Like its synthetic competition, organic lawn fertilizer contains the three essential nutrients for plant growth, nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium. However, organic fertilizer differs in two big areas.
First, from where it comes from. Organic lawn fertilizer come from all natural sources, such as agriculture byproducts. Typical ingredients include cottonseed meal, bone meal, and seaweed. Natural ingredients also tend to be high secondary and micro nutrients, since these are naturally found in nature, which synthetic fertilizers tend to ignore in favor of the “big three”, nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium. Synthetic fertilizers, specifically nitrogen rich fertilizers, are largely created by chemical processes on an industrial scale, like the Haber–Bosch process, which uses large amounts of energy and nitrogen to get ammonia, which is the base for many of the fertilizers.
The second big difference between organic lawn fertilizer and synthetic fertilizer is how it reacts with your lawn and your soil. Synthetic fertilizers typically release a quick, strong dose of nutrients to your plants, which can give your lawn a quick boost, but also hurt the balance of nutrients in the soil that microbes feed from. This hurts the long term health of your soil and the long term health of your lawn unless you keep pumping more fertilizer into it. Organic fertilizers release nutrients gradually to slowly feed microbes, which in turn do most of the work to feed and nourish your lawn.
Do you need to fertilize at all? That answer depends on how you feel about weeds in your lawn. The thick, green grass that most of us have come to expect in a lawn needs a lot of nitrogen, which it can’t all get naturally. Many common weeds, on the other hand, can make due will less nitrogen in the soil. So, if you let your soil depreciate, weeds will have an easier time competing with your lawn for space. Mowing your lawn too short will also make it easier for weeds to infiltrate. The easiest solution though is adding a natural organic lawn fertilizer in the spring and fall. In the summer, your lawn is dormant and fertilizer will just be absorbed by weeds. And, once you've create a healthier soil for your lawn, it will also help prevent lawn mushrooms and lawn moss from growing as well.
Cost wise, synthetics are typically cheaper, but with an organic lawn program you are usually going to have a healthier lawn in the long run, which won’t need the same expensive herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides that can end up costing a lot more than just an organic fertilizer and some compost.
First, from where it comes from. Organic lawn fertilizer come from all natural sources, such as agriculture byproducts. Typical ingredients include cottonseed meal, bone meal, and seaweed. Natural ingredients also tend to be high secondary and micro nutrients, since these are naturally found in nature, which synthetic fertilizers tend to ignore in favor of the “big three”, nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium. Synthetic fertilizers, specifically nitrogen rich fertilizers, are largely created by chemical processes on an industrial scale, like the Haber–Bosch process, which uses large amounts of energy and nitrogen to get ammonia, which is the base for many of the fertilizers.
The second big difference between organic lawn fertilizer and synthetic fertilizer is how it reacts with your lawn and your soil. Synthetic fertilizers typically release a quick, strong dose of nutrients to your plants, which can give your lawn a quick boost, but also hurt the balance of nutrients in the soil that microbes feed from. This hurts the long term health of your soil and the long term health of your lawn unless you keep pumping more fertilizer into it. Organic fertilizers release nutrients gradually to slowly feed microbes, which in turn do most of the work to feed and nourish your lawn.
Do you need to fertilize at all? That answer depends on how you feel about weeds in your lawn. The thick, green grass that most of us have come to expect in a lawn needs a lot of nitrogen, which it can’t all get naturally. Many common weeds, on the other hand, can make due will less nitrogen in the soil. So, if you let your soil depreciate, weeds will have an easier time competing with your lawn for space. Mowing your lawn too short will also make it easier for weeds to infiltrate. The easiest solution though is adding a natural organic lawn fertilizer in the spring and fall. In the summer, your lawn is dormant and fertilizer will just be absorbed by weeds. And, once you've create a healthier soil for your lawn, it will also help prevent lawn mushrooms and lawn moss from growing as well.
Cost wise, synthetics are typically cheaper, but with an organic lawn program you are usually going to have a healthier lawn in the long run, which won’t need the same expensive herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides that can end up costing a lot more than just an organic fertilizer and some compost.
