Snow: Poor Man’s Fertilizer

Those falling flakes pick up nitrogen, which when fixed by anaerobic bacteria in the soil, is taken up quickly by plants

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Is this familiar byword about snow just an older wives ’ tale ?

In fact , snowdoes containnitrogenand other particulates like sulfur , which it collects as it falls through the atmosphere . However , the same can be said about rain , sleet , hail , and — believe it or not — lightning . Rain and lightning contain more nitrogen than C. P. Snow . Statistics from agrarian cogitation estimate that as a final result of Charles Percy Snow and rainfall norm , between 2 and 12 pound of nitrogen are deposit per acre in the United States per year .

When the ground is frosty , a blanket of C. P. Snow is like a layer of protectivemulch . Its insulative property protect both the land and the plants from desiccate winds and freezing temperature . It also helps to insulate the plant life as they “ gasp , ” which can give away their roots to vent , as the soil freezes and thaws throughout the wintertime .

According to Jeff Lowenfels in “ Blanket of Snow Is a Poor Man ’s Fertilizer ” ( Anchorage Daily News , updated June 30 , 2016 ) , “ There is something else that pass off when it snow : nitrogen is deposited by the blow and absorbed either into the soil intellectual nourishment web domicile and active at crushed temperatures or by plants as a result of N arrested development , a microbial activeness which , astonishingly enough , can take place even at low temperatures . ”

If the ground is saturated , the rainfall runs off ; if the priming coat is frozen , the snowmelt will also run off and most of the food will not be absorbed . In the leap when the ground has thawed and we have a nose candy , this blanket of C. P. Snow protects newly emerging plants and leaches nutrients like nitrogen slowly as it melts into the earth .

drop - institute incandescent lamp , and bulbs liketulipsand garlic that need moth-eaten temperatures to produce , can benefit from a covering of snow , which provides moisture and fertilisation and prevent frost heave . Some family line really heap snow on garden bed with bulbs or around newly plant trees for extra protection and insulation .

Tim Travers further explains atomic number 7 in his article “ Poor Man ’s Fertilizer ” ( The Outside Story , October 13 , 2002 ) , “ Though we go in a sea of it — nitrogen flatulency make up 78 percent of our atmosphere — industrial plant and creature can only habituate atomic number 7 when nitrogen gas becomes ‘ gear up ’ into the usable form of nitrate ( when oxygen is bond with the N ) or ammonium ion ( when hydrogen is hold fast with the N ) . Most of this atomic number 7 fastening is carried out by specialized anaerobic bacterium exist cooperatively inside the theme nodule of leguminous plant plants — peas , bean , and locust tree trees — and other pioneer species like the stippled alder tree . Once it ’s fixed , nitrogen is taken up quickly by plant and cycled through the biosphere from air to soil to living organism and back . As a solvent , there is n’t much available nitrogen pull up stakes in filth — it ’s too valuable . ”

Although we gardeners are itchy for fond weather and for getting our hands in the soil , permit us receive these last snows and rainfalls ; the hurriedness will sustain our gardens in the coming bound .

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