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Are you sure you aren't over-fertilizing? Or are you doing something else silly that causes you to lose all your N? That's a crazy amount of nutrient for even a

Are you sure you aren't over-fertilizing? Or are you doing something else silly that causes you to lose all your N? That's a crazy amount of nutrient for even a very large garden.

RosanaAnaDana 4y ago
>That's a crazy amount of nutrient for even a very large garden. Its really not. Cattle manure is around 2% nitrogen. If we call a yard of composted manure 450 kg, that's around 9 kg of nitrogen. Say I'm going through 5 yards annually, which is about right, so 45kg. I'd say some where between 1/2- 1/4th of that actually reaches the plants (22kg). I've got substantial gardens, and I garden them very intensively. I've got about 1000m2 of gardens. In my climate I can crop continuously. High fertility for corn would be around 280 kg/ha. If I'm at 220kg/ha on my 1000m2, that seems about right.
- zafka 4y ago
  Where are you located. I am in south Florida, treasure coast. I am hoping to step up my farming on 5 acres over the next few years.
  - RosanaAnaDana 4y ago
    I'd rather not be too specific, but somewhere that is tropical by lat, but sub-tropical by climate. We would have very similar climates. 5 acres is a huge amount of area. Good luck! I've found a lack of resources for the issues you'll likely face around farming in tropical and sub-tropical climates. It was a big transition for me from being able to rely on long periods of intense cold to kill of most of the pests. I'm still trying to figure out big parts of how to do gardening here.
- empyrrhicist 4y ago
  Are you actually farming corn though? Over the whole thing? And at the density of commercial operations? Sure, industrial corn operations use a lot of nitrogen (though they have indeed been shown to be over fertilizing, and a lot of the N from my state ends up in the Gulf), but gardens worked by human hands can be much, much, much more resource efficient at the cost of time and difficulty of automation. With integrated nitrogen fixing plants, better use of mulch (which yes, ties up N at the surface temporarily, but can pay dividends overall), management of water flow etc, I cannot imagine needing that much fertilizer. I garden intensively in Iowa, and I do add a lot of compost when starting new beds (soil is clay) and I top up in the spring, but the older my beds get the fewer inputs they need.

Are you sure you aren't over-fertilizing? Or are you doing something else silly that causes you to lose all your N? That's a crazy amount of nutrient for even a very large garden.

RosanaAnaDana 4y ago

>That's a crazy amount of nutrient for even a very large garden. Its really not. Cattle manure is around 2% nitrogen. If we call a yard of composted manure 450 kg, that's around 9 kg of nitrogen. Say I'm going through 5 yards annually, which is about right, so 45kg. I'd say some where between 1/2- 1/4th of that actually reaches the plants (22kg). I've got substantial gardens, and I garden them very intensively. I've got about 1000m2 of gardens. In my climate I can crop continuously. High fertility for corn would be around 280 kg/ha. If I'm at 220kg/ha on my 1000m2, that seems about right.

zafka 4y ago
Where are you located. I am in south Florida, treasure coast. I am hoping to step up my farming on 5 acres over the next few years.
- RosanaAnaDana 4y ago
  I'd rather not be too specific, but somewhere that is tropical by lat, but sub-tropical by climate. We would have very similar climates. 5 acres is a huge amount of area. Good luck! I've found a lack of resources for the issues you'll likely face around farming in tropical and sub-tropical climates. It was a big transition for me from being able to rely on long periods of intense cold to kill of most of the pests. I'm still trying to figure out big parts of how to do gardening here.
empyrrhicist 4y ago
Are you actually farming corn though? Over the whole thing? And at the density of commercial operations? Sure, industrial corn operations use a lot of nitrogen (though they have indeed been shown to be over fertilizing, and a lot of the N from my state ends up in the Gulf), but gardens worked by human hands can be much, much, much more resource efficient at the cost of time and difficulty of automation. With integrated nitrogen fixing plants, better use of mulch (which yes, ties up N at the surface temporarily, but can pay dividends overall), management of water flow etc, I cannot imagine needing that much fertilizer. I garden intensively in Iowa, and I do add a lot of compost when starting new beds (soil is clay) and I top up in the spring, but the older my beds get the fewer inputs they need.