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:
- Slow growth
- Smaller than average leaves
- Leaves turning yellow
- Smaller than average flowers
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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