Talk:Fertilizer

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This article is written in American English with IUPAC spelling (color, defense, traveled; aluminium, sulfur and caesium) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide and chemistry naming conventions, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

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Ambiguity of units in chart[edit]

Edited a chart to more clearly display the units used in each section

Link?[edit]

In my opinion the link to the Fertilizer Institute should not be removed, as it is not advertisement of the fertilizer industry.

This line I think is also somewhat contentious[edit]

'When used appropriately, inorganic fertilizers enhance plant growth, the accumulation of organic matter and the biological activity of the soil, while reducing the risk of water run-off, overgrazing and soil erosion' - although fertilizers will enhance plant growth I think it would be a difficult case to argue that they do any of the rest. I am unclear about what is meant by 'biological activity of the soil' - I would imagine that addition of fertilizers would decrease invertebrate diversity, but possibly increase the decomposition rate - I don't know. Is this what is meant? The accumulation of organic matter follows plant growth, but without additional nitrates more plant matter would be left after cropping (as less would be valuable harvest), overgrazing still occurs in highly fertlised areas as stocking is increased to match plant growth and soil erosion.... how do fertilizers prevent soil erosion? I am not a professor, I am a student of wildlife conservation so this is perhaps more of a question than a statement of facts... but it just doesn't seem to fit well with what I have been taught. 00000000

This article is terrible[edit]

I've never commented on an article before, but after reading this one I have to. I am not an area expert on fertilizers, so I'm ill equipped to make changes myself. I visited this page to get information but the page is unreadable. Whoever thinks they're doing anyone a favor by flagging citation needed every sentence should either find the citations themselves or let it go. As a user I can't even disseminate the information presented because the flow of the text is so broken up. Not everything needs a citation and some generalizations are okay. The point of wikipedia is to make information accessible to the nonexpert. Although the information should be correct, a simple consensus from the common people is enough. If something is wrong, it will get fixed. Making an article this unreadable renders it useless. Someone, please fix this. Ropeswing 11:41 22 April 2009 (UTC)

Sewage sludge[edit]

In the article it states that sewage sludge is not used due to risk of contamination. However, is this meant when sewage sludge is used -as is-, without refinement ? If it is heated into pellets (such a plant exist in the us), i guess most contaminants are removed (so that it is probably already safe to use as fertiliser for crops)

Disambiguation[edit]

I created, and linked to in the hatnotes, the disambiguation page "Plant food". Okay? Solomonfromfinland (talk) 02:42, 21 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Said disambiguation currently links to five real articles, including this one. That's enuf to justify having such a disambiguation page, i suppose?--Solomonfromfinland (talk) 02:44, 21 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]