Three Best Natural Nutrients For Organic Farming

Have you ever thought of growing organic? What does organic farming mean to you? An organic farming is an agriculture activity that uses natural fertilizers and nutrients for growing plants. The only thing necessary for organic farm is the healthy soil that gives reliable output and helps to manage disease, pests and nutrition. Growing organic foods is not a rocket science; a right blend of nutrients will give you healthy produce always. But before you switch to any natural waste, here are three best natural nutrients that work best for your organic farm.

Natural fertilizers: There are naturally available fertilizers that can be used for organic production. They can be driven from minerals, animals and plants. Mineral driven natural fertilizers are mined phosphates in the form of raw, colloidal or black rock phosphate, a mined potassium silicate, carbonate and magnesium sulfate. There are also natural deposits of sodium nitrate, a water soluble useful for organic farming. Animal driven fertilizers are bone meal, fish meal, and oyster shell lime. Plant driven fertilizers comprises of soybean meal, alfalfa meal, cotton seed meal, kelp, wood ash and sea weed. For animal driven nutrients there is restriction about using cotton seed which are sprayed with insecticides. Alfalfa is a superb source of nutrients and nitrogen.

Green Manures: A very old, traditional source of natural nutrients is growing plants on the ground and plowing them into the soil that decay and release nutrients for the next crop cycle. These crops are used to add nutrients to the soil called as green manures. Few plant breeds are used as green manures because of their deep root systems that bring up the nutrients to the soil and they are hardy and tolerant of moisture stresses and nutrients. The most vital green manures are plants with useful bacteria which are able to capture nitrogen and make it accessible to plants. The plants supply soil bacteria to the roots for photosynthesis. They grow larger with nitrogen and give more carbon. The available nitrogen can be used up by other plants as the original nitrogen fixation. We can also grow nitrogen fertilizers through crops such as clover, alfalfa and soybeans. We can also make use of fresh, dried and decomposed plant as fertilizers. The green manures can either be grazed, tilled or mowed. 

Compost: Compost is the primary source of nutrients for small organic farm. Compost is the end result of biological breakdown of natural substance. Soil composting can result into bacterial process at higher temperature and fungal activity at lower temperature. During the process, carbon is lost and heat and water is generated from the organic substance. The result of this process has more nutrient content which can be used as fertilizers. The output is more stable and decreases the nutrients solubility and avoids immobilization of nitrogen. The weed seed can be beneficial for reducing soil borne pathogens. Bacteria feed on carbon which is released in the atmosphere making nutrients more concentrated and soluble.