What Organic Nutrient Sources Can We Use

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What Organic Nutrient Sources Can We Use?
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IPNI Mission
To develop and promote scientific information
about the responsible management of plant
nutrition for the benefit of the human family.
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Dr. Vladimir NosovSouthern Eastern Russia
Dr. Steve PhillipsNA Southeast Region
Dr. Tom Jensen NA Northern Great Plains Region
Dr. Tom BruulsemaNA Northeast Region
Dr. Scott Murrell NA Northcentral Region
Dr. Svetlana IvanovaVice President, Eastern
Europe Central Asia Group
Dr. Munir RusanMiddle East Consultant
Dr. Adrian Johnston Vice President Asia Group
and Oceania
Dr. Jiyun JinChina Program
Dr. Paul Fixen Sr. Vice President, Americas Group
Director of Research
Dr. Shutian LiChina Northwest Region
Dr. Rob Mikkelsen NA Western Region
Dr. Ping HeChina Northcentral Region
Dr. Terry RobertsPresident
Dr. Harold Reetz External Support FAR
Dr. Cliff Snyder Nitrogen Program
Dr. Fang ChenChina Southeast Region
Dr. Mike Stewart NA Southern Central Great
Plains Region
Dr. Shihua Tu China Southwest Region
Dr. Kaushik MajumdarIndia East Zone
Dr. Jose EspinosaNorthern Latin America Program
Dr. Fernando GarciaLatin America Southern Cone
Program
Dr. Luis ProchnowBrazil Program
Dr. Christian WittSoutheast Asia Program
Dr. K.N. TiwariIndia Program
Dr. Raul Jaramillo Northern Latin America Program
Dr. T. SatyanarayanaIndia South Zone
Dr. H.S. KhuranaIndia West Zone
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Dr. Rob Mikkelsen Western Region Merced,
CA rmikkelsen_at_ipni.net
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Organic Objectives

• In general, the objectives of organic plant
  nutrition are to
• (i) work within natural systems and cycles,
• (ii) maintain or increase long-term soil
  fertility,
• (iii) use renewable resources as much as
  possible,
• (iv) produce food that is safe, wholesome and
  nutritious

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Some organizations offering organic standards
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Organic Crop Production Standards Require

• Use of organic seeds, seedlings or transplants
• Practices that enhance or maintain soil
  fertility
• Crop rotation or use of cover crops
• Enhance or maintain farm resources
• Practices to prevent pest and disease pressures
• Harvest and packing to prevent contamination or
  co-mingling
• Use only approved materials
• Verify that no prohibited materials used in
  previous 36 months
• Accurate records to verify practices

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http//www.sparknotes.com/biology/plants/plantstru
ctures/section2.rhtml
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You wont know what is happening underground
unless you take a look
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Nitrogen is difficult to manage- regardless of
the source
Building Organic Matter is the Goal
In California, Difficult to Make Large Changes
in Soil Organic Matter Without Continual Inputs
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Nitrogen is the plant nutrient most often
limiting crop growth

• Many biological and chemical processes cause
• first-year recovery of N to be relatively low

• Nitrogen in soluble fertilizer is fairly
  predictable

• Nitrogen in organic materials require
  mineralization before
• becoming available for plant uptake
• temperature
• pH
• moisture
• management practices, etc...

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BACTERIA
cocci

• have many different shapes

bacillus
filamentous
spirilla
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Bacteria occupy lt 5 of soil surfaces
Visualizing soil habitat
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FUNGIhave many different life forms

• Yeasts
• Mycelia
• Fruiting bodies
• Spores

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• A major challenge for using organic N sources is
  knowing
• Amount of N applied
• and
• Rate of N release

• Failure to synchronize N mineralization with
• crop uptake can result in
• plant nutrient deficiencies (release too slow)
• excessive N supply, leaching (not properly
  timed)

