Question
What are some examples of organic or chemical soils? What is the difference?
Thank You
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Followup To

Question -
Hello
I am a highshchool student and I am doing biology research science fair project and it is going to be on the plant growth difference with different fertilizers and the compounds or elements located in them. So, what scientific elements are located in Miracle Grow and other types of Fertilizer? I need to know which compound or elements located in a fertilizer grows better. Instead of it just being a miracle grow verses other fertilizers experiment. Thank You
         Meagan

Answer -
The lable will contain the compounds in the fertilizer.

For example, Miracle Grow 15-30-15 All Purpose Water Soluble Plant food contain these nutrients (lable):

Nitrogen: 15%
Available Phosphate (P2O5) 30%
Soluble Potash (K2O) 15%
Boron (B) 0.02%
Copper (CU) 0.07%
Iron (FE) 0.15%
Manganese (MN) 0.05%
Molybdenum (MO) 0.0005%
Zinc (Z) 0.06%
EDTA (Chelating Agent) 1.14%

The mixture is put together in the volumes by which plants normally take up the nutrients. For example, plants take up substantial quantities of nitrogen, potash, and potassium but very small amounts of Iron, Zinc and Boron for example (in fact these can be lethal to plants in larger amounts).

You can buy various fertilizers and compare their lable.

You should know that plants respond differently to different compounds. For example, fertilizers with high levels of nitrogen promotes green, leafy growth (e.g. nitrogen is high in lawn fertilizers) but too much can prevent fruiting or flowering. Example 29-3-4.

Fertilizers high in potassium and/or phosphorous (compared to nitrogen) tend to be used for flowering and fruiting plants as these plants consume large amounts of these nutrients. Example 5-10-10, 15-30-15, etc.

Plants need all 16 essential nutrients to grow. If just one is missing, the plant will die. However, some nutrients (as outlined above) is needed in very small quantities (and some nutrients will almost always be readily available, such as sulfur). Others are depleted fast from the soil and must be supplied often (nitrogen, potassium).

Generally, if a given soil is deficient in the nutrient being applied, plants respond dramatically to being fertilized. If the soil has adequate amounts of fertilizer, response will generally be modest or none.

Answer
The difference between organic and synthetic, also called chemical, fertilizers is the origin.

Organic fertilizers comes from plants, or from previously living animals, or their escrements.

For example, manure, blood meal, bone meal, etc are also considered organic fertilizers.

Organic fertilizers have in common that they can not be taken up by plants directly. First the complex organic molecules must be broken down by soil microbes before the fertilizer nutrients can be taken up by plant roots.

Chemical fertilizers are so-called because they - often - dissolve into their chemical elements (such as nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, etc) as soon as they come in contact with water. They typically do not need microbes to break down the bonds between the molecules before they can be taken up by the plant roots. As you may have guessed, most chemical fertilizer compounds are salts. Examples are potassium nitrate, calcium phosphate, ammonium sulfate, etc.

Plants can only take up very basic elements in simple form (small molecules). Examples are nitrogen (as ammonium NH4+ or Nitrate NO3-). The nitrogen in large complex molecules must first be released by microbes in the soil to be available to plants, whereas water will typically release nitrogen in chemical fertilizers.

I hope this helped you.

Kenneth