FAQ: Organic Fertilizers
What are the major drawbacks to using chemical fertilizers in our garden? I am especially concerned about any health related problems or soil contamination.
We cannot tell you honestly that in and of themselves chemical or synthetic fertilizers are harmful or inherently evil. If used judiciously and intelligently they can make a significant contribution to the overall health and productivity of our soils. Unfortunately that is not how they are use. Instead, they are viewed as all that is needed to grow plants. Soil is alive and depends on organic matter to keep it healthy. Just as we require carbon to live, so do the organisms in the soil. Excessive use of synthetic or chemical fertilizers has several detrimental effects on the soil. The microbial life in the soil makes a significant contribution to the structure of the soil which determines how easy it is to work, to the prevention and destruction of pests and diseases, to the overall growth of plants in the soil. At the same time, due to the excessive use of synthetic nitrogen, soil systems can be affected in several other ways. For example, if there is always an overabundance of soluble nitrogen, many of the microbial systems slow down. Then when the plants need the nitrogen to be converted to a more available form the biological system that makes that happen is not working at optimum efficiency. Many chemical fertilizers are acidifying which can cause problems in areas where soils are already acid. Many nutrients are made less available due to high acidity, which results in plants not being able to use them.
Soluble forms of nitrogen are also readily leached out of the soil, causing ground water contamination due to excessive nitrate concentrations. Nitrates are toxic to mammals. In places like the Everglades, extremely high levels of phosphorous due to the excessive use of phosphate fertilizers has caused severe environmental damage. Gardeners become dependent on the fertilizers and fail to understand what is happening in the soil. They stop adding organic matter or compost, and the soil becomes less and less productive. Soil is alive and you have to feed that life to keep it productive. Inert salts do not feed the soil. Sunlight and the photosynthetic process feed plants. The nutrients in the soil, air and water are only the building blocks that make that process possible. “Feed the soil, to feed the plant!”
Synthetic fertilizers can also cause over abundant growth in plants. This can make plants weak, subject to falling over when exposed to the least wind or the most gentle spring rain and is also typically very water intensive — all that growth makes a plant a lot less drought resistant. These are a few of the concerns that Green Chicken has with the long term use of chemical fertilizers.
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