Main nutritional element: nitrogen

The nitrogen is responsible for the general growth of the plants. All the plants, which form a lot of leaf mass or grow strongly, need a large amount of it. In the vegetable garden, for example, these are tomatoes, Cucumber and cabbage.

Fortunately, nitrogen comes alongside carbon, Hydrogen and oxygen are most common in the soil. There are even bacteria, that bind this element from the air. The so-called nodule bacteria live with beans, among other things, Peas, Sweet peas and lupins in symbiosis.
Therefore, the lupine is also often used as a green manure. It is simply dug under before the beds are ordered. This way the collected nitrogen stays in the soil. In addition, the leaf mass provides organic fertilization.

Unfortunately, nitrogen has one major disadvantage. He is very gladly and quickly "washed out" in the soil.

There is a lack of nitrogen in the soil, then there are deficiency symptoms in the plants. They appear first on the older leaves, which only appear a little brighter at the beginning. After that, they turn yellow and even fall off. The new leaves are still nice and green at the beginning, but also show the symptoms described after a while. The plant is generally caring and often flowers early and quite small. One then speaks of a so-called emergency bloom.

Because a lot doesn't always help a lot, there may also be an excess of nitrogen. You can recognize it by an exaggerated lush growth with a very large leaf mass. However, it does not look solid and healthy, but spongy and soft. This reduces the stability of the plants, they are more susceptible to fungal diseases and pests and are less resistant to frost. In addition, in this case, more nitrate will accumulate in the plants than usual. That's an effect, that you don't necessarily want to achieve with home-grown vegetables.

What should be considered when using nitrogen fertilization:

• Do not over-fertilize
• Foundation plants (Lupine) incorporate in spring
• Do not leave the soil fallow (Risk of leaching), therefore grow catch crops
• Incorporate manure or compost in the spring (otherwise washout)
• Organic fertilizers take longer, to work

Who does not want to do without chemical fertilizers: rather several small doses over a longer period of time than one larger fertilization action.
Those who keep a close eye on their soil, can also be recognized by the vegetation caused by the wild herbs, Is there enough nitrogen in the soil?. Pointer plants can at least give a first overview.

• high in nitrogen: (Size) Nettle, Buttercup, Burdock bedstraw, Ragwort, chervil, Report, Vogelmiere
• stickstoffarm: Ackerschachtelhalm, Dog chamomile, Mauerpfeffer, Wild carrot, Knotweed

Vogelmiere : tastes very tasty, by the way!