Plant Food- Natural Or Inorganic?

One of the most discussed issues between agriculturalists and home horticulturist is which plant food to use. The first thing you need to know is that there are two types of plant food namely natural and inorganic. In order to understand how important this issue is we need to clarify some concepts.

- Natural Plant Food

Compost is what many people know as decomposed plant and animal matter that can be used to fertilise, and condition the soil and it is also a natural pesticide. Some of the most common natural fertilisers include wood ash, mulch, animal dung, and ground dried fish. The good thing about this type of plant food is that it contains great quantities of the most important substances the soil needs to grow plants and/or grass. One thing to take into account about natural plant food is that it is mainly dependant on microbes found on the ground to break them down into the substance the soil is in need of.

- Inorganic plant Food

Chemical fertilizers are chemicals that have been created to imitate the action of natural substances. Since they are man-made they generally have hazardous components that can damage the soil's natural structure and composition. Nowadays, many people make use of inorganic plant food because they can yield plant growth in a very efficient way. However, some people claim that the use of inorganic plant food is not as good as its natural counterpart. Let's have a look at what is more convenient for the ground and your pocket.

- Natural or Inorganic?

One of the most common issues among home horticulturists and agriculturists is that their soil is not well nourished; this is when plant food of any kind comes into action. For ages the addition of different substances to the soil to make it grow better plants, fruits, vegetables and/or grass has been a common practice amongst agriculturists.

The reason is that the ground does not always have sufficient nutrients and is unable to provide plants what they need to develop in a good way. When we compare the good sides of inorganic plant food to its natural counterpart we can notice that chemical fertilisers contain exactly what the soil needs, namely potassium, nitrogen and phosphorus. Natural plant food does not always have all the elements and if it has them it will be in very small quantities.

However, when compared to the chemicals, natural plant food is considerably less costly and a lot easier to produce at home by almost anyone. One more thing to consider about inorganic plant food is that they will yield an immediate result because the elements the soil needs will be absorbed faster. Nevertheless, this also means that you can exhaust the soil and over fertilise it, which will result in no growth of the plants at all. With natural plant food, the absorption will be slower but at the same time you will not exhaust the soil.