sulfate of ammonia - worth having?

[Snow]

Was in B&Q today and they had 1.5KG of this reduced from £6 to £2. So I bought some. Says it's for brasicas and greens. Never used it before - a worthwhile purchase, or a waste of money?

[starloc]

I use it, its so much cheaper than mixed fertilisers, it boosts the nitrogen plants need to grow

To make a balanced fertiliser you need the other 2 in the same brand/type of product as well, but not always at the same time , this lets you use what is needed

Look on the box and see the NPK ratio and its only got the N , the P and K are on the other boxes , you don't need to use all of them all the time

[Snadger]

An inorganic high nitrogen fertiliser. Use around spring cabbage in Feb/March to give them a lift and start them growing. Use in moderation as very potent. It is a by-product of coke produced from coal.
One of the constituents of lawn sand, the others being sulphate of iron and sand. Its also used as an acidifying agent on alkaline soils.

[Snow]

An inorganic high nitrogen fertiliser. Use around spring cabbage in Feb/March to give them a lift and start them growing. Use in moderation as very potent. It is a by-product of coke produced from coal.
One of the constituents of lawn sand, the others being sulphate of iron and sand. Its also used as an acidifying agent on alkaline soils.

So my rhododendrons and azaleas would like it?

[Alison]

An inorganic high nitrogen fertiliser. Use around spring cabbage in Feb/March to give them a lift and start them growing. Use in moderation as very potent. It is a by-product of coke produced from coal.
One of the constituents of lawn sand, the others being sulphate of iron and sand. Its also used as an acidifying agent on alkaline soils.

If it acidifies alkaline soil isn't that a bad thing for brassicas where you'd want the opposite?

[Snadger]

If it acidifies alkaline soil isn't that a bad thing for brassicas where you'd want the opposite?

I knew someone would pick up on this Alison. Yes and no. Its a bit of a trade off.A one off very light dose will have the desired effect of promoting rapid leaf growth in spring and gives your plants a "Kick up the backside" to get them going. As you say, long term regular use (ill advised!) WILL acidify the soil though which you don't want in the case of brassicas.

[Snadger]

So my rhododendrons and azaleas would like it?

Erm, no! It would promote leaf growth when what you really want are blooms.

Its also mainly a quick acting spring nitrogen fertiliser which if used at the wrong time of year would promote soft lush growth easily susceptible to frost, pests etc

There are special ericacious balanced feeds for acid loving plants which may have a very small amount in them

[Alison]

I knew someone would pick up on this Alison. Yes and no. Its a bit of a trade off.A one off very light dose will have the desired effect of promoting rapid leaf growth in spring and gives your plants a "Kick up the backside" to get them going. As you say, long term regular use (ill advised!) WILL acidify the soil though which you don't want in the case of brassicas.

Sorry for being "that person" . Makes sense though, thanks

[Bigmallly]

The Perils of Sulfate of Ammonia
It does more harm than good
On the surface, sulfate of ammonia (21-0-0) looks like a great product. It can make grass turn green in a matter of days. It can stimulate growth on poor performing plants, and it makes gardeners look good when their clients complain about a poor landscape and the yard looks wonderful a week later. Best of all, the product is dirt cheap to use for both gardener and homeowner.
But a month later, the grass or plant starts to yellow again, looking for its sulfate of ammonia "fix" which it needs to support its new dependency. And because the roots were not fed along with the foliage, they cannot support the rampant top growth above them, and slowly the plant or lawn weakens and declines. Over time, a build up of salts which are a chemical by-product of ammonium sulfate start to turn the pH of the soil alkaline, further adding to the stress the lawn or plant is experiencing. Adding to one's woes is the fact that insects and disease just love that tender foliage created by this unbalanced product when it softens the cell structure of the plant.

Unfortunately, a garden columnist form our local paper (who should know better) has become infatuated with sulfate of ammonia, claiming it will cure almost any ailment a plant or lawn might have; and that it is the only food a garden needs. In the process he is misleading frustrated consumers who mistakenly take his extremely poor advice.

Worse yet, many homeowners have burned or killed their plants or lawns by accidentally over-applying this product. Because it is unbalanced and temperature sensitive, it has no buffer for the plants, leaving no room for error when applying. The warmer the outdoor temperature gets, the faster it releases, the higher chance of burn or death.

Contrary to that columnist's personal opinion, our local soil is not the best around. Plants need balanced feedings of nutrients along with minerals and trace elements at regular intervals, preferably in an organic slow-release form. This they can only receive from a balanced fertilizer such as Dr. Earth ( a plug for a great product) which also contains beneficial microbes. In this way you not only feed the plants but also the soil. My staff and I are so concerned with the poor advice by this columnist and what we believe to be an inferior garden product that we felt compelled to speak out.

