CHEMICAL FERTILISERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 June 1938, Page 10

CHEMICAL FERTILISERS

THEIR USE IN THE GARDEN. • It has been estimated that a garden, of half an acre, partly lawn and partly flower border, with vegetables and a few fruit trees, will need the following fertilisers or their equivalent in farmyard manure or commercial mixtures, for a year’s use: —4cwt basic slag, 2cwt superphosphate of lime, lewt kainit, 281 b nitrate of soda, £cwt of sulphate of ammonia. This is a generous allowance, and must, of course, be varied according to the nature of soil and the type of plant grown. The properties of nitrates, potash, and phosphates are very briefly as follows: —Nitrogenous manures encourage -the growth of leaves and shoots and deepen the green colour; sulphate of ammonia and nitrate of soda are the two most commonly used.. Potash improves the general quality of the crops and is especially valuable for root crops and fruit; kainit contains potash, but sulphate of potash is cheaper and in some ways superior. Phosphates encourage the development of fibrous roots and fruitfulness to hasten maturity; basic slag is an economical phosphatic fertiliser for soil which lacks lime, and superphosphate of lime is used on soils containing lime. Never mix superphosphate of lime with nitrate of soda, and never mix basic slag with sulphate of ammonia. No system of manuring is complete unless there is an adequate provision of lime in the soil, nor can the general run of garden plants thrive in soil in which lime is deficient. The most economical method to adopt is to scatter lime in powdered form on the surface of dug land during June at the rate of four ounces to six ounces per square yard every two years.