Soil Fertility A Guide to Organic and Inorganic Soil Amendments

188 Pages·2013·0.85 MB·English

Soil Fertility
A Guide to Organic and Inorganic Soil Amendments
Robert Parnes
May, 2013
(cid:13)c2013 Robert Parnes
This work is licensed under
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0
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To Jo Josephson
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Contents
Contents iii
List of Figures vi
List of Tables vi
Acknowledgements ix
Preface xi
I Background 1
1 Introduction 3
2 Essentials of Soil Fertility 11
2.1 Organic Matter and Biological Activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2 Air and Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3 Food Quality 25
3.1 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.2 Food Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.3 Organic Versus NPK Fertilizers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.4 Effects of Environment and Culture on Quality . . . . . . . . . 37
4 Nutrient Requirements 39
4.1 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4.2 Fertilizer Uptake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
5 Soil Nutrient Supply 47
5.1 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
5.2 Methods Of Evaluating The Soil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
5.3 A Survey Of Soils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
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Contents
II Organic Fertilizers 53
6 Unprocessed Residues 55
6.1 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
6.2 Animal Manure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
6.3 Hay And Straw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
6.4 Other Local Residues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
7 Compost 71
7.1 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
7.2 Hot Composting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
7.3 Cold Composting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
7.4 Manure In Compost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
7.5 Nutrient Value of Compost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
8 Other Organic Fertilizers 79
8.1 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
8.2 Cover Crops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
8.3 Organic Byproducts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
8.4 Commercial Organic Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
8.5 Soil Activators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
III Nutrients and Fertilizers 87
9 Introduction to Part III 89
9.1 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
9.2 Fertilizer Blends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
9.3 Cations and Anions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
10 Nitrogen 93
10.1 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
10.2 Nitrogen In The Plant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
10.3 Nitrogen In The Soil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
10.4 Nitrogen Fertilizers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
11 Phosphorus 105
11.1 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
11.2 Phosphorus In The Plant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
11.3 Phosphorus In The Soil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
11.4 Phosphorus Fertilizers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
12 Potassium 115
12.1 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
12.2 Potassium In The Plant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
12.3 Potassium In The Soil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
12.4 Potassium Fertilizers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
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13 Sulfur 121
13.1 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
13.2 Sulfur In The Plant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
13.3 Available Sulfur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
13.4 Sulfur Fertilizers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
14 Calcium And Soil PH 125
14.1 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
14.2 Calcium In The Plant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
14.3 Calcium In The Soil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
14.4 Soil PH And Cation Exchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
14.5 Calcium Fertilizers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
15 Magnesium 133
15.1 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
15.2 Magnesium In The Plant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
15.3 Magnesium In The Soil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
15.4 Magnesium Fertilizers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
16 Micronutrients 139
16.1 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
16.2 Micronutrients In Plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
16.3 Micronutrients In The Soil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
16.4 Sources Of Micronutrients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
IV Appendices 147
A Conversion Factors 149
B The Energy Index 151
C Acid And Basic Fertilizers 153
C.1 Cation Equivalents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
C.2 Liming Fertilizers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
C.3 Acidifying Fertilizers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
D Compost Losses 161
Glossary 163
Index 167
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Bibliography 171
List of Figures
5.1 Survey of the Nutrient Content of 1800 Soils . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
7.1 Compost Retained as a Function of Nitrogen Retention and C/N
Ratios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
List of Tables
3.1 Effects Of A Non-Nutrient Disorder On Crop Quality . . . . . . . 26
3.1 Effects Of A Non-Nutrient Disorder On Crop Quality (cont.) . . . 27
3.1 Effects Of A Non-Nutrient Disorder On Crop Quality (cont.) . . . 28
3.2 Effects Of A Nutrient Disorder On Crop Quality . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.2 Effects Of A Nutrient Disorder On Crop Quality (cont.) . . . . . . 30
3.2 Effects Of A Nutrient Disorder On Crop Quality (cont.) . . . . . . 31
3.2 Effects Of A Nutrient Disorder On Crop Quality (cont.) . . . . . . 32
3.2 Effects Of A Nutrient Disorder On Crop Quality (cont.) . . . . . . 33
4.1 Estimated Fertilizer Requirements - Field Crops . . . . . . . . . . 40
4.2 Estimated Fertilizer Requirements - Vegetables and Fruits . . . . . 41
4.3 Average Nutrient Requirements For Vegetables . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.4 Phosphorus And Potassium Requirements Relative To Nitrogen . . 45
6.1 Manure Production. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
6.2 Density And Porosity Of Manure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
6.3 Principal Nutrient Content Of Manure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
6.4 MineralContent&FeedingCapabiityOfManureRelativeToNitrogen 58
6.5 Nutrient Content Of Hay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
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List of Tables
6.6 Nutrient Content Of Straw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
6.7 Comparison Of Cow Manure With Hay And Straw . . . . . . . . . 67
6.8 Nitrogen Absorption By Fresh Residues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
8.1 Nitrogen Value Of Assorted Weeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
8.2 Nutrient Content Of Processing Wastes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
8.3 Nutrient Content Of Commercial Organic Products. . . . . . . . . 84
10.1 Comparison Of Nitrogen Fertilizers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
10.2 Application Of Nitrogen Fertilizers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
11.1 Comparison Of Phosphorus Fertilizers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
12.1 Comparison Of Potassium Fertilizers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
13.1 Fertilizers For Supplying Sulfur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
14.1 Fertilizers For Supplying Calcium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
15.1 Fertilizers For Supplying Magnesium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
16.1 Sensitivity Of Plants To A Micronutrient Deficiency . . . . . . . . 141
16.2 Micronutrient Content Of Various Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
16.3 Typical Application Rates Of Micronutrient Fertilizers . . . . . . . 146
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Acknowledgements
Whatever value this presentation has is due to the efforts and achievements of
many people. In addition to the numerous references listed, I wish to acknowl-
edge valuable discussions on soil microorganisms with Larry Zibilske, University of
Maine, and equally important discussions on manure and compost with William
Brinton, Jr, Woods End Laboratory. I thank Stuart B. Hill for the use of the
EcologicalAgriculturelibraryatMacdonaldCollegeinobtaininginformationwhich
would have been difficult to find elsewhere. I wish also to thank Frank Eggert,
University of Maine, Winston Way, University of Vermont, Stuart Hill, and Robert
Kimber,forreadingthemanuscriptatanearlierstageofrevisionandofferingtheir
valuable literary and technical comments. Pam Bell, former editor of the Maine
Organic Farmer and Gardener, devoted considerable time and effort in editing the
manuscript,addingthereadabilitythatitsodesperatelyneeded,andofferedfurther
technical comments. I am grateful to Jo Josephson for her encouragement during
the several years while this book was in preparation and in her help in editing this
edition.
In my early years at Woods End Laboratory, William K. Kruesi sent me nu-
merousreferencestabulatingthenutrientcontentofproduce. Thosetableshelped
me considerably in interpreting soil tests, and they eventually became part of the
impetus and the basis for this book.
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