Chemical Fertilizers
Chemical fertilizers – are they essential to a great garden and growing potential, or are they more harmful than helpful in the long run? This question is one that has plagued everyone from small scale, hobby gardeners who have a small garden in their own yards to large scale agricultural farms and companies. The truth is that there is no easy answer. Each side of the debate has scientific evidence to back up their viewpoint, and the debate itself has become so contentious that it can a little hard to separate fact from fiction. The best thing you can do as a gardener is gather what evidence you can to make an informed decision that you can feel comfortable with.
What Are Chemical Fertilizers?
The hardest part about the chemical fertilizer debate is that people can’t really even agree on what counts as a chemical fertilizer. In a very general sense, chemical fertilizers are fertilizers that are engineered in a lab using man made ingredients; however, there is a great deal of debate about chemical organic fertilizers and chemical inorganic fertilizers. Some people contend that the terms “chemical” and “organic” don’t belong together when talking about fertilizers while others claim that you have to look at the compositions of chemical fertilizer materials, and if they are materials that chemists would consider organic, than the fertilizer is organic.
The Pros And Cons Of Chemical Fertilizers
How does this all relate to you? What are some benefits of chemical fertilizers? Chemical fertilizers can help your garden grow faster, and it can help your garden grow bigger. A big benefit of chemical fertilizers is that they can help control the pest population in your garden. All it takes is a simple insect infestation to completely decimate a crop, and chemical fertilizers can kill these invaders, as well as controlling predator plants, like weeds, from interfering with garden growth.
What are some bad things about chemical fertilizers? The benefits come at a cost. The fertilizer does not discriminate in what it kills and can kill pets and young children, or make them very ill. Scientists do not know the long terms effects for humans of consuming these chemical. Another disadvantage of chemical fertilizer is that it interferes with the ability of soil to replenish its own nutrients after a growing season, meaning fruits and vegetables eventually have fewer nutrients.
Do chemical fertilizers cause pollution? Do natural or chemical fertilizers work best? The jury is still out, and there is unlikely to be a definitive answer any time soon.
