I love how so many of the organics supporters use the word "chemical" like an epithet. "There's no chemicals in organics!" LMAO. Living organisms are nothing more than biochemical machines. Biochemical machines.
Every single cell in our bodies are jam-packed with chemicals all busily reacting with one another in the intricate dance we call life. The very thing that makes plants so special in the ecosystem is that they don't (and generally can't) feed on organic matter. They create it.
See we humans can't create organic matter. We have to consume it and incorporate it into our bodies. Plants, on the other hand, build the organic matter from individual building blocks - ions. They create life. We consume life.
Organic fertilizer requires additional living things to break down the "organic" plant food into real plant food - inorganic ions. Maintaining that living culture and avoiding the stereotypical clogs and harmful microbial colonies common with "organic hydroponics" is far from universally better than using nothing but the food plants need - inorganic ions.
You've got to admit, it's a hell of a lot easier to go to the market and buy rice (human food) than it is to grow it in the back yard. Growing it in the backyard is like the organic fertilizer - you're creating and maintaining the system by which the food is ultimately created. Buying it at the store is getting nothing but the food. Simpler. Cleaner.
One isn't inherently "better" than the other. Both have merits. If you're looking for the treehugger-est method, organics is probably it. Actually, creating your own compost and making tea from it is probably the greenest. If you're looking to simply give the plants what they need without making a lot of extra work for yourself in the process, the "chem salt" fertilizers are what you'd prefer.
Jai guru deva -
I disagree with you on the pricing of AN stuff. Sure, I'd like to pay less. Hell, I'd rather they just sent it to me for free. I'd also like a brand-new palatial mansion that costs $5 and a 2009 Ferrari for a buck. I'd like everything to be cheaper.
You don't need every single thing AN sells. Just get a good base nutrient and maybe a couple additives. Hell, unless you're an uber-grower you probably can't even get your plants to eat that much stuff. It takes an assload of light and CO2 to make a plant hungry enough to eat like that. |