What was the first fertilizer used that was not a natural product ?

I,ll guess compost(manure) made out in part of nitrogen?

mozart, Jersey was looking for sometihng that isn't a natural product.

Well Methos , chemistry was not a strong subject for me at school,but making the difference in "nitrogene" and "phosphates"one being "natural" and the other being "artificial" is weird for me because they all exist in nature as "elements" ,and I don't know where to draw the line if you know what I mean? .Why is "phosphate" artificial and "nitrogene" natural?

It's not that nitrogen is natural and phosphate somehow isn't. In this case, natural means that it is something found in nature. The two you mentioned just need to be picked up when a cow or bat excretes them and stirred into the dirt. I don't know how super phosphate is made, but i assume that it is made through a chemical processes, and not just found in nature in that form.

as a sidenote, the actual chemicals in fertilizers are usually phosphates (phosphorous plus oxygen) or nitrates (nitrogen plus oxygen)

[This message was edited by methos5000 on 10-24-02 at 09:58 AM.]

Organic vs inorganic!



http://www.ag.usask.ca/cofa/departments/hort/hortinfo/misc/fertili2.html