Nitrogen fertilizers are omnipresent, especially when it comes to lawns. But what do you need nitrogen fertilizer for? And can you maybe even make it yourself?
As the name suggests: The central component of nitrogen fertilizers is the main nutrient nitrogen (N). These fertilizers can either be synthetically produced or derived from natural sources. Regardless of the source, nitrogen is central to plant growth and yield.
Nitrogen is essential for plants to grow vigorously. The better the nitrogen supply in the soil and thus for the plants, the stronger the green color of the leaves. However, if there is not enough nitrogen in the soil, you should help with nitrogen fertilization.
Effect of Nitrogen Fertilizer
Fertilization with nitrogen is essential to enable important functions to take place in your beloved plants. Plants need nitrogen for the following tasks:
- Manufacture of amino acids and proteins
- Stimulates the growth of shoots and leaves
- Structure of leaf green (chlorophyll) - thus an important part of photosynthesis
However, if a plant is deficient in nitrogen, it can suffer from stunted growth. In addition, the leaves may lose their color and yellow, and even premature flowering may result.
But not only too little nitrogen can cause damage, too much of the nutrient can also trigger excess symptoms. These symptoms include masty growth or delayed flowering. Leaves may continue to turn dark green, plants become more susceptible to disease and frost, and plant tissues become soft and spongy. Although vegetative growth is promoted, the plants are less stable.
Pure nitrogen fertilizers supply our plants with nitrogen, but unfortunately they lack the remaining nutrients that the plants need to survive - for example potassium, phosphorus and trace elements.If you use pure nitrogen fertilizer, then your fertilization is very one-sided. In this case, your plants will lack other nutrients.
In contrast to this, there are the complex fertilizers, which not only contain nitrogen, but also phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) - hence the name "NPK fertilizer". With such universal fertilizers, the nutrient supply is more balanced than with pure nitrogen fertilizers.
Production of Nitrogen Fertilizer
The natural nitrogen in the soil comes mostly from the air, because plants such as clover can fix the nitrogen from the air and bring it into the soil. Clover is a so-called legume that lives in symbiosis with nodule bacteria. These nodule bacteria on the roots have the ability to fix nitrogen from the air. However, what very few people know is that nitrogen can also be introduced into the soil by lightning. Animal excretions can also be used as nitrogen fertilizer, for example manure, liquid manure or liquid manure. We ourselves can also convert our kitchen waste into a nitrogenous fertilizer on the compost or easily produce plant manure.
An example of a degradable nitrogen fertilizer is guano, which consists of seabird excrement. This is mined on coasts and can be used as a nitrogen fertilizer. Guano is often found mixed with various fertilizers to increase the nitrogen content. In earlier times, a large part of the guano was imported from South America, but since nitrogen fertilizer can also be produced synthetically, the demand for it has dropped significantly.
Synthetically manufactured nitrogen fertilizers are produced by the Haber-Bosch process, which converts atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia (NH3).
Advantages and disadvantages of nitrogen fertilizers
Nitrogen is essential for our plants, but it is not found in mineral form in the soil. This means no nitrogen can be released by weathering of the bedrock. However, the plants need nitrogen for their development - if there is no nitrogen left in the soil, satisfactory growth is no longer possible.
Unfortunately, incorrect and improper use can also have negative effects. Unfortunately, nitrogen or nitrate can very easilybe washed out and get into the groundwater. Thus, it gets into bodies of water and also into drinking water. Excessively high nitrate levels in water can also be harmful to a wide variety of creatures such as fish. However, an excessively high nitrate content in food for small children and babies is particularly dangerous, as it can lead to methemoglobinemia - an undersupply of oxygen. This can ultimately even be life-threatening for small children and infants.
Properties and advantages of a nitrogen fertilizer:
- Ensures sufficient nitrogen supply
- Enables vigorous plant growth
- Promotes growth
- Supports standing and flowering
- Help prevent nitrogen deficiency symptoms such as chlorosis
Different nitrogen fertilizers: which ones are there?
From natural to synthetically produced nitrogen fertilizers, practically everything is available on the market. Below you will find a brief overview of the various products.
Ammonium nitrate
This fertilizer is also called ammonium nitrate or ammonium nitrate because it is the s alt formed from ammonia and nitric acid (NH4NO3 ). In addition to being used as a fertilizer, ammonium nitrate is also used as an explosive. It is solid and soluble in water.
Urea
The special thing about urea (CH4N2O) as a nitrogen fertilizer is the fact that urea is partly absorbed through the leaves can. Urea is also known under the names carbamide or carbonic acid amide.
Since urea is converted to ammonium very quickly, only little of it is taken up by the roots.
Organic urea comes from the urine of mammals, but it can also be made synthetically from ammonia and carbon dioxide. Urea has a high nitrogen content - with around 45% of this, it is an optimal nitrogen fertilizer. Urea is also the world's most commonly used nitrogen fertilizer.
Nitrogen Lime Fertilizer
Calcane is the trade name of fertilizers containing calcium cyanamide (CaN2). A calcium cyanamide fertilizer contains around 20% nitrogen, around 55% calcium and can also kill plants and pests such as snails or wireworms. Because of this herbicidal effect, calcium cyanamide is also often used to combat moss on lawns. In addition, you can beds before sowingtreat to remove unwanted seedlings. However, be careful not to apply more than 30 grams per square meter - this would lead to overdosing and burns. Calcium cyanamide is also often applied to the compost to accelerate decomposition.
