Snow - poor man's fertiliser

When discussing the potential impact of the impending snowfall with my father, he mentioned that an old timer who lived nearby had once told him that a given depth of snow was the equivalent to a certain amount of fertiliser. Intrigued by this idea I decided to look into the benefits of snow and any mineral or nutrient contributions that may be gained.

Besides acting as a soil insulator and preventing extreme temperature fluctuations from damaging plant roots, snow (as with rain) contains nitrogen absorbed out of the air. The nitrogen deposited by the snow is absorbed either into the active soil food web or by plants as a result of nitrogen fixation, a microbial activity which can take place even at low temperatures.

Snow has the added benefit over rain in that it is released more gradually as the snow melts, with less lost due to surface run-off.

Many people have reported on improved spring growth after a late snowfall. Provided we don't get any killer frosts on the tree blossoms I'm hopeful of a lush spring.