Fertilizer Enhancement Products

Fertilizer enhancement products are enhancements that promise to help fertilizers work more efficiently. Some improve the ability for crops to take up fertilizer through the roots. Others make certain nutrients, such as nitrogen or phosphorous, more readily available. Whether or not the backyard gardener needs them is a matter of debate.

Adding fertilizer enhancers to garden soil may produce better flowers.

Researchers at companies making chemical fertilizers have long tinkered with the basic nitrogen-phosphorous-potassium mixture found in basic fertilizer. Even organic gardeners have gotten into the act with various soil conditioners and organic-based amendments that act as fertilizer enhancers.

For gardeners who use chemical fertilizers, there's no shortage of fertilizer enhancement products. Most of these are marketed to large-scale farmers and agribusinesses growing hundreds or thousands of acres of crops. These fertilizer enhancers:

• Help plants absorb or take up more nutrients through the roots
• Make certain elements such as phosphorous more available to the plant
• Prevent elements such as nitrogen from leaching out of the soil

Most of these products are new to the market. The biggest manufacturer of fertilizer enhancement products is SFP. Founded in 1998, the company offers several products promising to help farmers get more nutrients out of the soil and fertilizers they apply.

Many fertilizer enhancers are suitable for organic gardeners. The most popular are soil-enhancing microbes.

Soil isn't just composed of broken down rock particles. Inside the soil lies a hidden kingdom, a rich and living organism that pulses with a life of its own. Tiny microbes live inside the soil. They feast on decomposing leaves. In nature, they help break down tree leaves and plants as well as dead animals and insects and turn organisms back into the dust from which they came.

The healthier the soil, the more microbes it will have. Adding soil-enhancing microbes to the garden soil encourages the proliferation of good microbes and helps them break down and release more nutrients into the soil, which plants can take up through their roots. It's the same theory on which the chemical fertilizer enhancers are based, but played out differently by using biological methods instead of manufactured methods.

Gardens Alive! offers various soil activators based on this principle.

Fertilizer enhancements can work, but are they necessary? There are pros and cons to using either chemical or organic fertilizer enhancement products.

Some benefits gardeners may see by using these products include:

• Fewer fertilizer applications, because the fertilizer already applied (or nutrients in the soil for organic products) are more readily available to the plants.
• Improved plant health and resistance to disease.
• Increased yield – more vegetables per square foot.
• Greener leaves and greener grass.
• More buds and flowers on annuals, perennials and shrubs.

Like any products, soil enhancers also have some disadvantages.

• Commercial enhancers may be difficult to find or you may have to buy them in large quantities.
• Chemical enhancement products add more chemicals to the environment, which can disrupt insects, wildlife, and the natural ecosystem.
• Beneficial microbes may not be needed in the soil in an organic garden. Plant problems may not be due to lack of fertilizer, so adding enhancement products doesn't help.
• Can be expensive when added to the cost of fertilizers.

Most backyard gardeners don't need soil enhancement products. While they may benefit commercial farmers by increasing yield and profits while decreasing work, on a small scale they may not make much sense. Organic soil microbes are a useful addition, especially when gardeners face lifeless soil. After building a new home or after creating a new garden area, for example, the soil may be compacted, lifeless and lacking any organic material at all. Adding compost and a microbial enhancer to such soil can dramatically speed up plant growth as compared to soil that has not been amended.

Try fertilizer enhancers if you're curious about the results, but stick with home made compost for the easiest, cheapest way to build healthy soil.

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