Advantages & Disadvantages of Natural Fertilizer

Fertilizer Components

• Plants feed on the nutrients that naturally occur in water and soil: carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, magnesium, calcium and sulfur. Fertilizers often contain small amounts of all of these nutrients, but the main components of fertilizers are nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus. Commercial fertilizers are sold in a basic formula containing these three elements. Natural fertilizers are also high in these three elements, as well as other nutrients that plants feed upon while growing.

Natural Fertilizers

• Natural fertilizers release their nutrients into the ground slowly, behaving like slow-release commercial fertilizers. One disadvantage of natural fertilizers is this slow rate of nutrient breakdown; gardeners who need a quick fix may find that fast-acting commercial fertilizer is the better option. Organic materials used to make natural fertilizers include dried blood, cottonseed meal, fish emulsion, animal manure, ground rock, sewage sludge and wood ashes. Gardeners who purchase fresh manure or collect their own manure find that it is a very cost-effective natural fertilizer, but store-bought natural fertilizers may be costly.

Advantages

• The green advantages of using natural fertilizers are numerous. By reusing waste materials like animal manure and food processing remnants, you're giving new life to otherwise unusable materials and recycling them. Materials that would otherwise be unpleasant and even hazardous become natural fertilizers that feed plants. When collected or found, natural fertilizers are much cheaper than commercial fertilizers, which helps gardeners save money. Natural fertilizers are also free of chemicals used in commercial fertilizers. Gardens and farms that use commercial fertilizers cannot label their products as "organically grown."

Disadvantages

• Natural fertilizers don't often come ready-to-use. Animal manure and other organic products are difficult to work with, and that's a major disadvantage of natural fertilizers. A handful of organic fertilizer will not contain the same concentration of nutrients as a handful of commercial fertilizer that's specially formulated to be packed with food for plants. You need a larger amount of natural fertilizer to provide the same nutrients commercial fertilizer provides. Natural fertilizers that are sold in stores have their own disadvantages. Some organic materials naturally draw pests, which you don't want in the garden. Sludge, bone meal, fish emulsion and fish meal are very nutrient-rich, but also attractive to a variety of pests because these ingredients are derived from human and animal waste.