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A nutrient source with a low CN ratio may supply
N more rapidly than the plants demand -
potential loss
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A nutrient source with a high CN ratio may
supply N too slow to meet the plants demand -
potential deficiency
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Commercial Organic N Fertilizers
A variety of excellent N sources can be used-
(depending on the purpose and the price) High-N
Plant Products alfalfa meal (4 N), cottonseed
meal (6 N), corn gluten (9 N), soybean meal
(7 N) Animal Byproducts blood meal (12 N),
guano (8 to 12 N) feather meal (14 to 16 N),
fish meal/emulsion (2 to 14 N) Seaweed
Products kelp products (1 N)... more common as
K source (2 K) Mined Products sodium nitrate
(16 N) mined from deposits in Chile and
Peru (limited use for organic production)
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N mineralization of four common organic N
fertilizers
Several commercial organic N fertilizers can
provide rapid nutrition (higher
temperatures speed microbial mineralization)
Hartz Johnstone, 2006
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Composts and Manures provide an excellent source
of N

• Watch nutrient balance (usually more P than
  needed)
• Raw manure may have restrictions on use
• Some composts may be slow to release nutrients

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Caution Not all manure is the same

• For example
• 107 dairy manure samples were incubated for 8
  weeks
• average of 13 N mineralization, but
• 20 had N immobilization
• 80 had from zero to 55 mineralization

Very hard to predict N mineralization rates
Van Kessel. 2002. Biol Fert Soils 36118-123
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Is P Fertility Inherently Differentin Organic
Agriculture?

• Organically grown crops still need P
• Soil properties which are affected by management/
  cropping systems can alter P availability and
  cycling

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Phosphorus Sources for Organic Agriculture

• Inorganic P Sources
• Bone Meal
• Rock Phosphate
• Organic-based P sources
• Green Manures - ?
• Manures
• Composts

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Bone Meal
Dinosaur bones

Bones are very slow to dissolve in many
environments may not meet plant nutrient
requirements in a reasonable period
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Bone Meal
Primary mineral is Hydroxyapatite
grinding bones increases reactive surface
area reacting bones with acid makes single
super phosphate
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Early P fertilizers were made from adding acid to
animal bones
Acidity required to dissolve the bone material -
soil acidity or mineral acids
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Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi

• Symbiotic association between fungus and root
• Root provides food (carbon source)
• Fungus increases root exploration and nutrient
  uptake esp. when plants are stressed for P
• Organic Agriculture tends to increase VAM
• Sometimes increase P uptake/crop growth and
  sometimes not
• Even with VAM, all crops still
• respond to P additions when soil
• reserves are low

Credit Randy Molina, Oregon State University,
Corvallis
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Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi
allows P to be extracted to a lower
concentration, but provides no additional P to
the rootzone
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Rock Phosphate
First U.S. phosphate deposits discovered and
developed in South Carolina (1867)
Rock P is reacted with sulfuric acid or
phosphoric acid to make the P soluble
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Rock Phosphate as a P Source

• Rock phosphate (RP) is a slowly soluble P source
  from mined phosphate (calcium phosphates).
• Solubility is highly dependant on several factors
• Soil type
• Low pH (most important factor)
• Low Ca
• Low P-fixing Capacity
• Organic C (high CEC)RP source
• Total P can range from 6 to 16,
• (2 citric acid extraction is good predictor of
  availability)
• Sedimentary RP Reactive/soft (North Carolina,
  Gafsa)
• Fine particle size increases reactivity (surface
  area)

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What happens to rock P?

• Ca10(PO4)6F2 12H2O 10Ca2 6H2PO4- 2F-
  12OH-
• (Phosphate rock) (Dissociation products)

Reaction requires acidity to take place
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Approved Rock P Sources
Phosphate Rock (OMRI) HumaPhos (Midwestern
Bio-Ag) Ida-Gro pelletized Phosphate (Soda
Springs) Ida-Gro powdered Montana Gray Rock
(Montana Gray Rock) Montana Natural Rock
Phosphate (Pacific Calcium) Phosphate Rock (North
Country Organics) Phyta-Grow Granular Rock P
(Calif Organic Fert) Rock Phosphate (E.E.G.A.L.
Farm Service) Rock Phosphate (Fertrell
Co.) Tennessee Brown Rock (Calcium Silicate
Corp.)
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Green Manures as a P Source?

