Saturday, March 23, 2013

poor man's fertilizer

I was talking with a real farmer (my brother in law, Scott) the other day, and he was looking on the bright side of all this spring snow we have. He says snow traps nitrogen and since the soil is thawed underneath, this nitrogen will seep in as the snow melts and will be available to the plants. Scott says this may be a myth, but its nice to think there's some benefit.

3 comments:

icebear said...

i remember reading something like this in the Little House books. But in the book, the snow was plowed into the soil.

kathy said...

Well, that's a thought - I could go out and turn under the snow, without waiting for it to all melt! I like that. Maybe I will plant soon!!!

Sam Peri said...

After reading this post, I suddenly remembered my grouchy Science teacher who taught me regarding Nitrogen cycle. The decomposition of plants and other living organisms trapped in the soil releases organic nitrogen into the soil as ammonia. Eventually, bacteria and fungi convert this ammonia that became beneficial to plants.