Organic fertilizer application requires careful attention; the same fertilizer can produce very different results
Frost's Descent (Shuangjiang) brings the breath of early winter. Frost's Descent falls in the transition period between autumn and winter; as it arrives, the weather fluctuates considerably, gradually turning colder and frost beginning to form. On the land north of the Yellow River, grass and tree leaves turn yellow and fall, and hibernating insects lower their heads in their burrows and enter a state of dormancy; while in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and beyond...
When staff from the Agricultural Service Center of Daibu Town, Liyang City, went to Niuchang Village to investigate vegetable planting conditions, a farmer reported: the peppers he planted this year had always bloomed very little, and young peppers tended to drop off. This year's variety, fertilization, and planting time were the same as last year's, yet last year's peppers had been very productive. The situation observed on site was indeed as described. When asked to carefully recall the planting process, he still said it was the same as last year. Judging from the growth of the peppers, it was initially determined that the cause was excessive nitrogen fertilizer. To verify this judgment, the Agricultural Service Center tested the soil's available nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium content. The result was that available nitrogen was very high, while phosphorus and potassium were relatively low, which did not meet the needs of pepper flowering and fruiting. Why did this situation occur? The farmer revealed the following: last year's base fertilizer for the peppers was a sufficient amount of fermented barnyard manure and rapeseed cake mixed fertilizer, and this year's base fertilizer was also the same barnyard manure and rapeseed cake mixed fertilizer, except that it had not been fermented and was applied directly. The problem lay exactly here: the nitrogen content in organic fertilizer is generally higher than that of phosphorus and potassium, and the nitrogen in rapeseed cake is several times higher than its phosphorus and potassium. The ammonification time of nitrogen-containing substances in unfermented organic fertilizer is long, over 2 months, and its fertilizer effect lasts a long time. When the peppers were undergoing flower bud differentiation, flowering, and fruiting, the nitrogen in the organic fertilizer was continuously being supplied to the peppers, causing high nitrogen levels within the pepper plants and affecting flowering and fruiting. From this example, it can be seen that for melon and fruit vegetables, because the time from transplanting to flowering is short, the organic fertilizer in the base fertilizer must be fermented before application, so as to ensure that sufficient nitrogen fertilizer in the early stage promotes the growth of plant branches and leaves, and that less nitrogen fertilizer in the middle and late stages promotes flowering and fruiting.