• Green Manures legume crops grown and
• tilled in to soil (not harvested).
• Some species can extract soil P that is
• unavailable to other crops
• (e.g., white lupin, faba bean, nitro
  alfalfa).
• Decomposition releases P
• Some green manures may decrease P uptake
• of succeeding crop (e.g., white lupin).
• Green manures may increase P availability,
• but are not a P source

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Manures and Composts as P Sources

• Majority of P in manures and composts is
  inorganic P

Source Eghball et al., 2002. J. Soil Water
Conserv. 57470-473.
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Potassium
Many excellent sources of K for organic production
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Kelp-based products are available as specialty K
products
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Kelp Meal(0-0-2)

• Algit Norwegian Kelp Meal (Ohrstrom (P.B.)
  Sons, Inc.) A
• Fertrell's North Atlantic Kelp Meal (Fertrell
  Company) A
• Ground Seaweeds (ABK-GASPÉSIE, INC.) A
• GroundsKeeper's Pride Kelp Meal 1-0.15-1.5 (Int
  Comp. A
• Kelp Meal Fertilizer (Acadian Seaplant) A
• Kelpropac (Productos del Pacifico, S.A. de C.V.)
  A
• Thorvin Kelp for Plants (Thorvin, Inc.) A
• Thorvin Kelp for Plants (Thorvin, Inc.) A
• Tidal Organics Kelp Meal (Tidal Organics, Inc.) A
• Wegener's Oceanic Kelp Meal 1-0.15-1.5 (Rambridge
  Wholesale Supply) A

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Common Organic Potash Fertilizers

• Muriate of potash (KCl)

(0-0-60)
allowed only if derived from a mined source and
applied in a manner that minimizes chloride
accumulation in the soil(USDA, Canada)
Generally NOT recommended
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Common Organic Potash Fertilizers

• Potassium Sulfate (K2SO4)

(0-0-50 18S)
Solar evaporation (allowed) Reaction of KCl
with sulfate source (not allowed)
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Potassium sulfate production from the Great
Salt Lake
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Potassium Sulfate(0-0-50)

• Ag Granular SOP Organic (Great Salt Lake
  Minerals) A
• Champion Sulfate of Potash Granulated (SQM NA
  Corp.) A
• Choice Granular SOP Organic (Great Salt Lake
  Minerals) A
• Mid Granular SOP Organic (Great Salt Lake
  Minerals) A
• Mini Granular SOP Organic (Great Salt Lake
  Minerals) A
• Natural Sulphate of Potash (North Country
  Organics) A
• Quick Solution (Pacific Coast Resources Corp.) A
• Soluble Fines SOP Organic (Great Salt Lake
  Minerals) A
• Standard SOP Organic (Great Salt Lake Minerals) A
• Standard Sulfate of Potash (SQM North America
  Corp.) A
• Ultra Fines Sulfate of Potash (Diamond K Gypsum)
  A
• Water Soluble Sulphate of Potash (SQM NA Corp.) A

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Common Organic Potash Fertilizers
Potassium magnesium sulfate (K-Mag, Sul-Po-Mag,
MagmaK) (K2SO4 2MgSO4)
(0-0-22 with 22 S 11 Mg)
Langbeinite is mined directly in New
Mexico Allowed as organic source of K
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Langbeinite(0-0-22)

• K-Mag Natural Granular (Mosaic USA, LLC) A
• K-Mag Natural Standard (Mosaic USA, LLC) A
• MagmaK (Intrepid) A
• KMS (Diamond K Gypsum) A

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• Greensand (glauconite)
• Developed as potential K source
• low K (5 to 7 K2O)
• low solubility
• bulky and expensive to transport
• poor source of plant-available K

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Greensand (Glauconite)(0-0-5)

• Greensand (North Country Organics) A
• Jersey Greensand (The Fertrell Company) A

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Ash(0-2-5)
Only wood ash allowed manure, coal, biosolid
ash not allowed
Highly variable contains whatever was in
the wood when burned and was not volatilized
pH ranges from 9 to 13 Lime equivalent of 8 to
90 depending on many factors
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Manure and Compost K
Highly variable K content depending on the
feedstock manure characteristics, and manure
handling
Generally very soluble and readily available
Animal K is largely excreted in the urine so
manure handling makes a large difference
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SummaryMany excellent sources of nutrients
for organic production some materials not
beneficialAdditional management is required to
maintain adequate supplies of nutrients in
rootzoneUse organic sources that are suited
foryour particular needs and learn how they
behave
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