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• Sul-Po-Mag (22% potash, 18% magnesium, 22% sulfur). The mined mineral lang- beinite. Sul-Po-Mag is generally used where calcium is plentiful but magnesium and potash are deficient.

• Fertilizer blends. Some companies offer personally designed blends made from rock powders, compost, tankages and other natural waste products. Erth-Rite "C" and Fertrell Blue Label are just two examples. Be sure you need what any such blend is offer ing before applying.

Grow Power With Grow Powder Natural amendments do sound a little strange. But then, the Pilgrims most likely had a few initial laughs at the thought of burying fish in corn hills. And no doubt they quickly changed their tune after filling their hungry bellies with the products of the Indians' simple alchemy—dead fish converted to kernels of edible gold.

NATURAL AMENDMENTS:WHY?

WHY NOT USE SYNTHETIC FERTILIZ ers to boost and balance soil nutrient deficiencies? Aren't they less expensive than natural amendments and just as effective? (Phosphorus is phosphorus, after all?) Besides, they're easy to buy (even department stores carry them) and apply—all premixed and premeasured. So why go to the muss and fuss of using natural soil additives?

Proponents of natural amendments offer several arguments. First is the matter of soil health. Synthetic supplements sometimes give gardeners the impression that those additives provide everything the soil needs. But adding synthetics without also incorporating organic matter by composting and covercropping (steps natural fertilizer proponents repeatedly emphasize) is a big mistake.

What happens? The soil microbes get a sudden flush of fertilizer. They need the energy in the soil's organic matter to utilize those soluble nutrients, and they take it—in huge quantities. Thus, organic matter actually gets destroyed. As this continues over time, the soil becomes progressively more lifeless. And the less organic matter a soil has, the more fertilizer will be required to do the same job. As an added kicker, nutrients then get more quickly leached away. This causes waste in terms of product, time and money—plus creating potential run-off problems.

Economically speaking, because synthetics are more easily leached from the soil and must be reapplied each year, their initial costper-bag advantage fades over time: Natural amendments release slowly and gently over a longer period of time and—if a gardener recycles refuse and cover crops—do not need to be applied yearly.

Since synthetics are made from and with the aid of petroleum and natural gas, their cost is also doomed to rise as prices for fossil fuels escalate. (Robert Parness notes in Organic and Inorganic Fertilizers that Mobil Oil Corporation once ran an advertisement claiming that, with conventional farming practices, it takes the energy equivalent of a gallon of gasoline to produce either a pound of hamburger, a bushel of corn or five loaves of bread.)

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