Fertilizers

Tonight's class at the OSU farm was re-located to the Courthouse due to rain. We may be able to have a class on May 15 (Thursday) to make up the turf grass class.

Steve did a fine job of presenting an alternate topic tonight - Fertilizers - on short notice.

Here are a few of my notes from class
16 Essential Nutrients
Macronutrients
The Big Three:
- Nitrogen
- Phosphorus
- Potassium
Adequately supplied in soil:
- Calcium
- Magnesium
- Sulfur
Micronutrients:
- Iron
- Manganese
- Zinc
- Copper
- Molybdenum
- Boron - very potent in large amounts, will kill plants and insects
- Chlorine - oxidizer

If there is a nitrogen deficiency, leaves will "burn" or turn yellow at the bottom of the plant
If the deficiency is phosphorus, the symptoms will be reduced growth and flowering, and browing or purpling foliage. A potassium deficiency will show up as reduced growth, shortened internodes, and leaf margin burn.

Fertilizer analysis - Percentage by weight of an element is present in a particular fertilizer mixture. The analysis is on the package of commercial fertilizer - in 3 numbers.
8-32-16 means 8 percent nitrogen, 32 percent Phosphorus (as P2O5) and 16 percent Potassium (as K2O).

Don't guess - soil test! We went over a sample soil test result and determined how to calculate how many pounds of fertilizer to apply to meet the soil test recommendations.

Class members are reminded to bring a container (like a cottage cheese container, no larger) to class next week.