter manually in a line method. To do this, a groove is made in the row spacing with a hoe to a depth of 10-12 cm, retreating from the row a protective zone of 15 cm, fertilizers are scattered into it and then sealed.

Ash is a local potash fertilizer. It contains 10% potassium. It is used in the spring when digging the soil. In terms of effectiveness, it is equal to potassium sulfate or potassium carbonate. Some gardeners use ash as a lime fertilizer. This is a mistake, it cannot replace lime fertilizers. There is not enough neutralizing ability in it.

Complex fertilizers containing nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in their composition are nitrophoska, ammofosk, nitroammofosk and azofosk. They are used instead of simple fertilizers - ammonium nitrate, superphosphate and potassium chloride with the main application of fertilizers in the spring for digging the soil for all crops. These fertilizers are prepared for large farms that have difficulty mixing simple fertilizers and who find it more profitable to apply complex fertilizers so as not to spread simple fertilizers over the field three times in a row. They have no other applications or advantages over simple fertilizers.

Lime fertilizers: dolomite flour, building lime, ground chalk, hydrated and quicklime and others are used to combat increased soil acidity, as well as to improve plant nutrition with calcium and magnesium. In terms of effectiveness, all lime fertilizers are equivalent, with the exception of dolomite flour, which, in addition to calcium, also contains magnesium in its composition. Therefore, dolomite flour is more necessary for magnesium-loving vegetable crops, for crops of protected ground.

Lime fertilizers are used on ripe soils in the spring when digging the soil, when it is possible to mix the fertilizer with moist soil most successfully and achieve the highest result in the fight against soil acidity. Lime fertilizers to neutralize acidity are used in doses from 400 to 1200 g / m², only in such doses this technique is called liming of acidic soils. All other doses and methods of application do not apply to soil liming.

From magnesium fertilizers, gardeners need to have and use magnesium sulfate - 13% magnesium. It is applied in the spring for digging the soil together with other mineral fertilizers for all agricultural crops. Our soddy-podzolic soils are especially poor in magnesium, so the efficiency of magnesium fertilizers in summer cottage farming is quite high.

Microfertilizers in the range of mineral fertilizers are represented by boric acid (17% boron), copper sulfate (23% copper), cobalt sulfate (20% cobalt), ammonium molybdate (50% molybdenum), zinc sulfate (25% zinc) and potassium iodate (35 % iodine). All microfertilizers are applied in the spring at a dose of 1 g / m² together with other mineral fertilizers, once every five years. All vegetable and fruit and berry plants are in dire need of the use of microfertilizers, and when applied, they give good efficiency, improve the quality of vegetable and fruit and berry products.

To improve the physical properties of soils during claying and sanding, together with organic and mineral fertilizers, clay and sand are used in doses of 100-150 kg / m² once every 20-30 years when digging the soil.

Therefore, the main fertilizers for the garden and vegetable garden are the following: manure, dolomite flour, ammonium nitrate, urea, superphosphate, potassium chloride, nitrophoska, magnesium sulfate, boric acid, copper sulfate, zinc sulfate, cobalt sulfate, ammonium molybdate and potassium iodate. If in the spring some kind of fertilizer is not available from the gardener, then it is urgent to buy it, the absence of some kind of fertilizer is not allowed, since this whole complex of fertilizers is needed to increase soil fertility every spring. Gardeners simply do not need other fertilizers.

The main mistakes that gardeners and vegetable growers encounter when choosing and using mineral fertilizers are as follows:

• this is the so-called saving of fertilizers, when the “favorite” fertilizer is chosen and only it is applied to the soil with great expectation of great success;
• often there is no full range of mineral fertilizers at hand to effectively increase soil fertility;
• one or more fertilizers are used, while the principle of their joint application in the form of a complex of fertilizers is violated;
• superphosphate is rarely introduced or not at all when sowing plants;
• no nitrogen-potash fertilization of row crops is carried out in June;
• the whole complex of fertilizers is not used when applied together in spring;
• the doses of fertilizers are not maintained;
• especially often the rules for the use of lime fertilizers are violated, when underestimated doses are applied or they are poorly mixed with the soil, otherwise surface application is also allowed;
• mineral fertilizers are often applied superficially, without embedding, which is unacceptable both due to low efficiency and for environmental reasons, while there are cases of poisoning of birds and children;
• microfertilizers are rarely used, plants often starve due to their lack.

There are many other mistakes too.

Read the next part. Combined application of organic and mineral fertilizers →

Gennady Vasyaev, Associate Professor, Chief Specialist of the

North -West Regional Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, [email protected]

Olga Vasyaeva, amateur gardener

Photo by E. Valentinova