Fertilizer: Organic or synthetic?

Fertilizer: Organic or synthetic? And what with Mycorhizza?

Lots of people still don't know what to choose regarding fertilizer. I will tell you the pros and cons of both organic and synthetic and their effects on the Mycorhizza fungi.

Our garden soil is totally made up of natural components, it's the medium for our plants and roses to grow into. The top soil, the first 20 cm or 8 inches is absolutely the most important layer of the soil. Why? Because all the food, the nutrients, the trace elements are collected in the top soil. If we didnt touch our soil what would happen? Well nature would do its thing and this means fallen leafs, broken branches and other dead plant material would pile up on our soil joined by dead insects, dead animals and 💩 of those animals. The top layer of our soil is filled with our good soldiers, small insects and bacteria which break down all this organic material fallen onto the soil. They break it down in very small pieces we call humus (no not hummus 😉). Humus smells like fresh forest soil and has a dark brown to black color. Good soldiers in our soil are woodlice (very beneficial), earth worms, fungi, centipedes etc...

A good healthy soil has many many of these insects. So these insects digest the dead organic material and their 💩 is the humus. When it rains the humus nutrients are transported towards the roots of our plants and digested. So in nature we have a constant flow of this circle. The soil underneath the humus layer is of far less importance. Its main purpose is to anker ⚓ the roots of our plants so they are stable.

In our gardens we don't have a forest so we have to provide our top garden soil with a constant flow of organic material so that humus can be produced..

We can achieve this by adding compost, well rotted manure, mulch etc to our top soil and this each year.

In such a healthy soil without synthetic stuff the good Mycorhizza fungi is already present.

Most important nutrients for our roses are already present in this top humus soil. So nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are readely available if we keep feeding our soil with humus. In the growing seasons our roses and other plants take in a constant amount of those nutrients. Slowly but steady and this way it doesn't interrupt the symbiosis between plants and mycorrhiza. Mycorrhiza hates too high amounts of NPK nutrients, it burns them and they retreat from our garden.

Organic fertilizer is made up of manure, Feathers of birds, plant materials, seaweed etc.

So in essence it's almost humus, it just needs to be transformed into humus by our good soldiers. What are the pros of organic fertilizer:

They provide additional humus

They provide nutrients slowly, a steady slow release without burning the plants

They keep the soil well balanced

They don't have a negative impact on mycorrhiza due to their low NPK.

Together with the humus from our compost, manure compost and mulch organic fertilizer provides our plants with a steady flow of nutrients without any chance of burning the roots

Synthetic fertilizer is made of synthetic components so it's not organic, it's made by a chemical process. This fertilizer has very high NPK and with high I mean each component is higher than 10. So an example of a synthetic fertilizer is NPK 12/15/14 and even higher. In comparison: An organic rose fertilizer has normally an NPK of let's say 2/1/5 so this is much much lower.

The only pro for synthetic fertilizer is its price. It's much easier and much quicker to make which results in lower price.

The cons however are many:

No humus components

High percentage of nutrients with high danger of burning our roots

Releases all kinds of synthetic salts into the soil.

Doesn't install this stable flow of humus

Poisoning our soil in the long run due to high salt levels so our good soldiers die

Destroys the Mycorhizza because it's extreme high content of synthetic fertilizer.

So I hope this is clear for everyone. Synthetic fertilizer may boost our roses for a short while but soon the soil will deteriorate due to destruction of the humus cycle.

Roses are some of the most greedy plants. They need a good amount of nutrients in spring and summer. So when we give them a monthly dose of organic fertilizer we give extra to the soil ensuring that they'll have a steady flow of food in spring and summer. I don't have to tell you that enough water is also very important. Without water our nutrients won't get dissolved and transported to the roots. So give water in times of drought, especially to young roses.