How to Provide Nutrients for Soil
The fertility of your soil depends largely on how you care for it. If you regularly add organic matter to the soil, it will become loose, retain moisture well, be airy and rich in nutrients. What could be better than growing plants in such a garden?
Many people believe that using chemical fertilizers will make the soil barren. This is true in most cases of over-use of chemical fertilizers in monoculture and large-scale farming. In some cases, if your soil is deficient in certain nutrients and needs to be supplemented immediately, you can still use chemical fertilizers as a temporary measure, but only in moderation. If you want to know if your plants are deficient in nutrients and need to be supplemented, please refer to the article "Nutrient Deficiencies - Symptoms Expressed Through Leaves". These fertilizers are quite common, so look for a nearby garden shop and they will help you. But the best solution is to continuously and regularly supply organic matter to the soil.
You can provide organic matter to the soil with any organic material such as dry grass (remember to remove all grass seeds), branches, leaves, wood chips, dry straw, even rotten fruit... bury them in the soil or cover the surface of the soil, and over time you will see a big difference.
You can also use animal manure, the most common being chicken, cow and horse manure... However, before using these manures, you must compost them for at least 3 months to eliminate pathogens and prevent pollution. You can also buy organic fertilizers from the store.
If your soil is too clayey, add crushed charcoal, perlite or sand. These materials will help your soil to be more airy and create an environment for microorganisms in the soil to be more active as well as retain oxygen for the roots to absorb more easily.
In fact, adding nutrients to the soil is to create an ideal environment for microorganisms to develop. When microorganisms develop strongly, the amount of nutrients they create for plants to absorb is also higher. Without these microorganisms, the only way to provide nutrients for plants is to fertilize with chemicals. However, abusing this will make your plants very weak and need the help of chemicals again.
Here are some specific organic materials that add nutrients to the soil if you need to supplement a particular nutrient:
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Chicken manure: Chicken manure provides almost all the nutrients needed for plants, and is especially suitable for fruit-bearing plants such as tomatoes, cucumbers, squash...
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Fish Emulsion Liquid Fertilizer: Because of its high nitrogen content, this fertilizer is especially effective for leafy vegetables such as kale, lettuce, cabbage... However, it is also effective for root and fruit vegetables. It also provides many essential micronutrients.
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Banana: If you are growing fruit trees such as melons, watermelons, tomatoes... fruits that need high sweetness, use bananas soaked in water, then use this water to water the plants, because bananas contain a lot of potassium, will help your fruit sweeter.
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Eggshells: You just need to crush eggshells and add them to the soil, after a few months your plants will no longer be calcium deficient. It is also an effective snail control measure.
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Agricultural lime: You should add lime to the soil at least once a year, lime provides a lot of calcium and magnesium for the soil, avoiding the condition of young leaves being damaged and fruit cracking due to calcium deficiency.
- Rock phosphate: There are very few options for adding phosphorus to the soil, besides rock phosphate, there are animal bones and especially bat guano.
In addition to the organic materials mentioned above, any organic material is beneficial for adding nutrients to the soil, don't throw them away in the trash, bury them in the soil. You should also combine nutrient supplementation with soil mulching to prevent nutrient leaching and continuous planting on the soil, avoiding leaving the soil bare.
Remember, soil improvement and nutrient supplementation is not a job that takes a few months, it is a job that takes years, but if you are passionate and love gardening, you will soon enjoy the sweet rewards.
