[Snoop]

I live in an area where it is very difficult to buy organic fertilisers. However, this being an agricultural area, it is possible to buy non-organic (in-organic?) fertilisers in what I guess most people would consider to be ridiculous bulk. I'm currently looking at how I can improve the nitrogen in my soil. I can get hold of rabbit manure, but would like to add more nitrogen.

The options are sulphate of ammonia 21% (available in 50 kg sacks at 16 euros) or prilled urea 46 (available in 25 kg sacks at 15.73 euros).

The question is: which would you get?

In case anyone is wondering, I can get hold of Patent-pk (25 kg for 19.20 euros, apparently suitable for organic growers), providing P, K, Mg and S (12/15/5/25).

I'd be buying off a man of advancing years who talks nineteen to the dozen with a cigar in his mouth, so I'll probably find it difficult to grasp the ins and outs of it all from him. Any and all advice would be very welcome!

[JayG]

Ammonium sulphate and urea are both artificial fertlisers used to supply nitrogen in large quantities. Urea is technically an organic compound because it contains carbon atoms, but this does not make it organic in the "green" sense.

Urea provides more than twice the nitrogen that Ammonium sulphate does when added to the soil, although the prices you state mean that it also costs twice as much!

They are both used to boost leafy crops and don't really provide anything else; that's fine if that's what you're looking for but I suspect you would be better off with a balanced fertliser for general use.

[mumofstig]

In greece I had the same problem....and used to use as much rabbit manure (and occasionally chicken manure) as I could with small amounts of the Patent general purpose, as it is quite strong.  (the bag will last forever stored somewhere dry)
It was always blue over there is yours? the first time I saw it I presumed it was slug killer

[Snoop]

Thanks for your replies. I was interested to hear about your experience in Greece, Mumofstig.

Our land is at the bottom of a valley and has been abandoned for donkeys years. We get little rain, but what we do get is torrential downpours. Having seen how things do and don't grow, especially brassicas, and having read as many of John's articles on growing vegetables as I can take in, it seems to me that we suffer from a shortage of nitrogen. I'm only a beginner, mind, so I probably have no real idea. I bought an "all-singing, all-dancing" multi-content fertiliser last year, but the results suggest I need to do more.

I'm about to acquire a pair of bantam hens. So maybe they and the rabbit muck will be sufficient. At least eventually. In the meantime, I'm impatient to grow a decent Brussels sprout plant or twelve!

[Salmo]

If you do decide to use urea make sure that it is worked into the soil immediately, or watered in. The reason for this is that in breaks down to ammonia which can be lost to the air if it is left on the surface, especally at temperatures above 20 C and on alkaline soils.

[Snoop]

Thanks, Salmo. That's fantastic advice. Pretty well makes Urea a foolish proposition where I am, especially as the water itself is extremely hard.

[kingston boy]

I think the best way to get decent sprouts is to make sure the soil is very firm and nor recently dug over. My cabbage patch was dug over last November so will be well and truely consolidated by the time i plant my seedlings. I do use Ammonia, once, just as the buttons are working their way up the stalk. That or fish,blood and bone. I still have a lot of sprouts left. Trafalgar are excellent.