organic fertilizer for amateur gardeners

[Jeff Thies]

I'm getting the garden ready, seeds are started.

I'd like to do just organic fertilizer this year. It's not easy to find, Miracle Grow has one, as did one other brand that I don't recognize. These seem to be have little to no K and P and are almost all N.

Since I'm a city boy, what should I be looking for? I'm just growing the usual "garden variety" veggies. Tomatoes, assorted cucurbits and a few blueberries and a peach.

Wally World has a product called Earthgro Organic Humus and Manure, that's .05 .05 .05 at $1.50 for 40 pound bag. Consistency looks good in that it doesn't seem to have much, if any, wood in it. Soil (Atlanta Ga) is still clayey (particularly if I go down a foot). I've used up the mulch.

Should I amend heavily with this? Will I need more fertilizer later? To start with?

Jeff

[Billy]

Tomatoes: 18 lbs chicken manure/100 sq. ft. Do not fertilize after flowering. Cucurbits: "organic" fish emulsion, per label

[David Hare-Scott]

Look for a dried chicken manure product. Make your own compost. Take a drive out of town and look for bagged horse/cow manure. Look for urban stables that sell their bedding.

David

[Jeff Thies]

I don't believe I have ever seen this anywhere, in any form. And I live in a state that raises a lot of chickens. Perhaps I need to look much farther out. Certainly not within 20 miles.

This, I think I can find.

Jeff

[Tom J]

You can find all kinds of organic fertilizer in the Georgia Farmer's Market Bulletin. It's free to Georgia residents, so order your own personal subscription.

In the meantime, here are the current ads:

J

[Jeff Thies]

No chicken manure though (wait I did find one 60 miles out)...

I did note that aside from this individual:

Aged horse manure: $20 a scoop, $30 a pickup truck load.

Most people just want to get rid of their manure!

Jeff

[Billy]

If you can't find chicken manure (the mind boggles), see if you can find one of these: Manure Chicken Diary cow Horse Steer Rabbit Sheep N 1.1 .257 .70 .70 2.4 .70 P .80 .15 .30 .30 1.4 .30 K .50 .25 .60 .40 .60 .90

Manure Alfalfa Fish Emulsion N 3 5 P 1 1 K 2 1

If you can find steer manure, divide .7 into 1.1 = 1.57 Then mutiply the 18 lbs of chicken manure that you would have used 18 X

1.57 to get 28 lbs of steer manure/100 sq. ft. to approximate your nitrogen needs.