Author: Soil Food

N- Nitrogen- Think green leafy vegetative growth. Lawn fertilizers are often high in Nitrogen.

Nitrogen deficiency causes several issues including yellowing of older leaves, slow or stagnant growth, and excessive leaf drop.

Too much nitrogen is recognized by extremely fast growth, resulting in long, spindly, weak shoots as well as very dark leaf color. Under a microscope plants suffering from too much nitrogen have thin cell walls and elongated cell structure. The cells grow too quickly and stretch creating structural weakness. Plants suffering from excess nitrogen are weaker and more vulnerable to attacks from pests and pathogens.

P-Phosphorus-is very important for the health and vigor of plant roots. During flower, fruit, and seed production plants utilize and “crave” phosphorus. Phosphorus needs balanced PH in soil in order to be bioavailable to roots.

Phosphorus deficiency tends to inhibit or prevent shoot growth, decrease or stop flower and fruit production.Flowers may spontaneously drop. Leaves turn dark, dull, blue-green, and may become pale in severe deficiency.  

Excessive soil phosphorus reduces the plant’s ability to take up required micronutrients, particularly iron and zinc, even when soil tests show there are adequate amounts of those nutrients in the soil. Buildup of phosphorus in lawns, gardens, pastures and croplands can cause plants to grow poorly and even die.

K-Potassium (K) is important for general health of plants. It is key in the formation of chlorophyll and other plant compounds. Potassium is also known to help with disease resistance. Potassium is essential in nearly all processes needed to sustain plant growth and reproduction

Too much potassium can cause a host of problems including decreasing the availability of water to percolate properly in soil. A condition caused by Potassium toxicity called Marginal chlorosis of leaves which turns to yellow brown scorch in between the veins-sometimes resembling common bacterial blight-leaf may curl downward while scorched margins curl upward. Plants can be stunted with poor root systems leading to collapse of the plant scaffold-the plant can no longer support its own weight.

Potassium-deficient plants are easily spotted by their tendency to wilt on dry, sunny days. The overall appearance of the plant is wilted or drooping. Deficient plants will have a stocky appearance with shortened stems. New leaves and shoots will be stunted causing decreased flower, fruit and seed production.

Organic nutrients-derived from living ingredients, vs Synthetic Nutrients-derived from chemical components, is a widely discussed topic in agricultural, horticultural, grow groups, and even across fences in backyards across the country. Many folks have very strong opinions about this topic. Being a commercial worm farm we are definitely rooted in the natural is better camp. That said, we understand that there may be a use case for synthetics and every person’s situation and goals are not the same. In cases where synthetic fertilizers are used, adding high quality living soil amendments can decrease the potential toxicity of inorganic salts in soil as well as buffer potential excess or deficiency that may be present in synthetic soil additives.

NPK are important but they are only part of the story when discussing soil nutrition. Micro nutrients, hormones, PH levels, diversity of  soil microbiology, humic acid content, soil porosity and water exchange and other factors all impact the health, vitality, and production of our plants and crops.

We love worm castings because they make gardening simple. They are balanced and full of what soil and plants need to be healthy. They will NEVER Burn your tender seedlings or plants and they have the ability to detoxify soil of salts and other icky things left behind by synthetic/chemical fertilizers.