Good ORGANIC Fertilizer Needed!

am trying to get away form the MiracleGrow madness.

any suggestions (or recipe) for an organic fertilizer for flowering perennials &/or annuals??

Top-dressing with composted cow manure and foliar sprays with liquid kelp and fish emulsion. You can usually get these locally. Get yourself a hand-pump sprayer and that's all you will need for years. It is way cheaper than synthetics. I have noticed using kelp that it seems to keep away aphids and woodchucks also don't like the taste. Lots of info about organic ferts at Peaceful Valley Farm Supply. I usually buy mine from them because I like their premixed ferts.

http://www.groworganic.com/default.html

I use several different organic fertilizers --- I figure what might be lacking in one, will be present in another.

I have a recipe for Alfalfa Tea... not sure what qualifies it as organic but it included Alfalfa meal or pellets, chelated iron, epsom salt and fish emulsion. That is the only thing my daylilies get for food.

I accidentally created what I have termed "elephant poop". Yes, you read that right.

My best beloved had picked up some bags of green grass clippings, but instead of putting them straight in the garden like I originally wanted to do, I sort of accidentally left them out in the sun for about 3 weeks. At some point, we would go outside and smell what smelled like - well, it did smell like the elephant cages, actually.

After figuring out where the smell was coming from, we decided to put it in the garden, as was. My logic was that if it didn't have bugs (it didn't), then it shouldn't be too bad. So, we geared up with gloves, dumped it and termed it the "elephant poop" because not only did it smell appropriate, it looked appropriate before we spread it out on the bed.

The bed we put it on had the tomatoes and the area was between stuff. So, while we were at it, we put it around the tomatoes - why not, eh?

Well, the tomatoes went kind of nuts. Maybe it was just that time of year for them to go nuts, but I don't think so. I honestly believe that the sudden influx of decomposing grass made a HUGE difference and was one heck of a soil ammendment for the plants.

So, much as it pains me to advise it, perhaps making your own "elephant poop" might help?

I have been using McGeary's organic fertilizer in addition to homemade compost as amendments.
http://www.mcgearyorganics.com/Fertilizer/fertilizerIndex.htm

Don't know if they are in your area - Asheville and Carrboro.

If not, there is always elephant poop.....

Here is my special tea for Huntersville, NC. Place a synthetic cattle feed bag in a five gallon bucket. Locate an animal poop source and get half a bucket full. Better have a lid too as poop is not nice to the car that hauls it if it is not with lid. Place that poop tea bag in a fifty gallon drum or a thirty gallon garbage can. Fill container with water. Stir it or dip it up and down like a tea bag daily for about two weeks. It will get dark at which point you dilute it in a pail down to light tan similar looking like food tea you would drink. That is good stuff and it gets better. Keep a plastic garbage bag over the top of the tea container to keep the skeeters and other critters out of your tea. If you make it in a garbage container just use the lid to cover it. The older it gets the better it is but keep the stir or dunking process going. That one tea bag will last many folks for a whole summer. At the end of the season turn the bag contents into your compost pile.

That is manure tea 101. You may add things like any organic meal, black strap molasses or any liquid organic fertilizer. About two cups of anything like that is enough to upgrade your tea. Same deal when you add something. Dilute the total to look like tea you would drink. Use this tea to your hearts content when diluted. A good soaking of the ground once a week is not to much. Same goes for potted plants. If your plants take off and grow to fast back off to half as much weekly. This will rarely happen but if it does you may also dilute to a lighter tea.

I have never gardened a single summer in my fifty years of gardening without a tea barrel working for me. I live in surburban shoulder to shoulder with neighbors and have never had a problem that was of any concern with odors. Just keep it covered. The diluted tea will not cause any odor.

Doc, i must try your method for tea. I have been just adding composted manure and then watering it in. I have been meaning to try the tea, but I was going to add manure to water and then strain it after it had steeped for a while in the sun. The feed bag method seems a lot easier!

Your composted manure tea is great stuff too. Mix it up and experiment with all sorts of organic options. You then use what seems the best to you. I like to change from one tea to another sometimes throughout the same season. There are so many different ways to go in today's market place or you may brew up your own brews. Have fun.

docgipe - yep your manure tea does sound enticing

- me'Hon would surely divorce me if he THOUGHT i was hauling manure in his prized upscale vehicle! ROFLOL!!
nope not ready to loose me'Hon
. . .not yet anyways! HA HA HA

Hastur - we have Bermuda grass here on our lawns.
- way to dangerous

but LEIGHTONHILL
- i have bought the alfalfa pellets now for the recipe part.
how much of what should be mixed.

If you are familiar with the NPK ratio that is used in most fertilizers, here are a couple of things I use and love.

For Nitrogen (the N of NPK), Fish emulsion is one of the best, especially for food crops. Seems they taste much richer when I use it. Nitrogen tends to promote strong leafy growth, so it is great for housplants, but the fish emulsion is sometimes a little stinky for my taste in the house, so I use Whitney Farms All Purpose Organic Fertilizer in the house. Fish emulsion has an NPK ratio of 4-1-1. A stronger but less immediately available source of Nitrogen is blood meal, with an NPK ratio of 11-0-0.

For Phosphorus (the P or NPK) I like bone meal, with a ratio of 1-11-0. This tends to promote flowering and fruiting, as well as root growth. This is also a very slow release kind of fertilizer, so you can add it to the soil before planting, and know that it will release over the course of the year. No chance of burning with these amendments thus far.

