HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2000-05-10, Page 17THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 2000. PAGE 17.
Home & Garden 2000
Choosing proper fertilizer
Spring is here, and you can’t help
but notice that the stores are loading
up with bags of fertilizer.
Why do we apply lawn and garden
fertilizer every year? What is in that
bag anyway, and where does it come
from?
What do those three numbers
mean?
The label on a package of manu
factured fertilizer shows the amount
of nitrogen, phosphate and potassi
um present in that formulation. For
example, a bag marked 7-7-7 con
tains seven per cent nitrogen, seven
per cent phosphate and seven per
cent potassium.
Nitrogen
The first number that you see on
the bag shows the nitrogen content.
The air we breathe contains about 75
per cent nitrogen.
Incredibly, the large volume of
atmospheric nitrogen represents only
about two per cent of the total nitro
gen found on the planet. Most of the
nitrogen is found in plants, rocks,
and coal. Nitrogen is not manufac
tured; in a process that imitates
nature, it is simply borrowed from
the air and transformed into forms
that can be applied and used by
plants. Nitrogen fertilizers are pro
duced by taking nitrogen and carbon
dioxide gas from the air and combin
ing them with hydrogen from natural
gas to form a nitrogen fertilizer such
as ammonia or urea.
Urea is the most common form of
nitrogen found in a bag of lawn fer
tilizer. If you left a urea granule out
in the sun for a few hours, it would
simply vapourize into ammonia and
carbon dioxide gas. Nitrogen’s main
benefit is to support rapid and
healthy plant growth.
Phosphate
The second number on the fertiliz
er bag represents its phosphate con
tent. Phosphate is widely distributed
in soil,-minerals, water and all living
tissue. Like nitrogen and potash,
phosphate is an essential element for
both plant and animal life. It is espe
cially important to germinating and
Quality
finish
young plants, because it greatly
helps in the establishment of a strong
root system.
Of the known elements, phosphate
ranks eleventh among the most
abundant elements in the earth’s
crust. One of the earliest phosphate
mines in North America was located
right here in Ontario near Brockville.
Bones, phosphate rock, and organ
ic matter are important sources of
this mineral In 1842, John Bennett
Lawes, an English country squire,
discovered that the phosphate in
bones would be more available to
plants if the bones were treated with
acid. The same process was also suc
cessful on phosphate rock.
Lawes patented this process and
called his new fertilizer ‘super phos
phate.’
Refined versions of Lawes’
process are still used to produce
phosphate fertilizers today.
The North American supply of
phosphate now largely comes from
sites in Florida. Since phosphate is
important during the early stages of
plant development, fertilizer with a
high ratio of phosphate such as 10-
52-10 and 10-25-10 is helpful when
starting new plants.
Potassium
The potassium content is the third
number shown in the ratio on a fer
tilizer bag. The source of fertilizer
potassium is potash. That term origi
nates from the early method of
leaching wood ashes and then evap
orating the solution in iron pots to
obtain ‘pot-ash’. This product was
used to make soap, glass, and cloth,
among other things. In the tenth cen
tury, the Chinese developed gun
powder using charcoal, sulfur and
saltpeter (a salt of potash called
potassium nitrate). Saltpeter was
used in curing meats such as ham.
Potash is abundant in nature, com
prising 2.4 per cent of the earth’s
crust. All naturally occurring potash
in the soil originated from the
decomposition of feldspars and
micas. Much of the world’s reserve
of potash comes from what is
believed to be evaporated sea beds in
Saskatchewan and New Mexico.
Potash is also extracted from the
Dead Sea in the middle East and the
Great Salt Lake in Utah.
Potash is essential for plant hardi
ness as well as tolerance to drought,
cold and heat. It also makes the grass
on our lawns and parks more tolerant
to heavy foot traffic and safer cush
ioning surfaces for sport activities.
Where does fertilizer come from?
The granules inside a bag of fertiliz
er are borrowed from the air and
earth - and will eventually be recy
cled back to the air or earth by plants
and microorganisms in the soil.
‘Ule.t&ing.e frattn SiteutwiA
Open May 6th for retail
* Plants & hanging baskets
# We also have perennials and
cabbage plants, peppers, tomatoes.
We will be open 6 days a week ~ closed Sundays
Come see us ~ Merv & Gaye Datema
at 83341 Currie Line ~ RR 3, Blyth
or phone 523-9407
preserves
deck life
The key to making any deck or
siding stain last longer is selecting a
high quality finish and good prepa
ration. Preparation clears the wood
of dirt, mill glaze on the lumber, old
waxy finishes and even natural
chemicals in the wood that prevent
stains from penetrating, causing
them to fail too soon.
A good finish must be able to pen
etrate into the wood pores in order to
create a long-lasting bond that won't
peel or flake after being baked in the
sun, rained upon, walked on, and
exposed to temperature changes.
Sometimes it is difficult to see
with the naked eye whether wood
pores are open and ready to accept a
finish. That’s why it is important to
use a wood preparation product as a
first step before staining the deck.
Products are designed to open wood
pores and enhance the penetration of
wood finishes, achieving maximum
uniformity, adhesion and promoting
longer lasting results. Simply apply
the product, let it soak in the wood,
scrub and rinse. The wood is then
fresh and ready to be stained.
- News Canada
pond kits
• lawn chairs
soil
It’s Planting Time!
GARDEN CENTRE) LE=
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Great Mother's Day ideas...
Complete line of lawn
mowers, riding
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trailers, dump carts
& BBQ's
• lawn
ornaments
grass seed
packaged
garden seeds
seed potatoes
onions
fertilizer
manure
peat moss 10” Hanging
Baskets
starting at
$1O"
& Auburn Co-op
(519) 526-7262