What is microbial fertilizer (bacterial fertilizer)? A comprehensive guide in one article

1. The difference between raw fertilizer and mature fertilizer: Organic matter is all composed of multi-unit macromolecules, such as bone meal, fish meal, meat meal, soybean, rice bran... These organic materials are called "raw fertilizer," and none of them can be absorbed and utilized by plants. They must go through a microbial fermentation process to be broken down into organic nutrients that flowering plants can absorb (mature fertilizer). In other words, raw fertilizer can only be broken down into mature fertilizer after complete fermentation and decomposition, and this fermentation process is called composting. 2. Raw fertilizer, semi-mature fertilizer and fully mature fertilizer: Only fully mature fertilizer can be applied without any concern into plant pots, because fully mature fertilizer no longer produces fermentation heat, harmful gases, pathogenic bacteria andpests and diseases. However, the organic nutrients produced during the fermentation period of fully mature fertilizer, including amino acids, nucleotides, vitamins, plant growth hormones, antibiotics... etc., have mostly disappeared, and the loss of fertilizer efficiency is enormous. On the contrary, after the organic matter of raw fertilizer is decomposed by microorganisms in the plant pot (beneficial bacteria or pathogenic bacteria), various fresh and effective organic nutrients are produced and provided in time for the growth needs of plants before they are destroyed . Therefore, effective nutrients are the advantage of using raw fertilizer, but the fermentation heat and various toxic gaseous products (such as ammonia gas and hydrogen sulfide) produced during fermentation harm plants. At the same time, because microorganisms multiply in large numbers, they consume a large amount of nitrogen sources and oxygen, causing nitrogen deficiency in crops (nitrogen starvation phenomenon) and oxygen deficiency. Pathogenic bacteria in raw fertilizer also multiply in large numbers, and it also contains insect eggs and weed seeds. Therefore, the harm of raw fertilizer far exceeds the benefits of its fertilizer efficiency, and after all, fully composted mature fertilizer is still safer than raw fertilizer. With the advancement of modern technology, various soil microorganisms beneficial to farming can already be extracted from soil, purified, cultured and mass-produced into comprehensive microbial preparations. Therefore, a new generation of organic compost can produce microbial semi-mature fertilizer that takes into account fresh organic fertilizer efficiency and avoids the harm of fermentation. 3. Microbial semi-mature compost (bacterial fertilizer): After organic materials are mixed evenly, they are not allowed to ferment naturally; instead, beneficial soil microorganisms, moisture and the method of aerating and turning the pile are used to control the fermentation process, causing the organic matter to decompose in large amounts at the initial stage and emit high heat (50 degrees to 75 degrees) to kill pathogenic bacteria, insect eggs and weed seeds, and then at a suitable temperature (40 degrees to 52 degrees) it is slowly decomposed into semi-mature fertilizer, while at the same time using its energy to culture a large amount of beneficial microbial flora. In this way, it can not only prevent future fermentation from overheating and burning roots as well as the harm of ammonia gas and hydrogen sulfide during application, but also avoid the oxygen deficiency and nitrogen deficiency caused by microorganisms multiplying in large numbers and consuming oxygen and nitrogen. The dominance of beneficial microbial flora can also inhibit the reproduction of pathogenic bacteria, achieving the effect of improving soil and providing fresh organic nutrients. Compared with raw fertilizer or fully mature compost, bacterial fertilizer has vastly different effects, and the required amount is also greatly reduced. Long-term use can enhance soil fertility, and harvests will become more and more abundant year after year. Microbial semi-mature compost (bacterial fertilizer) can be used as a bacterial inoculant for soil microorganisms. Because it is semi-mature compost, it must be used as raw fertilizer when applied, and operated according to the essentials for using raw fertilizer. The use of microbial semi-mature fertilizer can avoid the production of hydrogen sulfide and ammonia gas and the reproduction of pathogenic bacteria. It can further retain a large number of microorganisms beneficial to crops.