The K stands for Potassium, and wood ashes (like from a fireplace) are a good source of this. the NPK is 0-1.5-7, but a little goes a long way. Know that this will also raise the soil pH, so if you have alkaline soil, use it with caution or not at all (you probably won't need this nutrient is you have highly alkaline soil). I personally don't use anything to ammend my soil with potassium, as I tend to get enough of it from the fish emulsion.

FYI, MiracleGro has a ratio of 24-8-16 which is why it gives such fast results. Problem is, it does nothing to feed the soil and adds all kinds of salts to the soil, making it sterile. I noticed this as a novice gardener when I had some big potted ficus indoors and the trays all got salt deposits on them. I couldn't figure out what it was until a stoner friend of mine said, "Dude, you gotta stop feeding your plants that MiracleGro Salt Water!"

The lesson? Sometimes your stoner friends know what they are talking about.

we shan't ask what HE is growing! LOL

Thanking Al of you for such wonderful responses. i sure would love to have a pygmy goat farm.
theyre said to ONLY eat Alfalfa. id do a gourmet cheese product . . .

alas awakening from my dream -
Jungleman
- a SpecialThanks for the full explanation (that has been eluding my understanding) of the whole fertilizer piece.

I need to make a copy of this WHOLE discussion. nice!

Making alfalfa tea will definitely be worth your time and effort, and there
are various methods and ingredients that can be used to make tea in either
small pails or bulk containers. Here is one step by step method of making your
own alfalfa tea:

Obtain a 32-gallon plastic or leak proof trash barrel with a tight fitting
lid or a large container of about that size. Position it in a convenient
location, as you do not want to try to move it once full. Add 24 cups of alfalfa
pellets or meal, or use the formula of 4 cups to 5 gallons of water. Fill the
container with water and stir the contents thoroughly about three times a day
for the next three days to completely dissolve the pellets. Put on a tight
lid to prevent mosquitoes from breeding in your “swamp.” On the third day add
up to 2 cups of Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate crystals) and 3 tablespoons
of iron chelate and 1 cup of fish emulsion. Stir the brew thoroughly and you
are ready to apply the alfalfa tea. If you wish, you can let the mixture stand
for up to one week until it bubbles with fermentation. Your nose will
probably tell you when it’s ready. Just add the iron chelate, fish emulsion, and
Epsom salts just prior to application.

Using alfalfa tea. Apply the tea once per month in the spring and summer,
especially after the first flush of flowers, to encourage repeat blooming. You
can also reduce or eliminate the Epsom salts in later batches. Stop applying
the tea in the fall, when you want plants to begin hardening off for the
winter. The last thing you want to do at this time is to encourage new growth.
Before applying the tea put on some old clothes, as you may likely splash a
little of the brew onto your clothing, and you certainly do not want to be
socializing with friends while wearing alfalfa tea.

Take a small or convenient size pail and scoop into the tea barrel after
stirring one last time and apply to your plants. You can apply up to a gallon
around a large clump of hostas, irises, daylilies, roses, peonies, and other
perennials. For smaller clumps reduce the amount by about one-half. The only
drawback to alfalfa tea is the “barnyard odor,” but it’s a very minor problem,
when you consider that your efforts will result in superior plant growth,
greater bloom production, and more luxuriant leaves. Alfalfa tea, pellets, or
meal can have the following beneficial effects in your garden: The plants may
break dormancy earlier; the plants may double in weight in one year; they may
show the equivalent of three years growth in one growing season; they will
have a greatly expanded root system; there may be a doubling of the number and
size of flower buds, flowers and seeds (especially in daylilies); and there
will be a much improved quality of growth with increased number and thickness
of the leaves.

Sources for the ingredients used to make alfalfa tea: You can find Epsom
salts at your local pharmacy or garden center. Fish emulsion and iron chelate
may be found in garden centers, or online. Alfalfa can been found at most
animal feed stores. We recommend that you purchase a 50 lb. bag. It should cost no
more than $10. The other ingredients are also quite inexpensive, especially
when purchased in bulk from a garden center or animal feed store.

Based on feed pellets sold in some parts of the country there may be justified concern about the amount percentage wise and type of salt added to the pellets. At that same animal feed store you could buy a bale of alfalfa and eliminate the use of pellets. A five dollar bale of alfalfa will deliver the same goodness and make enough tea to last a whole summer for most back yard gardeners. Pull the bale apart and soak one section. A half brick will hold it down in your container.

I have never used Epsom salts because I do not want artifically hyped up cell growth that most of the time then becomes soft or weak while becoming a target for insects and disease. Actually it is never needed in my opinion as it does not help any biological life building or do anything else in a healthy ballance. Actually it will harm, stunt or kill biological life in your soil while exciting unballanced plant growth.

The organic content NPK is more than any plant needs derived by any plant fermentation provided by teas, mulches and composts. This is soil building too without challenge to your living existing biology in the soil.

Is there scientific proof that Epsom Salt will cause hyped up cell growth? I have no problem with my plants, have excellent increase, beautiful foliage and get my soil tested and my garden inspected by the State. I hadn't heard that about Epsom Salt.. hmmm...

So, are you suggesting leaving out the Epsom or replacing it with something else?

That's hard for me to answer. I never used it and have excellent healthy growth without ever considering adding the salts in animal feeds or of human drug qualities.

If salts are determined to be a needed factor they should likely be sea salts that contain most if not all of the known trace elements. I use one advertised in most good organic sources catalogs. I only used ten pounds every third year on one thousand square feet of garden.

It just never made any sense to me working so hard to build the soil while at the same time using salts that definately stunt, harm or kill the natural biology including worms.