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Calif

I was wondering if anyone can tell me when using a organic product such as fish meal, and they speak of a release time of 1-4 months. If it was applied now and then covered with plastic so nothing will leach it out. Will the NPK still be in the soil come spring?? If not where the heck does it go?
MB

12/7/2006 4:29:23 PM

Utah

Mike,
It all comes down to chemistry. + and - ions, pH and all that stuff. Chemical reactions between what you are adding and your "patch". Your patch includes soil, water and air. It takes time for your organic product to break down in the soil.
The N, P and K could break down faster or slower depending on your soil ... type, pH, water and air content.
N will typically break down and be made available to the plant sooner than K and P. Then K, then P.
this is also the order of how they are usually depleted from the patch.

N can "evaporate" into air. (I forget the exact word- detrification or something like that)
throw some urea out some where and watch it dissappear.
N in manures do this also... The fresher the stuff the more stinks.
That is why you want to incorpate your what ever you are adding (especially N) into the soil as opposed to just letting it sit there on top of it.
I had a link to a good site but it is not working- old I guess

oh here ... this one might help some...
http://www.umass.edu/plsoils/soiltest/interp1.htm

12/7/2006 6:28:59 PM