Calcaneous nitrogen is a rather slow-acting basic fertilizer, which, however, also releases the toxic hydrocyanic acid during its decomposition. Therefore, you should be aware that the use of calcium cyanamide affects the pH value - it lowers it.
Natural Nitrogen Fertilizers
The most traditional nitrogen fertilizers are certainly manure, manure and manure from various animals. But legumes such as peas (Pisum sativum) or haricot beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) also bring nitrogen into the soil. With their nodule bacteria, these plants are able to fix nitrogen from the air in the soil.
When people think of manure, most people probably think of cow manure, but manure from other farm animals can also be used as fertilizer. However, you should always pay attention to the different nutrient ratios.
Manure is particularly suitable for cold frames, because when it decomposes, heat is generated, which is just the thing in the cool spring. Horse manure in particular gives off a lot of heat when it rots and is ideal for filling cold frames.
Liquid Nitrogen Fertilizers
Natural liquid fertilizers primarily include manure and liquid manure, but many mineral nitrogen fertilizers can also be dissolved in water and used in liquid form. Most liquid fertilizers contain nitrogen, and you will always find nitrogen in special fertilizers for certain plants, ideally tailored to specific plant groups and their needs. However, such fertilizers are among the universal fertilizers, as they always contain several nutrients and do not consist entirely of nitrogen.
For this reason, these fertilizers cannot be described as classic nitrogen fertilizers. Pure nitrogen fertilizers supply the plants with nitrogen, but only with this and with no other nutrient.
Many gardeners prefer liquid fertilizers because they can be applied with irrigation water and don't require laborious incorporation into the soil. It is also possible to use liquid fertilizer for foliar fertilization, and nitrogen (urea) can also be absorbed through the leaves. However, this should onlybe used to compensate for short-term nutrient peaks - in principle, the nitrogen uptake should take place via the plant roots.
Blue Grain
Blaukorn is a mineral compound fertilizer, also called NPK fertilizer. The abbreviation "NPK" stands for the three main components of this fertilizer: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. The blue grain is available as solid blue granules. You can also dissolve it in water and use it for liquid fertilization.
There are divided opinions about the blue grain, many swear by this mineral fertilizer, others don't want to hear anything about it. Find out more about Blaukorn here.
Nitrogen Lawn Fertilizer
Even our green lawns need an additional boost of nutrients from time to time in order to be able to grow properly. Nitrogen, in particular, is important for growth and for your lawn to retain its rich green colour.
Lawn Nitrogen Fertilizer: Which is the best?
There are currently many lawn fertilizers on the market that differ in their nutrient composition. However, these are not pure nitrogen fertilizers, but rather complex fertilizers. When choosing an autumn lawn fertiliser, always make sure that it has a higher potassium content, as this is extremely important for frost resistance. The fertilizers should also have a suitable NPK ratio. If you are looking for an organic long-term fertilizer for your lawn, you can use our Plantura organic lawn fertilizer.
Lawn nitrogen fertilizer: when to use it?
If you use mineral nitrogen fertilizers, you get a quick effect, but during the main growth period there is always a burst of sprouting, but not uniform growth. Therefore, you should apply nitrogen to the lawn in spring or autumn, when the main growing season is over. However, when fertilizing your lawn in the fall, you should use a compound fertilizer with a high potassium content for frost hardiness, not a high supply of nitrogen.
If your lawn has survived the winter well, a long-term fertilizer application at the beginning of May is completely sufficient. However, if the turf shows signs of damage after winter, you should use a fast-dissolving nitrogen fertilizer in April to regenerate it, and again use a slow-release fertilizer around June.
OneAutumn fertilization also helps your lawn to get through the winter well. However, you should rather use a potassium-rich autumn lawn fertilizer, because too much nitrogen leads to unwanted growth in winter. Autumn fertilization is best done in October on an overcast day. You can find out more about optimal lawn fertilization in our special article.
Lawn Nitrogen Fertilizer: How much to apply?
But how much should you use to fertilize? For example, if you use our Plantura organic lawn fertilizer, which is not a classic nitrogen fertilizer, with an NPK ratio of 8 - 1 - 6, we recommend the following application quantities:
- 40 - 60 g/m² as maintenance and care fertilization in spring and early summer
- 70 g/m² as regeneration fertilization after scarifying in spring
Our Plantura organic autumn lawn fertilizer has an NPK ratio of 5 - 1 - 9. For optimal autumn fertilization, you should apply 50 to 80 grams per square meter of this lawn in the autumn.
Make nitrogen fertilizer yourself
Compost and manure are certainly among the simplest homemade nitrogen fertilizers. It is best for every gardener to get a compost and use it to produce high-quality fertilizer for their own garden. Basically, it is very easy to compost garden and kitchen waste such as vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, leftover fruit and the like. But be careful with the garden waste: only put plant parts on the compost that are free of pathogens, and also no weeds that form many seeds or reproduce and spread via strong roots. Bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis), for example, has no place on the compost.
You can also use plant manure for fertilizing, such as nettle manure. Such plant manure is extremely easy to produce and supplies the soil and plants with the necessary nitrogen. The practical thing about manure is its wide range of applications, because nettle manure, for example, is not only a nitrogen fertilizer, but also strengthens the plants and can be used to combat pests - a real all-round talent.