Organic P vs synthetic P

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Organic P vs synthetic P

Postby GrassWillGrow » August 21st, 2010, 11:10 pm

I'm planning on using Leafgro Click here for more information as my top dressing for my OS next week. Based on the NPK equivalent and the estimated weight of the top dressing, I'm estimating roughly 3 lb P/1000. My question is will this organic source release the P to the soil solution as quickly (or quickly enough) as a synthetic starter fert would? My gut feeling is that the organic method will work fine, but wanted a second opinion.
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Re: Organic P vs synthetic P

Postby MorpheusPA » August 21st, 2010, 11:43 pm

Availability of resources from composted materials is exceedingly slow--what's going to be quickly available has already become available and either washed out or bound up.

I'd consider this an excellent long-term solution for maintenance of P and K in the soil, but not a good one if you require P for seeding (I'm not sure of your soil test P level, offhand).

So if you do require it, I'd add synthetic P as well. I almost always recommend balancing the soil initially with synthetics and then taking over maintenance with organics. With all the P I added last year organically, I counted none of it. Which is good, as it didn't show on my soil test--but the synthetic did.
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Re: Organic P vs synthetic P

Postby GrassWillGrow » August 22nd, 2010, 8:38 am

Thanks for your thoughts Morph. My soil test showed low P to begin with, but I was concerned about how much P would be available for the seedlings. I'll throw a dash of starter in there too.
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