Organic FertilizerThe demand for organic fertilizers from gardeners has now brought you easy to use blends of natural materials in granular form. Add to that traditional organic soil ammendments and new biofeeds and you get exciting new ways to grow more...Below you'll find gardening information on fertilizer contents, what nutrients do, different fertilizers how to use them and where to get them.
Containers, Growbags and Raised Beds are in Special Need of Organic Fertilizers - because they don't readily wash out.Top brand names now promote organic fertilizer. Don't be too sceptical or your plants will feel the chill. These are made of granulated blends of material taken from 'natural sources'.
Compare Contents of
Compare details below about labels from Growing Success Organic Fertilizers a well-known product sold in the U.K. and others.
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GARDENS ALIVE SPECIALISED FERTILIZERS
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N : P : K |
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E.G. Vegetables Alive
blends for: Lawns, Roses, Flowers... also available |
4 : 3 : 1
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GARDENERS SUPPLY |
5 : 5 : 5 |
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GROWING SUCCESS ORGANIC PLANT FERTILIZER
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N : P : K |
| Organic Salad Crop Fertilizers | 4 : 8 : 16 |
| Tomato & Cucumber Fertilizer | |
| Chili & Pepper Fertilizer | |
| Potato Fertilizer | 3 : 5 : 7 |
| Root & Onion Fertilizer | 6 : 6 : 12 |
| Rose Fertilizer | 5 : 5 : 10 |
| All contain Magnesium Oxide | 6.7 |
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MIRACLE GROW All Purpose Fertilzer |
7 : 6 : 7 |
You'll notice N.P.K. formulae for the top 3 Growing Success Organic Fertilizers are the same. Therefore you can substitute one with another if the one you want is unavaible.
More below about the effects of N:P:K plus links to organic fertilizers.
What Are Organic Fertilizers?
Some gardeners are sceptical about the claims of the above fertilizers to be really organic. But chemical fertilizers are made in factories by turning nitrogen gas into ammonia and treating rock phosphate with acid. Their main problems are:Although previously I've seen chemical supplements in so-called organic mixes I can't argue with more recent and significant claims made about the organic fertilizers available on my links.
Miracle Gro Organic Choice (U.K.) for example claim to be 100% chemical free. Gardeners Supply, Gardens Alive (U.S.A.) and Growing Success make similar claims. So how do they do that?
What goes into branded organic fertilizers?
Organic fertilizers come from 'natural sources' - the in-term used on organic fertilizer packs today. These include organic materials such as:- chicken manure and feathers for nitrogen;
- guano and rock phosphate for phosphates;
- seaweed meal for potassium;
- bone meal for phosphates and calcium;
The blended material is granulated to ensure consistency and easy handling. These granulated fertilizers are well suited for use in containers, and grow bags and for making your own potting compost. You'll find specially designed container fertilizers included with granulated organic fertilizers from this link.
Traditional Organic Fertilizer Soil Ammendments
Before planting in the garden it is usual to supply additional nutrients to help your plants establish and to sustain them as they make leaves, flowers and fruit. Note: this also applies to lawns.5 Ways To Add Organic Fertilizer To A Thriving Garden
- Base fertilizer to prepare your growing area with essential nutrients
- Top dressing fertilizer to keep your plants going as the season progresses,
- Special fertilizers for: tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries, veg, roses, dahlias, flower beds, containers and more...
- And for lawns read about seasonal spring and autumn fertilizer
- Organic folia feeds for some important stages in growth
BASE FERTILIZER
To make decent growth ALL major nutrients are required in sufficient quantity plus ESSENTIAL micronutrients. Worked out soils or new ground need special attention. Regularly cropped land needs organic fertilizer replenishment.
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I - Rock Dust is the natural base to apply every 5 years. It weathers and darkens releasing nutrients to re-mineralises the soil. The effect is remarkable. Heavy stuff but you may only need 2 trowel-fulls per sq. metre.
Applying the dust with equal parts organic matter isn't essential. But if you spread a layer then put fresh lawn cuttings on top, organic acids will speed rock decomposition and useful microorganisms will grow quickly to further improve soil.
