Use Organic Fertilizer
Save the Planet

Why use organic?

Organic fertilizer will not burn your plants. The main reason is because the nitrogen concentrations are too low. Another factor is because these fertilizers are made of natural ingredients, not chemicals.

Many organic fertilizers are made from waste, and when you use them, you are helping to recycle. Waste-based fertilizers include compost, processed sewage, manure, and blood meal.

Natural fertilizers create no runoff or contamination of groundwater or other water bodies. Mass scale farming has created nitrogen pollution in many water bodies which are the cause of deadly bacterial outbreaks and contribute to the destruction of natural water systems.

Vitamins versus eating right

A way to think of organic versus chemical fertilizers is vitamins versus a well-rounded, healthy diet. If a person takes a lot of vitamins, thinking that it will make up for a poor diet, they are fooling themselves. The body cannot absorb concentrated amounts of vitamins in a short amount of time. What the body cannot absorb at one time, goes down the toilet. As well, the vitamin pills do not provide fiber, good fats and oils, and other elements which comprise a healthy diet.

It's the same for plants. Chemical fertilizers provide a concentrated rush of a small spectrum of nutrients. What the plant cannot absorb, runs off or leaches away. This can cause problems in the environment. As well, plants, like us, need trade minerals, and bacterially active soil. Chemical fertilizers cannot provide this.

How do I use organic and natural fertilizers?

You may have to use natural fertilizers more frequently than commercial chemical fertilizers. This is due to their low nitrogen content. However, if you have a super rich organic soil mix, you will greatly reduce your need for fertilizers altogether.

Compost is your number 1 fertilizer. Put some in the hole when you plant seedlings. Cover seed with it. Continue to top dress your plants with it throughout the growing season. Mix some in your soil mix at the end or beginning of the season. Compost provides not only nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, but other trace minerals and nutrients your plants need and love. If you make your own, the cost is nearly free.

A quick and easy way to make compost fertilizer is from old pallets .

Red wiggler worms can help create compost.

An easy way to worm compost right in your garden is to build a worm tower .

My favorite fertilizer is bat guano. I top dress with it right at the beginning of the season and it just keeps on giving throughout the growing season. Bat guano is expensive, but considering that I use it only once, I find it a bargain.

Another popular organic fertilizer is fish emulsion. It comes in liquid and pellet form. The liquid can be mixed at varying strengths for seedlings, plants, and foliar feeding. I prefer the liquid. The pellets have no smell to humans, but dogs sure can smell them. I used the pellets and my dogs were digging in my beds and garden for weeks and eating the soil. They don't seem to be as attracted to the liquid, oddly enough. I would think cats and raccoons would also be attracted to the pellets.

Other natural fertilizers include: bone meal, blood meal, seaweed, and manures.

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