Author: Meeta

Without Nitrogen the plants would simple not grow. This gift given by nature truly is most understood and misused. Nitrogen helps the plants grow abundantly and lush because it helps to generate the cells required for growth. This mineral is both in the air and the soil. The key is in transforming it into a form that plants will accept.  

Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium (NPK)

NPK is essentially the holy grail to ensuring healthy plant growth. All three can be available as individual or joint synthetic fertilisers. As well as natural sources.  Phosphorous deficiency tends to inhibit or prevent growth due to root damage and Potassium deficiency shows as drooping plants unable to sit upright om their own. For the purpose of this article lets focus on Nitrogen. 

Nitrogen deficiency will show in various forms: 

1. Slow growth 

2. Smaller than average leaves 

3. Leaves turning yellow 

4. Smaller than average flowers 

5. In a short season area missing the harvest timing due to growth not having taken place.  

It is the backbone to plants structural work and with a deficiency the growth simply is hampered. There are multiple ways in which to introduce nitrogen to the soil for the plants to uptake and become lush. 

Natural ways to introduce Nitrogen into soil

1. Nettle water – Yes, the very nettles that most of us despise due to their ability to cause rashes and itching by simply brushing against them. The first sign of a healthy soil structure is an abundance of nettles. Understandably it’s wise to keep the nettles to a far corner so as not to cause personal harm but their presence is a welcome sight for many Permaculturalists who attempt to join forces in unity with nature rather than reach for chemical fertilisers.
   
   How to prepare Nettle Water
   
   Simply collect nettles in a tub, fill with water and leave standing in a corner. Indeed, the water does create an unpleasant smell though as mentioned in a previous article nitrogen is also released into the atmosphere and nearby plants shall also benefit simply by having such tubs placed nearby.  

2. Nitrogen fixing plants – An excellent way of introducing additional nitrogen into the soil for neighbouring plants to also enjoy benefits. Mono culturalists would disagree as uniform lines of the same crop are abandoned for intercropping methods where in plants help each other to flourish via various abilities such as pest control, release of nitrogen into the soil, enhancing the favour of neighbouring companion plants etc.  

3. Manure – Manure naturally holds vast amounts of nitrogen. Organic mature manure, not straight from the field of cows, is manure that has been left to mature in a warm pile over a span of  a couple of years mixed with straw to help it loosen up and reduce its acidic potency.
   
   Manure straight from the field would indeed burn the roots of any plants it would touch due to its high acid profile. Mature manure simply needs to add to the land ideally during the autumn months and left alone for the elements to let it drain into the soil. In the springtime the soil is tilled, and manure effectively mixed into the soil. This prepares the soil for another year of lush growth and harvest. 

4. Coffee grounds – Organic coffee has a wonderful effect of adding nitrogen into the soil. Simple scatter onto the soil and dig in. due to roots initially being shallow, coffee grounds don’t need to be tilled deeply. 

5. Fish emulsion – Fish emulsion is also a fantastic way of adding nitrogen although can be rather smelly and off-putting. Synthetic versions are available to dig into the ground. Another way of using this fish concept is to place a fresh fish and the base of a dug hole in the ground before adding the plant and further compost/soil. If working on a rather small scale this may be feasible but on a larger scale the economics may not be appropriate. A smell would linger even though the fish is buried and if wildlife such as foxes, cats or badgers are around the plant could end up scatted with the fish taken.  

6. Green manure – this is most common amongst the farming community as it produces a by-product for sales although it would take up space and cost in seeds. It’s essentially a fast-growing product that covers bear soil smothering all weeds and keeping the soil intact. Green manure such as broad beans, rye, fenugreek, clover etc. Here the trick is to let the plant die back naturally and to dig it all back into the soil for the nitrogen nodules to be broken down by specialist bacterial and fungi and keep the nitrogen in the soil for thee health of follow up plants.  

With multiple choices available within the realms of traditional horticulture, these methods provide an array of alternative methods to tilling.  

Meeta

Without nitrogen, plants would simply not grow. This gift given by nature truly is most understood and misused. Nitrogen (N2) helps plants grow abundantly and lush because it helps to generate the cells required for growth. This mineral is both in the air and the soil. The key is in transforming it into a form that plants will accept.  

Nitrate is the easiest form for the plants to consume via both root systems and mycorrhizal fungi. The fungi exchange the nitrogen for excess carbohydrates from the plants by creating a living transportation system to carry the loose soil nitrogen to the plant roots. N2 also generates the plant DNA, amino acids, cells etc. 

Plants that store and then release N2 are known as N2 fixers. They are predominantly in the legumes family which consists in over 18000 varieties of peas and beans. Such plants produce a habitat  for bacteria to produce nitrogen and keep the soil healthy for all plants to flourish. Nitrogen fixing plants have nodules in the roots that house vast amounts of bacteria that can transform nitrite into nitrate. When the plants die, nitrite is released for bacteria to transform  it.  

There are 3 main ways in which the soil looses its wealth and health of nitrogen : 

1. Harvesting

2. Volatilisation ( transforming into gas released into the atmosphere) 

3. Washed away (leeching) 

Leeching takes place via synthetic fertilisers that run loose via water streaming into local rivers and damaging the local environment. Vaporising creates the potent green house gas Nitrous oxide which usually occurs with the soil being disturbed via tilling.  

Synthetic fertilisers come from an era of horticultural ignorance of not understanding the soil and the desire for bypassing nature for quick huge harvests.

Why settle for small and nutritious when large will satisfy the masses, albeit until chemicals compound health issues later in life. Another negative impact of fertilisers is the dependence on pesticides due to the plants natural defence mechanisms being compromised due to a disruption in the natural methods.  

Fertilisers irritate the worms and bacteria in the soil resulting in diminished quantities. It also disrupts and kills fungi whilst altering the PH of the soil making it inhospitable for bacteria…the very bacteria that convert n2 into nitrate. The natural nitrogen cycle is broken and both plants and the soil suffer and die. As the fungus dies, the natural minerals also needed for the growth of plants are no longer utilised i.e. copper, phosphorous, iron, zinc etc. soil quality is diminished by a lack of minerals and bacteria resulting in weaker if any  produce.

The self sustaining web for plant growth is killed and further various chemicals are needed to try to replace what now lacks in the system and the downward spiral is created of death. Consequently the overall harvest nutritional value is diminished beyond recognition.  

All is not lost as nature has a way of bouncing back providing the chemical usage is stopped.  

Meeta