Try mixing just a little fine Rock Dust with raw material going into the compost bin. It will improve composting as well as your soil.
With hungry vegetables it is useful to know whether or not your soil contains sufficient nutrients. Farmers for example cannot afford to apply fertilizer unnecessarily. But if nutrients are short the crop will be poor value.
American gardeners benefit from: Perfect Balance which includes analysis of your soil followed by a customised organic fertilizer mix.
| HINT: If weeds are slow to grow then soil nutritients may be lacking. |
UK gardeners look out for:
Farmyard Manure now available in bags
and relatively clean, easy to store and handle so any gardener can make the most of it. Also:
dry Pelleted Poultry Manure usually sold in tubs.
And for a powerful easy to move and use product that goes a long long way - look for: 6X Natural Concentrated Fertilizer
If you live near a farm then animal manure straight from horse, cow, pig or poultry can be used after a year of composting. Find more on how manure fits into my crop rotation here.
WHEN PLANTS NEED A SPECIAL FERTILIZER BASE - when they grow in the same ground for a long time. e.g. rhubarb, fruit trees, hedges, lawns. Good deep soil preparation is important, including plenty of nutrient and water holding organic matter.
For plants requiring large quantities of nitrogen e.g. rhubarb, brassicas too etc... prepare ground with hoof and horn or fish meal (if you can get them), in addition to manure.
Before sowing lawns, planting fruit or flower beds consider using seaweed as well. Humus builders are a new class of fertilizer to look out for especially when preparing light sandy soils (seaweed meal produces humus).
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100% Natural Organic Fertilizer - well balanced nutrients to keep crops & flowers growing in America. |
Fish, Blood & Bone - U.K.
is easy to spread around growing plants and works in easily. It has an even balance of N:P:K. Use to top-up growing brassicas - broccolli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, sprouts, - also cucumber, marrows, sweet corn etc... and in flower borders, containers, and on summer lawns.
Timing is important, don't leave organic top dressing too late.
FOLIA FEEDS
Another way to give nutrient top-ups, especially useful when the root system is underdeveloped - soil is too cold for microbes to release nutrients from organic matter - or, with some desperation, as a stop-gap when the ground is being worked out.
Use after planting out flowers and veg. Feeding at an early stage makes a huge difference later. An ideal solution is compost tea, made by soaking a sack of manure in water. Alternatively fish emulsion, or fish meal dissolved in water may be useful if you can get it. These contain nitrogen with a dose of phosphate. It is important to ensure P is not lacking and to establish a strong root system early.
Check Gardener's Supply for Multi-Bloom Fish Based Fertilizer.
Folia feed i.e. by misting or fine spray watering over leaves - is well-used for pots and containers. Apply to containerised fruit or grow-bags: tomatoes, apples; and to garden soft fruit: raspberries etc... As soon as flower buds appear on fruit use feeds with relatively larger quantities of potassium. e.g. comfrey liquid and liquid seaweed extract.
But always remember to get the soil in 'good heart' first.
SEASONAL ORGANIC LAWN FERTILIZERS
American gardeners can get great looking lawns with seasonal fertilizers. Regularly cut spring and summer lawns need plenty of nitrogen to keep them lush and green. don't forget minor nutrients e.g. magnesium, boron, selenium, copper...
Choose
SPRING AND SUMMER Lawns Alive for American Lawns
Go to
Rolawn for FIRST CLASS Lawn Care Products U.K. & Europe
Autumn lawns need to be hardened for winter. Don't feed nitrogen rich fertilizer. Lush growth in early autumn may lead to infection gaining a hold. (For the same reason you should always collect autumn grass cuttings.) Choose a specially formulated
Autumn Lawns Alive fertilizer
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ROLAWN - U.K. also has Base Fertilizer for lawn establishment.
SPECIALLY DEVELOPED ORGANIC FERTILIZERS FOR FLOWERS, FRUIT, VEG, ROSES ... ...
