Show Fertilizer The Value you want to make a don't expect to the ingredients in a box By the same expect to supply needs for your garden farm with miracle and soil amendment declared Paul D. Utah State University Extension soils HE let the fertilizer shortage and high costs lead you to buy products of little determine specifically what or nutrients are judge the fertilizer on the basis of cost per pound of the needed Look for a specific Ingredient to solve a specific in mind plants can't organic The real plant nutrients are carbon dioxide from the and water and the simple mineral nutrients from the UTAH soils are well supplied with all the mineral except phosphorus and Nitrogen need not be applied to alfalfa Neither is it necessary to spread phosphate on all fields and gardens every Results of soil tests this year indicate particularly that many garden soils have an excess of is probably due to a continued excess use year after year of complete there are many fields and gardens that can go for a season without more fertilizer because of the high use of commercial fertilizers in recent GOOD idea is to have your soil-tested at the Soils Laboratory to check the fertilizer NEEDN'T be fooled on products of questionable A few guidelines will help you screen these Remember that beneficial fertilizers and soil amendments fall in three plant nutrient organic and materials applied to correct sodium or alkali fertilizer Determine which nutrient or nutrients are Does the product you are considering contain the needed Ask of the are the recommendations on this consistent with the findings of Utah THE nutrient cost per Remember that even with the present high cost of you can buy nitrogen for 20 to 25 cents per pound and phosphate for 15 to 20 cents per using trace element Iron and zinc are about the only trace elements found to be deficient in field crops and these deficiencies are restricted to a few isolated To be treatments must be OVER rate organic Rate it about the way you do manure or It takes tons per acre to be Even in a light application of farmers spread about ten tons per So don't expect improvement in soils or crop growth you apply only a few ounces or pounds of organic matter or organic soil amendment Amendments are not needed nor effective in all Test the soil and have the field investigated before applying They may have value in correcting salt or alkali problems but it requires tons of material per IF AMENDMENTS are you must apply large amounts and excess irrigation water for Remember that a few ounces of some product or a few gallons of a water mixture per acre won't correct alkali or other the Extension soils specialist |