Posted on 04/27/2019 3:29:45 AM PDT by orsonwb
Fertilizer. What is it? How does it work? Is it safe to use? What's the difference between Organic and Synthetic fertilizer? Watch the video: https://youtu.be/IeMvR4tmMJ8
(Excerpt) Read more at youtu.be ...
Probably more important is the seeds - are they certified heirloom or are they modern? Its the smell of a food that triggers full digestion - if there is little or no scent - then you take little or no nutrients from the plant.
Certain manure and rotting dead things (like fish heads) tend to work....
I use very little man made frets on my garden. Utilize chicken crap.and ashes from fire piles. Then I compost everything that does not go back to the chickens including my left over round bales (hay) that the cows missed. Waste not, want not
Dang, we might be kin
I go to Starbucks and get FREE used coffee grounds. 2- 5 gallon daily.
Green before Green was cool.
(Millenials think they invented this stuff - HA!)
Compost from my own garden and kitchen scraps have been more than enough. If you don’t yet have your own, try to find at a local organic farm or coop. The compost at garden centers is typically from clippings soaked in pecticides/herbicides.
Rule #1 is never use tap water with ANY chlorine/chloramine for your garden. Charcoal filters are not enough. You want to let the soil life fully thrive and do all the work.
Keep your compost pile moist enough to decompose but dry enough for air to get in. It should feel like a wrung out sponge and have no bad smells. I like to use a huge corkscrew to loosen up the bottom without heavy lifting.
Once it looks black and mostly unrecognizable, filter out the small compost with a 1/4” screen and then let that age for a few months in a bucket with holes on top until it has no smell. If you take a handful and squeeze, it should feel springy like a sponge and never clump together. It should leave no smell of any kind on your hand. Truly magic stuff.
One of the biggest mistakes is using compost that is not fully aged or mixing in “hot” organics like manure/guano that have not been composted. Unfinished fertilizer will actually pull nutrients away from your plants
Years ago I would add lots of leaves to my garden. I had huge earthworms so figured the soil was good but tomato plants did terible. Later I learned that decomposing takes the nitrogen and didn’t leave much for the plants.
We use Milorganite on our lawn and gardens. Works great!
Fertilizer is a feed. A chemical or natural substance added to soil or land to increase its fertility. If the soil being used doesn’t have it, the crops don’t grow. Even the most fertile soils need help depending upon the crop and the location. Some like sodium are used to decrease the acid in soil.
Nitrogen was mentioned. Nitrogen is vital because it is a major component of chlorophyll, the compound by which plants use sunlight energy to produce sugars from water and carbon dioxide (i.e., photosynthesis). It is also a major component of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. Without proteins, plants wither and die.
Depends upon the soil needs to grow plants. Some locations are better/different from others.
rwood
Ping
I also dump our fireplace ashes in the raised bed frame and around the rose bushes.
My secret recipe for southern lawns (saint Augustine grass)
50# of miloganite
25# of magnesium sulfate
50# of weed and feed
Mix in wheel barrow and spread on lawn
Grass will be so green it looks blue
Fertilize in September and January
All fertilizers are a salt compound but not all salt compounds are fertilizers. Over fertilizing can give salt toxicity and render the land useless until corrected. Compost and other additives are supplements. They are a safer bet if you don’t know your soil requirements. The best bet is to get a soil test and see just what your soil specifically needs.
Any input?
I went out to pick up some Milorganite. Took a close look at the bag and found some disturbing information. First: On the bottom of the bag “Manufactured by: Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewage District, 260 W. Seeboth St., Milwaukee, WI 53204.” Next: In the area where it says 6-4-0 Guaranteed Analysis “Derived from Biosolids, 4.0% Nitrogen Derived from Biosolids.” I’m pretty sure, based on the manufacturer, that biosolids are...well...turds. Lastly: In the big paragraph on the back that starts with Growing Beautiful Lawns, Trees, Shrubs and Flowers since 1926 “WARNING: This product can expose you to chemicals, including lead, known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.” Kind of scary. I did not buy it.
Is it poop in a bag?
No. It’s been a common misconception that Milorganite is “poop in a bag.” Milorganite is composed of microbes that have eaten well, died, and been dried. Microbes eat the organic material found in wastewater, die when they have nothing else to eat, and are heat-dried at temperatures up to 1200⁰F. Milorganite complies with all applicable federal and state requirements. It’s safe to use throughout your yard and garden when used as directed.
What is a biosolid?
Biosolids are residual microbes that have digested nutrients out of sewage waste streams. The EPA regulates biosolids using two tiers: tier one allows non-food use and tier two, the Exceptional Quality designation, allows use on vegetables and fruits and is given to biosolids with minuscule amounts of heavy metals and pathogens. Milorganite has consistently received Exceptional Quality designation from the EPA since the guidelines were created in 1993.
I see that stupid California warning on all kinds of things. I think they put that on anything that has detectable (but harmless) amounts of certain chemicals. Also, the way that warning reads in some places, it sounds like it's only harmful in California.
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