Wow. Be careful. 1 lb of urea/ammonium sulfate will treat on the order of a thousand square feet of soil. So we're talking about ONE OUNCE for your whole bed. This stuff doesn't appear to be coated, so it's quick release, as in BANG! loads of nitrogen until maybe it rains. This stuff is strongly hygroscopic. As in, it sucks up water, including from plants. So overdosing on this stuff will seriously harm your plants -- "fertilizer burn". Especially seedlings.

This stuff is basically lawn food. A sledge hammer approach to your nail-driving problem.

You know, you'd be much better off just adding compost, and gradually adding organic matter that will naturally produce nitrogen slowly.

Agree. Return that to the store for your money back. It has no business in a small garden much less a small raised bed.

Dave

Not to sound dumb but can I buy compost at lows? When Yall say compost I'm thinking I have to go get poo at a farm and add hay and grass clippings and coffee lol. At this time I can't make my own so I need something u can go buy.

And I didn't know about the sulfur lowering ph until I bout this and was looking it up, I just told the lady at co op what soil test said and she told me to buy this.

what would Yall suggest I BUY to up my nitrogen fast being I want to plant this weekend if not next.

I would suggest you buy a cup to pee in and large enough to dilute, or to scoop out of the bowl already diluted lol.

If you do want to buy a bag of compost to get started... yup, they sell it at Lowes. You can go with compost, or with composted manure - they should have both. The manure should give you more N, but I haven't compared the products side-by-side. On the back of the bag there should be a 'Guaranteed Analysis' chart with the percentages.

You might also check if you have a local plant nursery, or call a landscaping place and ask where they get their compost. You may have a local composting facility and not be aware of it.

Sure, Lowes sells 40# bags of composted manure for a buck or two each. I make my own compost , but with a small household I only make a few pounds a week. I often buy from Lowes when I'm starting a bed at the beginning of the year.

Yes, sulfur, and also urea/ammonium sulfate both acidify. It's worse than that. They sit on top of the soil, and end up acidifying the top few inches. That confuses the roots. If you have badly alkaline soil, sulfur is the recommended treatment. My soil is pretty alkaline, as is my tapwater, but I've never needed to use it.

If you really think you need to add a straight nitrogen supplement then buy a small 2-3 lb box of Blood Meal (13-0-0) at Lowe's or Home depot and mix approx. 2-3 cups max. of it into your 12x4 raised bed. Mix it in deep and well before planting. Then you can buy and add about 4 bags of the Composted Manure or Mushroom Compost they sell at Lowe's and Walmart and Home Depot. Pick up a few extra bags of it to store and save to use mid-season as a side dressing for the crops.

Dave

Should I really have husband to start peeing in garden? Trust me I have no problem with that if it's good for garden?

How do you do ur own compost? Can u post pics? What do u put in it? I have a bucket of coffee grains I started saving and have a large bucket outside i can use to add that and grass clippings too... Will this change the ph in my soil? I have very high p&k so can't be adding anything that adds more.

thanks Dave !! you can't get more simple than that I have some here will add today before rain? And i can get compost this weekend before planting.

"Should I really have husband to start peeing in garden? Trust me I have no problem with that if it's good for garden? "

Yes, and well, no. Yes, putting urine in the garden is a very good (not to mention a cheap, eco-friendly, sustainable, etc...) way to get available N to your plants. However, no he should not pee directly into the garden. Well, it's okay if you haven't sown yet and you expect rain before planting. Urine contains N in a form that is 'immediately available' to plants. Some nutrient sources need to be broken down before they are in 'available' forms. Not so for urine. The human body (as well as any animal) breaks the N down. Many people use straw or urine-soaked bedding from barns. These are very good sources of N.

But as discussed above, N can be strong. Urine is no exception. If a nutrient needs broken down, then you can add more and let it be slowly released to plants. If it is immediately available, be sure to use it sparingly. In the case of urine, it needs to be diluted. If you haven't sown, and do expect rain, then straight urine is fine. If sowing time is approaching, or you've already planted, then dilute it quite heavily... like 10 - 20 to 1.

That urine-soaked bedding is a great addition to a compost pile, or to toss on as a mulch during the winter/off-season. If you use urine-soaked straw/hay/bedding as a mulch during the growing season, use just a little at a time and let the rain dilute and wash the N into the soil.

How to compost is a whole other discussion, a whole other learning experience, and has its own forum and how-to set of FAQs here. It isn't a topic that can be covered in just a few sentences. So go do some reading on the Soil & Composting forum for starters.

The search here and on that forum will pull up numerous discussions about the use of urine in the garden for you to read through.

Dave

If you decide to grow beans (your other post) then keep the blood meal out of the place you will plant the beans. Legumes are not nitrogen lovers and you'll get giant bushy plants with very few beans.

Dave

First, I would say that your plants not growing in 3 weeks time is not all that unusual, it takes time to acclimate. Go to Lowe's and get your compost for what you hope to put in the ground and to add around the plants you already have. I would also get some fish emulsion/fish fertilizer (big jug is around $13 here). It is a concentrate that will make a lot. I would do a weak solution to add to the plants in the ground and new plants as well. The fish emulsion and compost will not hurt because nitrogen may not even be the reason why things are starting slow.