Fertilizer is familiar to farmers, but many lack a clear understanding of the types, functions, and necessity of the fertilizers they use. They often follow the trends of their neighbors and apply a variety of fertilizers indiscriminately, rarely considering whether they are truly suitable for their crops. Below, we will delve into the characteristics and differences of three common fertilizers: organic fertilizer, bio-bacterial fertilizer, and bio-organic fertilizer, to help you make a more informed choice.
A. Definition and Classification of Organic Fertilizer
Organic fertilizer, as the name suggests, is a fertilizer primarily composed of carbon-containing compounds. It is commonly found in our daily lives, such as human and animal feces, straw, and animal residues, commonly known as farmyard manure. However, organic fertilizers that undergo specialized processing, defined as organic fertilizers in the narrow sense, eliminate toxic substances and meet national standards. They are safer and more effective, and are therefore increasingly popular.
B. Functions of Organic Fertilizer
Organic fertilizers significantly promote crop growth. It provides comprehensive nutrition for crops and has a long-lasting fertilizer effect. Furthermore, organic fertilizer increases and regenerates organic matter in the soil, creating a favorable environment for microbial growth. More importantly, it improves the soil’s physical and chemical properties and biological activity, making it a key nutrient source for green food production.
C. Precautions for Using Organic Fertilizer
Chicken manure is highly regarded for its high nutrient content in homemade organic fertilizer production. However, how to use it more effectively and safely remains a concern.
Although chicken manure itself is a high-quality organic fertilizer, with pure nitrogen, phosphorus (P2O5), and potassium (K2O) contents of approximately 1.63%, 1.54%, and 0.85%, respectively, it must be fully composted before direct application. This composting process effectively inactivates parasites, their eggs, and infectious pathogens in the manure, ensuring its maximum effectiveness.
Chicken manure can be composted in a variety of ways, including in a manure pit or in a surface-covered pile. Thoroughly decomposed chicken manure makes an excellent base fertilizer for crops, especially when applied to fruit trees in winter, allowing it to serve year-round. However, using raw or incompletely decomposed chicken manure can lead to explosive growth of soil microorganisms, generating significant heat and potentially burning crop roots. Furthermore, these microorganisms rapidly consume oxygen in the soil and decompose to release harmful gases such as ammonia. This can lead to serious consequences, such as inhibited root aerobic respiration and ammonia fumes that damage roots and seedling leaves. It can even result in seedling death before the soil is improved.
During the composting process, we must pay special attention to several key details. The high temperatures generated during composting can lead to nitrogen loss. To optimize fertilizer efficiency, water should be added appropriately before composting, along with 5% superphosphate.
We also need to clarify some misconceptions about organic matter and organic fertilizers. While organic fertilizers do contain organic matter, it is not the only component. Organic matter plays a crucial role in mineralization and humification, and is a reflection of fertilizer fertility. Taking chicken manure as an example, its organic matter content is approximately 25.5%.
Next, let’s learn about biofertilizer.
Biofertilizer, also known as microbial fertilizer, is a product that uses the life activities of microorganisms to provide specific fertilizer effects to crops. Unlike organic fertilizer, the core of microbial fertilizer lies in the “bacteria,” not the organic matter. Despite some misunderstandings and prejudices about microbial fertilizers, years of domestic and international trials have proven that they can significantly increase yields, particularly in symbiotic nitrogen fixation with legumes. Furthermore, the appropriate application of other microbial fertilizers as seed dressings or as microbial fertilizers can also significantly increase yields for non-legume crops, even surpassing the effects of traditional chemical fertilizers.
It is worth noting that microbial fertilizers are living fertilizers, and their effectiveness relies primarily on the life activities of the large number of beneficial microorganisms they contain. Only when these beneficial microorganisms are actively reproducing and metabolizing can they continuously produce beneficial metabolic products. Therefore, the variety and activity of the beneficial microorganisms in a microbial fertilizer are key to its effectiveness.
Because microbial fertilizers are living organisms, their effectiveness is influenced by a variety of factors, including the number of live bacteria, the intensity of their activity, and environmental conditions. Therefore, when applying microbial fertilizers, we must comprehensively consider these factors to ensure optimal results. At the same time, we must be careful not to single out the number of microbial agents while overlooking other key factors.
Next, let’s distinguish between microbial agents and microbial fertilizers. While both are important components of microbial fertilizers, microbial agents are not the same as microbial fertilizers. Microbial agents are living bacteria that have been industrially propagated and processed. They directly or indirectly improve soil and restore topography. They increase plant nutrient availability, promote plant growth, improve crop quality, and contribute to the optimization of the agricultural ecological environment.
A. Definition of Bio-Organic Fertilizer
Bio-organic fertilizer, a beneficial alternative to chemical fertilizers, combines the essence of organic and green agriculture. It combines the advantages of both organic fertilizer and bio-fertilizer. Through the ingenious combination of specialized microorganisms with plant and animal waste (such as livestock and poultry manure and crop straw), it undergoes harmless treatment and composting to create a highly effective and environmentally friendly fertilizer.
B. Functions of Bio-Organic Fertilizer
Bio-organic fertilizer not only contains functional bacteria and organic matter, effectively improving soil quality and releasing fixed nutrients, but also promotes root growth and overall crop growth, enhancing disease resistance and stress tolerance, thereby improving fruit quality and yield. Its beneficial microorganisms form a dominant bacterial community around crop roots, effectively inhibiting the growth of harmful pathogens and reducing continuous cropping problems and disease incidence.
C. Differences between Bio-Organic Fertilizer and Other Fertilizers
Compared to bio-fertilizer, bio-organic fertilizer is more affordable, costing only over 1,000 yuan per ton, while bio-fertilizer is more expensive, costing over 10,000 yuan per ton. Functionally, bio-organic fertilizer improves soil quality and promotes nutrient release through the synergistic action of functional bacteria and organic matter, while bio-fertilizer relies primarily on functional bacteria to activate fixed fertilizer in the soil. Furthermore, the organic matter in bio-organic fertilizers provides an ideal living environment for functional bacteria, making them more likely to survive in the soil. However, the functional bacteria in bio-fertilizers may not be suitable for certain soil environments.
Compared to farmyard manure (traditional organic fertilizer), bio-organic fertilizers are fully composted, have an insect egg mortality rate of over 95%, are odorless, and are easy to apply evenly. While farmyard manure is easier to stack, it has a lower insect egg mortality rate and carries a foul odor, requiring particular attention to uniformity during application.
