User:Mickinahan/OrganicFertilizer

Organic fertilizers are fertilizers that are naturally produced and contain carbon (C). They meet the Principles of Organic Agriculture, whose main objective is to feed the ecosystem as a whole, which includes the soil, microbes, and the community at large, not just the crops. Organic fertilizers include mineral sources, all animal waste including meat processing, manure, slurry, and guano, plant based fertilizers such as compost, and biosolids. There are also other abiotic non-chemical, fertilizer methods that still meet the Principles of Organic Agriculture.

Mineral Fertilizers

Minerals are chemical compositions and can be found in rocks. These minerals can be mined in order to produce fertilizers. Other mined minerals are fossil products of animal activity, such as greensand (anaerobic marine deposits), some limestones (fossil shell deposits), and some rock phosphates (fossil guano). Adding limestone or “liming” a soil is a way to raise pH. By raising the pH of a soil, microbial growth can be stimulated, which in turn increases biological processes, enabling nutrients to flow more freely through the soil. When nutrients flow freely they are more accessible to plants and therefore can increase plant health and mass. If the soil is already pH balanced, liming the soil, would be ineffective.