Organic Fertilizer
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| Easy use Fertilizers available from: HARROD HORTICULTURE U.K.Click Here 
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++ For America ++ fertilizers for organic gardening 
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- Fertilizers made for particular crops - flowers, fruit, veg, roots and seasonal growth click link to see below
- For onions, leeks... and greens: lettuce - cabbage, broccoli, sprouts, kale etc... try Bagged Dry Manure or Dry Pelleted Manure - click link to read more below...
- General Fertilizers, traditional and alternatives click for more info
ADVANTAGES TO ORGANIC FERTILIZERS AND AMENDMENTS
- Avoid Inorganic nutrient salts, they require regular application with LOTS OF WATER and cause rapid growth that's sappy, and disease prone
- they destroy micro-organisms that are useful to plants, can burn plant roots, and ruin soil structure
- they are washed out with winter rains and pollute water courses
- Use Organic Fertilizers - they work less quickly so as to maintain healthy balanced growth and improve life-supporting soil over the whole season plus ...
- there's virtually no chance of leaf burn and no soil damage or toxicity
- stimulate beneficial soil micro-organisms to release nutrients in time with seasonal plant needs - how to feed your plants by adding micro-organisms.
- you get healthier good tasting plants that are less disease prone
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ADVERTISING FEATURE: |
Balance Growing Needs with Soil Amendment and Fertilizer
Beware of seperating plant nutrients into N.P.K... departs from a pure holistic approach to organic gardening.- N - Nitrogen Grows Leaves - N for rhubarb, onions, leeks, and greens like lettuce, and cabbage family benefit from high nitrogen organic fertilizer. Nitrogen greens-up grass and makes soft sappy growth. click for more about bagged dry and pelleted manure
- P - Phosphates stimulate Root Growth for onions, and root crops e.g. carrots; for tubers e.g. potatoes, dahlias. Mix into soil around root zone. Major P source Rock Phosphate
- K - Potash stimulates Flowers and Fruit use adequate potassium on flower beds, and tomatoes, beans, soft fruit berries and apples, pears etc... Also hardens growth, protects against disease, prepares for winter hardiness of lawns. High K & Ca in freshly made Ash. Caution: also highly alkali.
NOTE: Inorganic fertilizer salts upset nature's balance and destroy the soil micro-organisms that turn organic fertilizer into available plant food.
One example of good soil micro-organisms is the association of plant roots with mycorrhizal fungi. Bio-fertilizers contain these fungi.
TIP: U.K. organic gardeners tested Rootgrow on Leek. Increases in weight, circumferance, length, and vigour, from 12% to 19% in both new and old gardens were reported.
Reliance on chemicals and digging has destroyed this natural source of fertility. But mixed into compost and planting holes Rootgrow fungi provide a secondary root system. More than an organic fertilizer it gathers nutrients AND adds some drought protection. For use on seedlings, plants and shrubs, but not with Brassicas and Azalea. U.K. gardeners - Find more on Root Grow here.
Available to American Gardeners with Rooter's Mycorrhizae - pound
Organic Fertilizer For Plant and Season
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For America - fertilizers for organic gardening
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| Easy use Fertilizers available from: HARROD HORTICULTURE U.K.Click Here
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Also you can get your soil analysed and obtain a customised fertilizer mix - on this link U.S.A..
New ranges of organic fertilizers for U.K. gardeners. NOT made of ammonium salts have been designed for special purposes, including:- feed for Potatoes, Tomatoes, Root Vegetables and Onions, Lawns, etc...
Click to see this wide range of specialised organic fertilizers - U.K.
Organic fertilizers are useful everywhere - on annual flowers, permanent beds, veg, greenhouse, fruit e.g. tomatoes, and around fruit and ornamental trees.
Clean and 100% Organic
ROOSTER
Rooster Pelleted Organic Manure - made from poultry manure and certified by the Soil Association - Neutral ph - Supplies N, P, K, and trace elements - Pelleted, clean and easy to handle, comes in a sealed container with little to no odour. - Sorry, the link to this product is no longer availableClick this link for a wide range of Specialised Fertilizers are available on this link - U.K.
Traditional Organic Fertilizer
These organic fertilizers are by-products of the food and agricultural industries. They have been well-used by generations of gardeners. They are decomposed by soil micro-organisims to release nutrients gradually in time with plant growth.J. ARTHUR BOWERS
a well known brand.
- Fish, Blood and Bone - traditional ingredients mixed to give a good nutritionally balanced fertilizer - Use whenever a general fertilizer is called for ... find out more
Cotton Seed Meal - a high nitrogen organic fertilizer (quite fast acting). Useful for calcarious soils as it gives an acidic reaction.
Get Cottonseed Meal
Bone Meal - a valuable slow release organic fertilizer especially high in phosphorus and calcium, plus lower amounts of nitrogen - Give an annual dressing around shrubs, perennials and on lawns in autumn... learn more...
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Get Bone Meal U.S.A.
| Get Bone Meal U.K. |
Hoof and Horn - a high nitrogen fertilizer. Releases nutrients over a longer period and safer for plants than Blood Meal. Apply as a top dressing on hungry leafy plants and soils that need top dressing... more on hoof & horn.
