FREE ESSAY ON FERTILIZER

FERTILIZER

Fertilizer is a substance added to soil to help plants grow. Fertilizer is divided into
two groups: natural and synthetic. Fertilizer provides one or more of the chemical
elements essential for plant nutrition. 
Natural fertilizers are items like animal excrement, straw, other plant materials, guano,
animal tankage and meat and bone meals, and bone meals and flours. All natural
fertilizers are from nature.
Synthetic fertilizers come in either liquid or solid. They are usually classified into 10
groups: nitrogen fertilizers (it can make the soil acid), ammonia (a kind of fertilizer
that contains 82% nitrogen), ammonium nitrate (is made by oxidizing ammonia), ammonium
sulfate and ammonium chloride (mostly made from synthetic ammonia), urea (a fertilizer
that is 45% to 46% nitrogen and made by combining ammonia with carbon dioxide), others
(fertilizers that are only important in few places for special crops), phosphate
fertilizers (made from deposits of rock phosphates), superphosphates (made by reacting
rock phosphate with sulfuric acid), basic slag (or Thomas slag, a by-product of
steelmaking) , and potassium fertilizers (fertilizers that are water soluble). Synthetic
fertilizers are also called chemical fertilizers. They have three groups of elements
involved in making them. The primary elements include nitrogen, phosphorus, and
potassium. These elements are required in the biggest amount. The secondary elements are
sulfur, calcium, and magnesium. These elements are required in smaller amounts. The other
elements are boron, cobalt, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, and zinc. These elements
are only required in trace amounts.