Best Organic Fertilizers?-especially for Potash/Potassium

I try to only use organic methods for my gardens but have always had a hard time with good sources for Potash/Potassium. Bone meal and blood meal supply phos/nitrogen, but I have not found a good supplement for the root growth/blooming. Looking for the best all around fertlizers (besides compost)-I like growing tropicals and they are hungry!

We used Plant-tone until finding out it is not completely organic. I see things that say they are organic, but, I know it's easy to be deceived.

Anyone got great products out there?

I like soft rock phosphate and greensand.

Did you find out yet?
I have the same problem
There is no easy potassium amendment for soil.

Wish there was an easy way to grind up banana peelings. I dont even know if they would work but they seem to work for roses.

I ordered Agro K 0-0-6 .

Dont most organic fertilizers contain some potassium? I do usually add green sand as well as bone meal for most vegatables when I prepare the soil.I also use the products with the least amount of nitrogen as I feel it causes too much leaf growth and not enough fruit production. Madina makes a fine water soluable fertilizer whish should have enough potassium to do the job.

Well, wish I had more info, but i don't really. Yes, some organic fertilizers have some potassium, but not much. I know that comfrey leaves are a good source, so now I am growing some, and I think yarrow is too but I'm not sure. If anyone else has other ideas, please pipe in.

Most manures have potash; sheep has the highest concentration. Comfrey leaves are like the leaves of most taprooted plants (dock, thistle, dandelion): full of good stuff b/c they reach deep down. I use those for the trace minerals more than anything else.

The only thing I use for potash is greensand, and chicken poo. (I use no prepared fertilizers.) My K tests "very high" and things flower and fruit well, so it's working fine.

A comparison of NPK values in animal manures: (scroll down)
http://www.plantea.com/manure.htm

Tropicanna, what is the story with plant tone? I switched to plant tone this year from miracle grow because I thought it was organic.

It's not so bad necessarily, I do beleive it is all natural, but it is not completely organic. The labeling is deceiving, I was told by a store clerk (I was furious, we had been using it for 3 years in our new garden, and thought we were finally organic) that all of the ingredients are not totally organic. If you really read the labeling....

Tropicanna, you scared me there for a minute so I ran out and checked my bag of Plant Tone. I didn't see anything on the list of ingredients that is not a naturally occurring substance. How would you define the difference between organic and all natural?

I have really read the labeling. Espoma's a big business, and I'm sure they'll act like big business, but don't feel bad for using their products.

Generally, I don't use granular fertilizers at all, only b/c I haven't needed to. I use what's available, natural, and local to feed my soil, and except for adding greensand and rock phosphate at times, that's it. But I'd make myself crazy if I got nitpicky about 'organic:' my chickens are fed organic feed, but they also get table scraps that aren't always organic. Are they organic? I don't *really* know how my straw mulch was grown, and it goes on the soil by my veggies. Who really knows if my greensand (which is labeled 'organic') comes from a source completely unaffected by environmental toxins? What about blood meal? Who knows what my neighbors might be doing that affect my crops?

You do the best you can, and sleep well.

No problems sleeping here. LOL Like you, I am not a big "user" but I do round out my other amendments with a small amount of the various *Tones*. We have an over abundance of phosphorus in the soil here so I do have to be careful about adding anymore.

Espoma products have been around a long time, I remember my parents using Holly Tone when I was a young child (and I am soon to be 64). Fortunately they have not, to my knowledge, gone the route of other older companies like Scotts. I will cry if I find out Scotts has bought Espoma like they have swallowed up all the other companies.

These days I am far more fearful of things like cow manure. Who knows what that cow was fed or dosed with or even if it had one of those nasty diseases, not to mention the ever present e coli. Yuck.

I guess what I'm saying by organic is I'm prefferring products that are OMRI listed. My line of thinking is similar to where Zeppy is coming from, I'd like to use things that I actually know what they are and where they are coming from if possible, hence why I asked about comfrey and yarrow.And I can't read some of these labels and know that what I'm buying is organic or not (not that smart yet). This pertains to the vegetable garden, I still have a huge bag of plant-tone and I do use it on things I'm not eating.

Not trying to be an organic snob, just looking for organic potassium sources.

Tropicanna, I don't know why I didn't mention wood ash but that's a fine source of potash. I can't use it myself b/c my soil is already alkaline, but many rely on it for K.

A great article about organic options:
http://www.maasnursery.com/organictechniques.htm

Thanks for that info, I had forgotten about seaweed-thanks!

Wood ash from a bonfire is high potash. Just collect it up and keep it dry and sprinkle it round any crops you want to treat. It washes away quickly if it rains and blows away if it is windy, so don't expect much to be still there if you don't collect it straight away - as soon as it is cold anyway.

Awesome, always looking for reasons to start fires (we have a fire pit)---thanks

Any ash from woodfires is great potash stuff....you just use the ash from your own fireplaces if you just burn chopped logs.We are told to bake our banana skins and crumble but I just throw the skins on top of the mulch...it turns black overnight anyway.

Thanks, chrissy, appreciate the tip!

I'm a beginner gardener and just read about the possible link between blood and bone meal and mad cow disease. I've been using it my compost pile. Some people recommend not using it, but the below article says there is minimal risk. Think I'll find an alternative anyway. --Trish in MO

http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow/fertilizer1804.cfm

Well I have used blood and bone for over 30 years and am a very healthy person...it is a very good fertilizer.....I think that is a big stretch to worry about mad cow disease in that product.I will continue to use it....the soil breaks down everything.

I just bought a big bag of bone meal and I'm going to go ahead and use it. I guess when they don't know the cause of a sickness, they try to think of all the bad effects it could have. Do you know if it has been determined what causes mad cow disease?

