Thursday, May 6, 2010
Organic Fertilizer
I just recently moved into a place with my own yard-so this year I have planted a nice big garden. One that is comparable in size and plant types to the one me and my father had always had when I was little. But the one thing I am interested in changing is the fertilizer. I know growing up we had always used 10-10-10. All fertilizers have three numbers on the label which indicate the fertilizer analysis, or "percentage by weight" of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, in that order. Therefore, a 50 pound bag of fertilizer labeled 20-10-5 would contain 20% nitrogen (10 pounds), 10% available phosphates (5 pounds), and 5% soluble potash (2.5 pounds). I wanted to be truly natural since I have planted seeds from a seed exchange put out by Clemson and sold at Angel Oak nursery. I do remember a few years my dad had tried cow manure and chicken manure (which always smelled foul) but they did not seem to give the plants the boost that the combination fertilizers had. I did notice Mr. Ambrose used chicken manure on his crops. So I have been looking around for alternatives. I found a really cool website:http://www.the-organic-gardener.com/organic-fertilizer.html. This site gives good information on various organic gardening topics from fertilizing to mulch. One product Im interested in is called Milorganite which is composed of heat dried microbes and contains organic nitrogen and environmentally friendly phosphorous. Im still learning about what to use and Im sure it will be a matter of trial and error. I would be interested to see how much of an impact this fertilizer would make by maybe only treating half of the garden.
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