Organic Materials in Soil

Video Transcript

"Let's now talk about some sources of nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, and other micro elements that occur in the soils, and in our whole environment. Let's go with nitrogen first. Nitrogen is the element that gives us green leaves. It makes things grow fast, and and makes them look vital. In the chemical world, nitrogen comes very easily out of a bottle. In the natural organic type of fertilizing, we have to look for other sources of nitrogen. One great source is kelp, or seaweed that is dried out. Very high in nitrogen, it comes from the ocean, which is the source of all life, as we know. In homemade compost, we can create nitrogen very easily by mixing lots of different elements together. In composting, one of the main sources of nitro would be animal manures, things from sheep and cows. They're commercially available in nursery centers, but how about the stables that are right around the corner from your house, or how about your friend who has the pet rabbits? These sources of nitrogen are very hot, and they break down the compost very quickly. Phosphorus is the second big element that we're dealing with. Phosphorus is traditionally brought to us from bone meal. For many, many years bone meal was the source. Now we have the options of mining rock phosphate right out of the ground, and using that middle number on your fertilizers, the P, to create beautiful, beautiful flowers. That's what phosphorus mostly gives us. Potassium is the last one. Potassium we can get out of a product called green sand. Green sand is high in iron, it's high in potassium, and it also has incredible water holding potential. In the chemical world, we're just talking about N, P, and K, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. In the organic world, all of the other micro elements are being brought in to give us a whole system, and a whole healthy plant."