At Almaden Valley Nursery we have been providing homeowners with plant advice for more than 33 years. We are staffed with certified garden experts that stay up-to-date and are aware of the latest plant and product improvements in the nursery industry. We care about your garden needs and hate to see you misled.


Written by:
Matt Lepow, Owner, CCNPro, B.S. Ornamental Horticulture

[jacob]

Out of curiosity, what's the organic gardener's view on adding inorganic fertilisers? [I think the "organic" gardener and the "inorganic" fertiliser have rather different connotations.]

Personally (being in the organic gardener camp) I'm not keen on adding anything that isn't plant based (compost, homemade feeds, seaweed, woodash), but I guess you could view adding minerals as at least not being poisonous?

[Kristen]

what's the organic gardener's view on adding inorganic fertilisers?

I know nothing about the Ins and Outs of organic, and my A'Level Chemistry & Biology is now ancient history! but my view is that putting simple chemicals on the garden, mined or manufactured, is not complex and not very different from what occurs naturally. I'm comfortable with that.

However, complex chemicals, such as agricultural Pesticides and Fungicides, I am much less comfortable with as their very complexity seems to make them beyond the wit of man to foresee Cause and Effect.

Problems seem to arise repeatably - many products are withdrawn after a handful of years, and although I hope that current regulations for Approval are fit-for-purpose I have lived through the last 50 years which has been littered with cause & effect outcomes, some of them horrific - Thalidomide, DDT, Agent Orange, Organophosphate insecticide poisoning of farm workers and so on.

But I wonder if Organic brings its own problems? If one selects a variety because it has natural resistance to insects might that mean that it has naturally high levels of, say, Pyrethrin - I know that is not considered to be harmful to humans ... but I would prefer to grow a variety that has good flavour and not worry too much about it being naturally immune to bugs and diseases. With Allium/Leek Moth & Leaf Miner I can see more of my patch being covered with Enviromesh ... maybe that is the DIY grower's garden of the future ...

I imagine for a truly organic gardener it is hard (and very expensive) to source things like Blood Fish and Bone that don't come from abattoirs that have slaughtered animals which have been treated prophylactically with high levels of Antibiotics, and other "complex" chemicals.

Hard to know where to "stop" worrying though! I saw a (Horizon??) documentary the other day about how effectively Rice assimilates [naturally occurring] Arsenic, so I've now added that to my list of things to worry about!! Apparently regulation requires water to be limited to acceptable levels of Arsenic but no such regulation exists for foods as yet Don't think the climate here is much cop for Rice growing ... but we do eat a lot of it, compared to 50 years ago ... maybe I will have to give that a go

[Bill HH]

As an x farmer (and thus a farm worker) I have tested the lot, organophosphate sheep dips were used and i spents about 6 days a year completely soaked in them, DDT was dusted on our poultry, ten minutes of doing that and your nostrils are blocked with it, and bracken and brushwood killer (2. 4. T) which contained dioxin was used on thistles and me for years. Not to mention creosote, formaldahyde etc.
Formaldahyde is nasty stuff, we used it a lot (it pleased my dad to see us all suffer) mixed with potassium permanganate it explodes in clouds of tear gas and was used to fumigate poultry houses, we had great fun locking each other in with it! It may sound like we were irresponsible, but we did not know the toxicity of these things.
I now suffer breathing difficulties but perhaps 40 years of smoking fags hasn't helped. In fact cigarettes are another thing, when I started smoking there was little said about the harm it can cause, in fact i remember seeing a short health sevice film where the doctor offered a disturbed patient a fag "To calm your nerves". In 1965 I was admitted to hospital with an appendicitis, believe it or not, you could smoke, in the ward, in bed, day or night.
This of course makes me wonder what we are using now that will turn out to be dangerous once enough people have died from it?

[Kristen]

Not to mention creosote

From memory: Banned by UK or EU, subsequently found not to be carcinogenic /. harmful, not reinstated, complex chemicals made by Mega Chemical Companies now used instead

This of course makes me wonder what we are using now that will turn out to be dangerous once enough people have died from it?

Ditto

[Aberdeenplotter]

From memory: Banned by UK or EU, subsequently found not to be carcinogenic /. harmful, not reinstated, complex chemicals made by Mega Chemical Companies now used instead



Ditto

Creosote/coal tar creosote wood preservatives - Biocides - HSE

[Kristen]

Creosote - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia says (in addition to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry finding Creosote carcinogenic prior to this report) :

"A 2005 mortality study of creosote workers found no evidence supporting an increased risk of cancer death, as a result of exposure to creosote. Based on the findings of the largest mortality study to date of workers employed in creosote wood treating plants, there is no evidence that employment at creosote wood-treating plants or exposure to creosote-based preservatives was associated with any significant mortality increase from either site-specific cancers or non-malignant diseases.

...

The largest health effect of creosote is deaths caused by residential chimney fires due to chimney tar (creosote) build-up. This is entirely unconnected with its industrial production or use"