Most of the Nitrogen in Soil is NOT Plant Available... and that's OK

[@pamduff3987]

What a great video!! As a retired nurse/nutritionist, I knew about the different forms that nitrogen takes in the body but I never associated that knowledge to my gardening. Thanks so much for delving into this.

[@livelife4471]

I took a few of the Organic courses from Dalhousie University, online via the Agricultural College at Truro, NS. This topic and calculations were addressed in the courses offered. As I say, these courses provided the science behind the practical and so I found them useful. Ultimately, though, I find Eliot Colman's writings and practical experience the most direct way to meet soil requirements.

[@maritimegardening4887]

I find that keeping the soil mulched is all that's needed

[@lauriebenzie1386]

Interesting. So now I can think of my compost as a nitrate bank that my veggies make small withdrawals from over time. Compost and manure are not a quick fix, it's a long term investment. Thanks great info.

[@terrymacleod6882]

good way of putting it.

[@dogslobbergardens6606]

Yep, thinking of your soil as a long-term investment will lead you in the correct direction for sure!

[@maritimegardening4887]

Exactly!

[@barbaraperry2796]

Wow, interesting.

[@maritimegardening4887]

Glad you think so!

[@canoetipper019]

thanks for the informative video...I now understand a tiny bit of what my grandfather knew from experience. I am new to your channel...glad I subscribed. Cheers from NB

[@maritimegardening4887]

Thanks and welcome

[@terrymacleod6882]

very well explained.

[@maritimegardening4887]

Glad it was helpful!

[@NashvilleMonkey1000]

I ran across a page from the USDA in 1980 that talked about two distinct ways of farming/gardening that both called themselves "organic", and the one that justified the floodgate use of pesticides because one plant in nature was able to synthesize tiny amounts of it, won out over the group that recognized that such floodgate use was detrimental to all life~

[@maritimegardening4887]

"Floodgate" use is not what Robert was talking about

[@NashvilleMonkey1000]

It's good to recognize the differences between organic nutrients versus organic pesticides, and the word "floodgate" is key in recognizing their misuse in agricultural systems, as plants do make some of these things themselves, but in moderation.

[@ccccclark2605]

Ohhhhh NOW I get it! 👍 Tks. 🇨🇱🇺🇸✝️🙏❤️

[@maritimegardening4887]

Excellent!

[@CG-mj8tk]

Husband picked up yards and yard of finished compost, filled our garden beds....I planted in it directly and now all my tomatoes and some other plants are turning yellow. Wondering if there's not much available nitrogen for them? Sheez...thinking of adding something in to help now otherwise they all will die. I'm so disheartened.

[@maritimegardening4887]

It's hard to say what the problem is - could also be too much water - or not enough. Pick off the yellow leaves on all of them & stop watering half of them to see what happens.

[@CG-mj8tk]

@@maritimegardening4887 I've been picking off the yellowed leaves, good idea about the water.....thank you.

[@dogslobbergardens6606]

This is why I take "proper soil testing" with a large grain of salt. The labs usually only test for *available* nitrogen, not total organic nitrogen... and then advise you how much nitrates to dump on it every year. That can wreak havoc with the microbes and processes that break down the organic N the soil already has, and then people get stuck in that trap of buying lots of salt-based fertilizers ever year, like a conventional farmer. Because their soil is more or less "dead" and it's almost like running a hydroponic system in inert media. The ones who benefit most from that are the fertilizer merchants - not your plants and certainly not the soil itself.

[@SW-zu7ve]

Glad I got stuck. My container veggies do so much better with then without. They sure benefitted off me for keeping my plants fed. How dare they! Guess I'm a sucker.

[@HeritageWealthPlanning]

Truer words were never spoken "from a plants perspective there is no difference between a synthetic source or an organic source (of nitrogen)". And thus, why I use Mittleider method. Plants need SOLUBLE food, they care less from where it originated.

[@dogslobbergardens6606]

It seems like you only watched half the video and missed the most important part: If your soil is healthy it's freeing up and releasing soluble nitrogen all the time. So yeah, it's true, the plants don't care what N source they have - but the soil and all the tiny critters in it definitely do. If you're constantly buying fast-release fertilizers, absolutely your plants will grow... but in the end you're only really beneftitting the fertilizer merchants, not making your soil any better.

[@HeritageWealthPlanning]

@@dogslobbergardens6606 or I'm benefitting my family and myself by having abundant homegrown food with minimal fertilizer needed. Giving the plants EXACTLY what they need to grow bountifully...without huge mono-culture tracts of land either. Healthy plants don't need pesticides. And I assure you there are tons of mychorizzal fungi, nematodes, etc. in my soil.

[@maritimegardening4887]

I find the Mittleider method unnecessarily complicated and costly. I just keep the soil in my 2500 sq ft garden mulched with yard waste and plant things in it. I don't have to water the garden all summer long, don't buy fertilizers, don't till - and everything grows great. To me that seems easier than the Mittleider method.

[@dogslobbergardens6606]

@@maritimegardening4887 it's a great way to convince people to keep buying crap they don't need.

[@dogslobbergardens6606]

@@HeritageWealthPlanning I get the concept and have employed much the same myself. It's a bit like trying to drink whiskey from a bottle of wine, only more expensive. If you want to go hydroponic, just go hydro and be done with it. Or just learn how to actually work with soil and go that way.

[@drewsenthused6079]

Great info! I'll get a bag of blood meal.

[@boopyondasnooty]

Did this guy just say that there is no difference to synthetic fertializer and natural fertalizer? If so, id like to know more on why he says that, because i dont full see how thats true. From what i understand from other sources, is that pure nitrogen from fertalizer is washed out and kills/pushes away organic matters in then soils. If this channel is still active, please get back to me on this.

[@maritimegardening4887]

I don't recall the entire conversation, but what I imagine what he said was plants can't tell the difference between nitrogen sources. Plants use nh3 and nh4 (available nitrogen); regardless of the source, and both are water soluble. Nitrogen that is attached to proteins and amino acids do not wash away - but they are also not usable by plants. They only become useable when they are broken down by soil organisms - when they become NH3 and/or NH4. I hope that makes sense.