//chemistry.about.com/cs/howthingswork/a/aa122703a.htm here is a small article explaining mad cow. I think as long as you dont eat bone meal or blood meal you will be fine.I use lots of bone meal bot I rarely use blood meal as my dog and cat cant resist eating it and it groses me out.

You mix something stinky with it like cow poo or chook poo that stops the animals wanting to eat it and helps to feed the garden too (only use aged manures) :)

I might try this! (Source: http://www.frenchgardening.com/tech.html)

Easy organic potassium fertilizer.

Potassium is an element not that easy to come by in commercial organic fertilizers. The main organic source of K is greensand, which is almost never available at your garden center, and is heavy to order and have shipped. If you have a wood stove or fireplace, you can prepare an excellent potassium-rich liquid fertilizer with minimal effort. Mix about 2 pounds of wood ash into a bucket containing 2.5 gallons of water. Stir vigorously, leave to infuse for half an hour, then stir again. Leave the mixture to settle thoroughly. Then skim off the floating debris and either decant the liquid from the solids at the bottom, or filter through a strainer or cloth. This liquid will contain about 10 grams of potassium per quart (although actual concentrations can vary). It can be stored indefinitely in a plastic jug. Use it undiluted at the rate of 1 quart per square yard to fertilize vegetables and flowers.

Hey, thanks passiflora, something like that I could probably work with, thanks so much!

The problem with bone meal and blood meal in terms of mad cow is that the prions that cause the disease are not destroyed by any heat treatment. Of course no one would eat bone meal, but it is an easy thing to breathe it in when you are using the powder. For this reason I quit using the loose stuff some time ago. Now I only use it if it is a component of a pre-made liquid fert, like Omega. I prefer using foliar fertilizers instead of mixing stuff other than compost in the ground. They are more expensive, but they sure do work great, and I think plants sprayed with liquid kelp tend to be less attractive to bugs and varmints.

The R.H.S. recommends that you use a face mask when using bone meal so there is no risk of inhaling it, but all the information I've found says the risk is very remote and you have a greater chance of being killed by a rotovator than by catching BSE from bone meal!

or being eaten by a shark.......everyone down here uses blood and bone .....it is sterilized (by steam treatment) before packing.....it is ok honest :)

Steam treatment doesn't kill the prions that cause these diseases. Autoclaving doesn't even kill them. When BSE was found in Europe, the USDA banned the importation of bone meal and blood meal from there. So I am not alone in believing that there is a real risk.

I have no problem with whatever other people want to do in terms of bone meal or blood meal. They can bake it into cakes if they feel like it. Just be aware of what the risks are.

Ok thanks

I read up on prions before I replied, and although they seem to be indestructible by most accepted methods, the risk is still millions to 1 particularly since all the precautionary steps have been taken to keep livestock BSE free. So you are still more likely to be killed by a shark or a rotovator etc. than by using bone meal as a garden fertilizer. We need to be aware of risks, but always keep things in perspective. And no I don't think I fancy eating bone meal fairy cakes whatever the risk!

Well, if you believe that the government is taking all steps to prevent it... Heh. Other countries aren't so certain of the US's preventative measures. Presently, Japan only allows US cattle less than 20 months old to be imported, because so far no one has found BSE in cattle that young. I don' t know what they're doing in the UK, but most of the US meat industry have quit feeding bone meal and blood meal to livestock. Why would they do that if there was no risk? And there was a bit of a kerfuffle here about the type of testing we were using, basically, the cut-rate test that couldn't find its behind with a flashlight, but I digress...

Frankly, I'm glad I quit eating beef back when you could still order a steak "bloody" and not worry about it killing you--except by clogging your arteries.:)

But right now I must admit that I am more concerned with the downy mildew on my cukes than with the bonemeal in my foliar fertilizer.

Yes, our main problems this year are moulds and mildews. The grapes in one greenhouse are completely ruined. I sprayed them with a milk solution diluted 10 water to 1 milk and it cleared a lot of it, but the fruit looks horrible as the mildew has damaged the skin. Still, when one crop is a disaster there are usually lots of others which thrive on the weather so at the moment I'm wondering what to do with all the apples, pears and plums.

Gosh, are we still talking mad cow? lol

Does anyone know if yarrow is a potassium source or am I getting mixed up?

I looked up NPK of yarrow on Google and there is a very useful list of the NPK and other minerals, of just about everything, on www.cannabis-world.org/cw/showthread.php?t=3124. I'm just going back to it to make a copy. By the way, I'm not interested in cannabis, it is just what came up with the info!

LOL...I won't tell, I promise. ;)

Thanks so much for the useful info.

I use Espoma's Sulfate of Potash 0 -0 -50. Yes, 50. It is labeled "All Natural Potash" and "A Safer Source of Potash for Organic Gardening." The back label reads as follows: "Sulfate of Potash is an enriched source of potassium for all plants. Potassium aids in developing plant vigor and disease resistance. In addition, it contributes much needed sulfur as sulfate, which aids in developing dark green color. Sulfate of potash is virtually chloride free and thus has a lower burn potential than either muriate of potash or sulfate of potash magnesisa. Sulfate of Potash is approved for organic gardening."

Note: Gardeners Supply Company lists this product as an organic fertilizer. Peaceful Valley sells a Sulfate of Potash (0-0-50) under a different brand name, and says it is OMRI listed.

Sulphate of Potash is fantastic for shy blooms :)

I'll have to see if I can get that around here, thanks, repeat.

Hey, Trop, I just noticed you're in Clemmons. I grew up in Winston-Salem. My folks still live there.