Fertilizer Never Seems to Work After You Apply It? Did You Buy Fake Fertilizer Again?

Many farmer friends easily fall into a misconception when using chemical fertilizers: judging whether something is a "good fertilizer" by how fast it takes effect. This is especially true when they see someone else's crops respond immediately after fertilizing, while their own show no reaction for quite a while, which makes them even more convinced they have bought fake fertilizer. In fact, different fertilizers have different times to take effect and different durations of effectiveness, so you cannot judge quality simply by how fast or slow the fertilizer effect is!

Does fast fertilizer effect necessarily mean good fertilizer?

Many unscrupulous merchants exploit farmers' eagerness to see results by adding hormones to fertilizers. When crops use this kind of fertilizer, they quickly show effects such as thicker stems and larger fruits, but after being used for a period of time, phenomena such as yellowing of old leaves and premature senescence of fruits often appear. So these "fast-acting fertilizers" actually only create an immediate illusion for farmers and offer very little benefit to crop growth.

So how long exactly is the effectiveness period of various fertilizers?

Ammonium bicarbonateAfter being applied to the soil, it generally takes effect the same day, with an effectiveness period of about half a month.

Ammonium chlorideIt takes effect 3 days after application, and the fertilizer effect can last 25 days, with fertilizer depletion in the later stage.

UreaIt takes effect in one week, and the fertilizer effect can last 1.5 months.

Compound fertilizerIt can take effect in 10 days, and the duration of effectiveness can reach 3 months.

Microbial fertilizerIt takes about 1 month to take effect, but its duration of effectiveness is long, reaching 6-8 months.

For fertilizers like microbial fertilizer, after being applied to the soil, the microbial strains need a certain amount of time to reproduce and become active in order to inhibit or kill pathogenic bacteria and improve soil structure, so the time to take effect is slower than that of ordinary fertilizers, but it has a long-term improving effect on the health of the soil in the later stage.

Therefore, fertilizing crops is not something achieved overnight or with instant results, but requires reasonable ratios, mutual combination, and long-term supply to achieve a truly abundant harvest.

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