Fertilizers

After Presale pictures

Here are a couple of pictures that I took of the Tilth Sale after all of the presale folks had taken off.

Some of the fertilizer all stacked up

James helping out some soil fiends!

Another look at the sale location

This is a small recycling area close to the store and the sale

I was impressed by how organized and informational the area was

Some Questions to Think About:

The Project: The Corvallis TILTH Organic Gardening Club organizes and hosts an annual fertilizer sale for local organic farmers and the public the first 3 weekends in March.  The first weekend is largely dedicated to the pre-order sales (mostly professionals and community gardens) to be followed by a public sale until the fertilizer is gone.  Our job for the project was to participate in the pre-order sale, mainly loading orders.  While we were there we learned about all the different kinds of organic fertilizers and different application rates.

What is soil?

                Soil is a large ecosystem affecting both terrestrial and aquatic processes.             

                Soil is a complex habitat, and a living thing.

1.       What is this project’s direct connection to soil?

-The fertilizer being sold to local growers was to be applied to fields or gardens to increase the grower’s soil fertility. By purchasing fertilizer the growers were interested in improving their soil’s productivity and quality by applying any one of the many different kinds of fertilizers being sold at First Alternative Co-op.

2.  How does soil make this project work?

- Soils need the fertilizers as a means of increasing soil productivity. The plants that are in the soil also need the fertilizer as a means to gain nutrients that may be lacking in the soil. The purchaser of the fertilizer was interested in increasing their land, and soil’s nutrient level to increase the productivity of the plants that they were growing. There were various products that had different impacts on the soil. Depending on the clay content of the grower’s soil, there is potential for their soil to store different nutrients for plants to have access to for a prolonged period of time instead of the short period right at application. For example, one of the bags, All Purpose Garden and Plant Fertilizer, advertised to be a high performance slow nitrogen releasing fertilizer. Since the nitrates are a negatively charged ion they do not get attracted to the clay, which is also negatively charged and so therefore is leached through the soil and lost. If the fertilizer releases nitrogen slowly then it gives the plant a longer time to absorb as much as it needs. Another example would involve changing the pH.
Some of the products being sold were bags of oyster shells, and calcium carbonate. By using either one of these products it will lower the acidity of the soil that it is applied to. By altering the pH of the soil you can make different nutrients available to whatever plants that are being grown in the soil. Depending on what plants are being grown depends on what nutrients are needed. These are just a few examples of what was being sold at the tilth sale.

3.  Is there a way that soil management changes could improve this project?

- There is very little that could improve this project by improving soil management. Fertilizers are used to compliment soil management. Conversely, if soil management was done more efficiently it would affect First Alternative Co-op in a negative way because they would not sell very much fertilizer.

4.  From this project, what did you learn about soils that you did not know before?

- We learned that there is a wide variety of fertilizers that could be used to improve soil productivity. Until we finished the project we weren’t aware as individual members that there were so many different kinds of fertilizers.For example instead of using lime, or calcium carbonate, to lower pH of a soil, you could use oyster shells which also has a high percentage of calcium carbonate.

5.  What is the broader impact of the organization or project you helped with?

- To help farmers with soil management, community building, and educating people about different types of fertilizer. Farmers were “testing” various fertilizers, and in the future they may buy more of them or switch to other kinds.

-First Alternative Natural  Foods Co-op aspires to be a cooperative model, providing high quality natural and organic products in a community-oriented store.

6.  Soil description of the place where you worked.

-What use would the soil under the store be? Would it be useful? A simple analysis of the soil where the sale was held tells us many things regarding the potential productivity of that soil. The soil series is Malabon silty clay loam, which is a Pachic Ultic Argixerolls. Using the Web Soil Survey, the given CEC value for Malabon is 31.5 cmol/kg, which has a potential to be a very productive soil. Malabon is of the Molisoll taxonomic class. The area around the store is right off of the Willamette River and is formed in mixed alluvium.

This is an Area of Interest view of where the sale was held, showing the soil series under the store and surrounding soil series and also the Willamette River. (Looking North).

A proposed soil profile of the Malabon soil series.