What Are Fertilizers?

Whenever you come across the word ‘Fertilizers’, there may arise a question in your mind What Are Fertilizers? Fertilizers are a substance that is added to soil to improve the growth in plants. Fertilizers have been around since ancient times and have developed significantly over the years as different chemical needs of growing plants were discovered. Today’s modern synthetic fertilizers are composed of three main chemicals: nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium. Yay, more science!

Now fertilizers are not only chemically made, but you’re also probably thinking, “hey, isn’t poop a fertilizer?”… Well yes, you’re right. But manure alone hasn’t been enough to grow plants as fast as we need them.

Now the real problem of fertilizers is that customers and farmers are using way more than needed. The plants can’t physically absorb that many synthetic chemicals so where do you think the excess is ending up? Unfortunately, they end up in our waterways.

The majority of excess chemicals wash out of the soil and into our waterways. It can also evaporate into our atmosphere in the form of nitrous oxide, which is a greenhouse gas. Nitrous oxide in our atmosphere has risen about 20 percent since the 1960s and research can prove that most of that is from nitrogen fertilizers. Yikes. Are you currently using fertilizers within your garden? If so, please go and check the brand you are using. There are many organic options available to you now, which can eliminate these greenhouse gases. Try using compost, different animal manures, or fish and seaweed emulsions.

What are Fertilizers made of?

In the United States, usually bags will label the amount of each chemical in a series like this – 15-5-10. This means that 15% of the bag is nitrogen, 5% phosphorous, and 10% potassium. The bag will also describe all of the compounds made to create those percentages. Now, I’m no good at math but I can definitely add those numbers together. 30% of the bag contains the essentials to grow plants, but wait, what’s the other 70% of the bag made up of? I think now you have a clear idea What Are Fertilizers!

You’re probably going to like the answer. Stay tuned with The Swift Life for our next post.

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