Organic Manures.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20256, 16 March 1934, Page 9

Organic Manures.

A Garden Corner.

QUESTION of soil manures and plant foods is always an interesting one, and most growers are in the dark as to the right course to pursue. Plants get their nourishment from two sources: From the soil or from the air. This food is taken in by the root hairs or by the leaves in the form of liquid. Therefore it has to be in a soluble form, and it is according to its solubility or otherwise that the value may be measured.

Manures are organic or inorganic. The former includes all those manures arising from plant or animal remains, and they yield the important material known as humus, without which no soil can be effective. This not only has great water-holding capacity, but contains in abundance stores of nitrogenous wealth. Nitrogen imparts a healthy green colour to the leaves, and a sure evidence of a want of this in the soil will be recorded if the foliage is sickly or pale. These conditions generally obtain in dry, sandy soil, and cry out for a liberal dressing of stable or farm manure, or a green crop to be dug in. As these manures give up their stores slowly, not much is wasted by washing out. A free use of organic manures will solve many of our garden troubles. T. D. LENNIE.