Nowadays many organic fertilizers have been specially developed to suite specific plants (from tomatoes and potatoes to roses and dahlias) or particular garden and seasonal needs. They include:-
on this link Vegetables Alive, Root Crops Alive, Tomatoes Alive, Perennial Flowers Alive, Annuals Alive, Strawberries Alive...,
U.K. gardeners are often secretive about their fertilizers - prize plants tended in the dead of night. But you can turn the ordinary into prize winners with the help of these organic fertilizers designed for special purposes - they include fertilizer for:- Potatoes, Tomatoes, Root Vegetables and Onions, Lawns, etc...
Go to a range of specialised natural fertilizers - U.K.
^ Review top of page - more on plant nutrients below.
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Technology Designed For The Space Suttle
not strictly organic + helps you get your plants started Click below |
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Commonly available organic fertilizers contain: natural materials from rock minerals to seaweed, from traditional fish, blood and bone meals, to composted chicken manure, composted wood and humus content.
Below I explain how the major nutrients N:P:K (i.e. nitrogen: phosphorus: potassium)... are used by plants. But first I give you these page links to sections you may be looking for below:
THE BIG 3 PLANT NUTRIENTS N:P:K:
Nitrogen (N) is always needed in relatively large amounts to make all plant proteins. Leafy crops such as cabbage, kale, lettuce, chard, rhubarb, and potatoes obviously need more. Fruit and seed crops such as marrow, pumpkin, cucumber, melons, sweet corn, also need sufficient N to make the leaf area they use to produce high yields.
Large N quantities cause lush sappy growth. Use on regularly cut spring lawns. Contained in:- animal manure, fish, blood & bone meal, hoof & horn meal. Get manure in Bags
Phosphorus (P) is important for growth. All plants need it from day 1 to grow good roots to support the plant later. The response to phosphate fertilizer may result from previous P deficiency or unavailability in soil. (see microbial/mycorrhizal treatments.) A Nitrogen only fertilizer may cause a Phosphate defficiency.
P nutritients increase leaf area without reducing transport of sugars to the root as with N. For this reason P is used to establish a strong root system in young plants, fruit and shrubs. It is useful alongside K for root crops: e.g. carrots, beet, parsnips.
Contained in:- rock phosphate, bone meal; it is a very immobile nutrient in the soil (see folia feeds below).
Potassium (K) is involved in plant processes and in cell-sap. It helps the plant absorb and hold onto water. It increases protein synthesis from N. This explains why it is particularly good to enhance fruit development and its use by potato growers - root crops respond well to K. Larger amounts of K help plants produce more flowers and fruit rather than leaves.
K also causes plants to grow coarse tough vegetation more resistant to disease and winter hardened. This explains its use in autumn lawn feeds. Contained in:- comfrey leaves, seaweed meal, ash.
ORGANIC GARDENING IS A HOLISTIC APPROACH
Remember, with a pure organic approach you don’t have to worry much about the proportions of nutrients: nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K), that plants use. ALL these are required for good growth from day one. It is good to know if any are in short supply in the soil. Major nutrient deficiencies still commonly arise from over-cropping and cultivation when nutrients are not being replenished. Minor nutrients and trace elements are also important. For any soil type the best organc fertilizers are manure or garden compost. Get manure in easy to manage bags or pellets.
Clay content holds far more nutrients than sand content. But soil conditions such as ph can make nutrients unavailable. This link provides American gardeners with
soil analysis & customised organic fertiliser
to suite your particular garden conditions.
Organic fertilizers are useful everywhere - on annual flowers, permanent beds, veg, greenhouse, fruit e.g. tomatoes, and around fruit and ornamental trees.
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. Useful for calcarious soils as it gives an acidic reaction. Otherwise you may need to apply it mixed with lime.
Check for Cottonseed Meal availability (America)
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 - America
| 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
Check Gardener's Supply for Multi-Bloom Fish Based Fertilizer.
Fish Meal - high in nitrogen and phosphorus, as well as trace elements. Lasts for an 8 month growing season...
More on Fish Meal and Fish Emulsion
Greensand - mineral organic fertilizer 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 - America
Calcified Seaweed - mined from old deposits made from coral. A useful organic fertilizer / soil amendment for working into soil mixes and in worm farms.
Dried Blood - details on this page
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 |
