Subject: Re: organic fertilizers (TSC recipe)

From: Travis Saling <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 9 Nov 1995 22:09:45 -0800

After reading YET ANOTHER advertisement which really shouldn't be posted
to Usenet, I figured I'd promulgate the organic fertilizer recipe that
Territorial Seed/Steve Solomon have been recommending for years.  I've had
good results with this for all types of plants, over the past four years.

   4   parts  seedmeal (Cottonseed, Alfalfa, etc.)
   1   part   lime (Dolomite or Calcite)
   1/2 part   bonemeal -OR- 1 part rock phosphate
   1/2 part   kelpmeal

- Seedmeal provides nitrogen
- The lime offsets the acidity of the seedmeal.
- It takes more rock phosphate than bonemeal to provide an equivalent
  amount of available phosphorus
- Kelpmeal proived potassium, as well as micronutrients
- All parts are by volume
- For late summer, Steve Solomon (who founded Territorial) advocates 
  dropping the seedmeal to 2 parts, and increasing the kelp to 1 part

Organic fertilizers need to be worked into the soil under and/or around a 
plant, because they have to be broken down by soil bacteria before the 
nutrients become available.  Use 1 cup under heavy feeders (like a hill 
of squash or cucumber vines); 1/4-1/2 cup under tomatoes, peppers, 
broccoli; for veggies like lettuce I work about 1/2 cup under each row 
across my raised beds (that's maybe 5 feet).

If you live where the soil gets hot, the fertilizer will break down more 
quickly; but here in the Pacific Northwest, one feeding when you sow or 
transplant will probably last through the season.

In the spring, you might want to add a little bloodmeal, which is more 
water soluble (and therefore provides nitrogen better in chilly soil).

If you buy those little boxes, this will be VERY expensive.  I buy 40-50
pound bags at the feed store.  In that size, seedmeal is roughly $13, lime
is $3, bonemeal maybe $10, kelpmeal $35 (ouch!).  It lasts for years if
it's kept dry. Bloodmeal was about $30/50 pounds when I bought a bag 4 
years ago; I still haven't used half of it.

Travis