fertilizer for potaoes

Should I consider working in bonemeal and/or blood meal in the soil I'm planning to grow my potatoes in? How about cotton seed meal?

roseone33,

No bloodmeal, too much nitrogen, bone meal should be o.k. Don't know about cotton seed meal.

Anything else besides good compost? How's manure?

BB

I think cottonseed meal is a great idea for acidity, and I'll dig it into my potato bed. Thanks for the idea! I also dig in rock phosphate and potassium. Not this year, though; the soil tested very high for all nutrients. I'm considering hilling the potatoes with chopped leaves.

Roseann, blood meal is 12 % nitrogen by weight. Bone meal has 4 % nitrogen and 21 % Phosphorus. Cottonseed meal 7% N, 2.5 % phosphous and 1.5 % Potassium. Wood ash has 7 % potassium. I have the best potatoes with a 1, 2, 2 or 1, 2, 3 ratio of NPK. Of the ones you listed cotton seed meal would be the best bet, but unless you have a high potash concentration, you would need to add K to the mix. I have not checked the price of cotton seed meal, but the other two are EXPENSIVE!

Farmerdill:

Do you make up different fertilizers depending upon your crops? Or do you try to find something readily avaliable that you can purchase that meets your crops needs?

Thanks
BB

BB. Many folks avoid manures becuse of the possibility of Scab (Streptomyces scabies). This bacteria thrives on organic material. However if you have not had a scab problem, use a scab resistant cultivar, and use in moderation well composted manure, you will not likely have a problem. In the olden days, we topdressed with manure, scab problems were iffy, but not usually serious. Certainly if you plant your spud up against a clump of manure, you are asking for trouble.

I use off the shelf. 5 -10- 15 for most vegetables. 10-10-10 for cucurbits, okra, corn. In a good season with plenty of rain, I will sidedress corn with Urea at layby. Won't use in a dry season as it will do more harm than good without plenty of water. One thing to note, you can use higher concentrations of fertilizer when you irrigate. We dryland farmers can't push our crops too much.

All this is good information, very helpful, thanks Dill, especially for the breakdown of the various amendments. Around here, blood meal is almost $20 for a 15 lb bag and bone meal about the same for a 20 lb. bag. Cotton seed meal is slightly cheaper but I can only get it in 2.65 lb bags. I generally keep some of all of these around to use at planting time but keep in mind I am not applying to a field, just small handsfull scattered in a row and hoed in. I went ahead and added some of all of them into the soil for the potato area, I wanted to get it tilled in before last night's rain, before I saw these posts. So we'll see how the potatoes do.
BTW, Dill, my father-in-law was on old time farmer who farmed for many years all around south Georgia, was an overseer on various large farms back in the days of "hands". He always grew a big garden and we enjoyed all kinds of great vegetables, especially loved all the field peas served with sauce. a kind of chili condiment, fried chicken, and of course, biscuits!

Don't know of this is right place to post this, but.....................

If a person wanted to do organic bone meal, would dried chicken, turkey, fish etc. bones be ok if ground up into a powder ? I've heard of oldtimers burying all their food-scrap bones in garden areas. Same thing ?

Close, It may more variable than storebought, but should serve the same purpose. The commercial variety will be mostly from cattle and hogs, a little more dense than poultry bones.

If you have an organic butcher around, they're often willing to do whatever you want them to do with the bones.

Have never seen this addressed so here goes.
Can the cremated remains (bones) of animals be ground up and used? Would they add calcium? The local animal shelter cremates the animals. I'm not above asking for the remains and grinding them up.

Hmmmm, wonder if that would be a good source of potash for the garden ? I've always heard that animal remains decomposed and composted down are good for gardens. I would guess that ashes from the same would be good, at least for the potash anyway. That's a good question. I'll be curious to hear what some of the other more experienced gardeners have to say about it.................... Anyone ?

Might get more answers on that one in the Soil and Composting forum?