Fish Emulsion - gives excellent results when used as a foliar feed on perennials, vegetables etc... High in nitrogen and phosphorus, as well as trace elements...
more on fish emulsion.
Greensand - mined from old sea bed deposits and is rich in potassium for flowers and fruit and for winter hardiness. Also contains phosphorus, magnesium, iron, silica, lime and trace elements.
Get Greensand
Calcified Seaweed - mined from old deposits made from coral. A useful soil amendment for working into soil mixes and in worm farms.
Dried Blood - mainly useful as a compost activator. Blood actually breaks down rapidly in the soil to release ammonium. This is especially true in warm moist conditions when it should not be used. It is not allowed in strict organic systems. If you apply Blood Meal around plants, especially transplants, go carefully, it could burn the roots... more on blood meal.
Animal Manure - the dung from horses, cows, poultry, pigs and other animals can be composted for garden use. It is a high nitrogen feed and horse manure for example is often mixed with straw to balance the nitrogen with material containing lots of carbon. Manure is now available in a dried and pelleted form that is easy to handle. More details & links... More about manure.
Make Organic Fertilizer Ingredients
| With inorganic liquid feed, (even homemade organic liquid) timing, quantity and composition are critical. Hard thin growth on leafy vegetables, poor flowering, increase in plant disease and micronutrient deficiencies are among the problems when it goes wrong. |
Comfrey - very high in potassium, also high in nitrogen. Comfrey extracts potassium from the soil that would otherwise be unavailable. Comfrey can be used in a variety of ways as liquid organic fertiliser, in feeding tomatoes and fruit, as a mulch and more... more on comfrey.
Nettles - provide food for garden friendly insects but they can also be composted to produce a highly nutritious organic fertilizer liquid.
Worm composting - recycles your kitchen waste and produces nutritious fertilizer and soil conditioner.
Find out more on Worm Composting.
Bon-Fire Ash - Save any bon-fire ash you make and recycle as a garden fertilizer. It is high in the minerals potassium and calcium, and gives a strong basic reaction in the soil.
Garden Compost - Strictly not classed as a fertilizer, yet it is rich in plant nutrients. The ingredients to make compost are freely available - find out how to make it and use it.
Make your compost bin work.
Green Manures - don't leave the soil lying bare and idle. Grow plants to synthesise nutrient rich organic matter and hold onto it before incorporating back into your soil. More on Green Manures.
Consider also:
When Should You Apply Extra Fertilizers?
- Early in the season when too cold for sufficient organic matter break down and nutrient release.
- Early in the growth cycle to enable transplants to establish quickly (phosphates are recommended to stimulate root growth and foliar sprays of Fish Emulsion or Seaweed Extract are useful.)
- As a soil amendment to return specific nutrients removed by earlier plants.
Customised fertilizer mix - U.S.A.
(Don't forget to rotate plants through different beds from year to year.) - Occasionally to boost nutrients in a specific growth phase so as to increase yields - flowers or fruit, or with lawns to make them greener. (A fertile soil is usually enough - over boosting nutrient levels can lead to loss in flavour and increase risk of pest and disease.)
- To help establish plants in new soil. e.g. Bone Meal for shrubs, Fish Blood and Bone on newly cultivated land.
- To help perennials, trees and shrubs growing in the same spot long term. e.g. Bone Meal.
Good Food For Plants
The plant food in organic fertilizer usually occurs in a complex form which is not immediately available to roots. Nitrogen in Fish Meal for example is contained within protein. It requires further break down before absorbable plant nutrients are released into the soil solution. Soil micro-organisms decompose the organic matter to release these nutrients.This nutrient release rate matches plant needs. Faster in the warm season when micro-organisms and plants are growing. Slow in the cold winter when most plants are dormant. Of course this reduces the nutrient losses. Unlike organic fertilizers the quick and ready feeds often put excess nutrient into soil solution which is lost by leaching.
High nutrient concentrations from inorganic fertilizers can interfere with the water balance, reducing water loss from leaves, causing overheating and burning. It can also damage plant roots especially if the soil becomes dry.
Even so, there are some organic fertilizers that can be decomposed relatively quickly by bacteria, especially in warm moist conditions. Care still needs to be taken not to over supply blood meal, which decomposes to ammonia, around tender seedlings.
The humus that is derived after organic matter decompostion can itself absorb both nutrients and water. It behaves like a
sponge holding onto excess nutrients, but releasing nutrients as these are depleted in the soil. Clay does this too, but humus does it far more effectively.
In short organic matter provides a nutrient resource, forms a water and nutrient reservoir, supports a healthy
population of soil micro-organisms, works as a soil conditioner to improve the physical texture and cohesion of soil particles, and helps buffer extreme conditions. All this improves plant growth.
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BOTTOM OF THE GARDEN - more information and links
BOOKS ON ORGANIC FERTILIZER AND SOIL IMPROVEMENT
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How to make soil and save earth - Allan Shepherd |
