Organic Gardening Fertilizers
Organic Pesticide for Vege Garden?
I just planted a vege garden and its completely organic and natural. I don’t want any chemicals or ‘blood and bone’ fertilizer. Nothing with animal products. Do you know how to make a good organic pesticide that won’t kill my garden?
Ultimately you want to get to the point of not using any pesticides due to an exquisite balance in your garden eco-system and to do that is to use a few pesticides as possible and start encouraging beneficial insects, amphibians, reptiles and mammals to take up residence in your garden.
Know that all plants can lose 75% to 80% of their foliage and still be perfectly healthy. Also know that 95% of all insects out there are either beneficial or neutral to your garden and only 5% cause severe problems.
That said, be careful which pesticides you use as there are many broad spectrum organic ‘cides out there.
Soap spray made by putting 1TBL of dish detergent or better yet Fels Naptha soap into a quart of SOFT water (never use hard water for any sprays as the hardness generally nullifies the sprays). Soap sprays are excellent for controlling soft bodied insects such as aphids but you will have to spray daily through out the season for control and using insects such as ladybugs, green lacewings, etc will get you far better control with no work
Pepper and garlic sprays-these are repellents, not killers. Put 10 crushed hot peppers into a quart of water. let this steep for 2 weeks in the fridge. Strain off the peppers and than mix the pepper solution at a rate of 1TBL pepper solution to a quart of water. You can mix soap in with this to make it stick to the plants better. garlic spray is made by putting 5 to 10 crushed cloves of garlic in a quart of water and doing the same thing you did with the pepper spray. mix at the same rate and you can mix the two together along with soap.
Neem is good, follow the directions on the bottle. Neem works in several ways. It interrupts molting, it is an anti feedant and it kills eggs.
Hand picking, this is really effective for long term control and chemical free. I rely on this method almost more than any other in my 3 acre market garden. there is the ICK factor but if you are going organic you need to get over being skeerd of bugs quickly. Bug-phobias are the result of chemical companies convincing us all that all bugs are bad, need to be feared and that toxic chemicals are the only way to get rid of them. Don’t do what the poison makers want, be your own person.
The most effective pest control other than encouraging the beneficial critters to do the work for me is row covers, aka Reemay. Row covers are put over the crops and keep the insects from getting to the plants. They can be diffacault to use at first as there is a learning curve but once you have learned the ropes they are incredibly effective. I have been using them for over 14 years and would not want to garden organically without them.
Now the most important thing for a healthy garden is healthy soil and that means lots of green manures, composts that have manure in them (sorry but animal manure is one of the soil’s favorite things to eat and it is very very difficult to have healthy soil with it. it can be done but not without a very good understanding of what goes on in the soil. Check out http://www.soilfoodweb.com) healthy soil leads to healthy plants and healthy plant are not attacked by insects or diseases. Soil is the most important crop any organic grower worth her salt can grow.
Organic Gardening Fertilizers
Benefits of Using Organic Garden Fertilizer
Organic garden fertilizer is probably as old as creation itself. This is because long before the synthetic fertilizers were invented, plants mainly depended on organic matter for their succor. However, the modern generation is gradually re-awakening to their benefits after being exposed to the caustic effects of synthetic fertilizers, which are hazardous to human life and environment.
With due importance being accorded to human health and ecosystems, the future undoubtedly belongs to organic fertilizers. This is because they are safer, highly beneficial, much cheaper and easy to procure. Besides, they give much more outstanding and lasting results as compared to their synthetic counterparts.
The organic fertilizer is a must have for any domestic garden as it employs natural materials, which are beneficial for the growth of plants and does not produce any ill-effects on human health. As a result, it is readily available at all stores where gardening supplies of organic nature are sold.
Apart from this it is also easily available through compost material including household and kitchen wastes that decompose organically and animal droppings. Conversely, synthetic fertilizers are much more hazardous as far as human health and environment are concerned as they comprise harmful chemicals that initially boost the growth of plants but can prove to be detrimental in the long run.
Coming into contact with them even accidentally could prove to be fatal for a human being. Sometimes these could also result in debilitating a person for life. Repeated use of synthetic fertilizers often divests the soil of essential nutrients, while also adversely affecting the environment. However, this is not the case with organic fertilizers.
They are mild on the human and plant health but at the same time wholesome and beneficial when it comes to growing plants with their help. Organic fertilizers help the soil regain its lost strength and prepare it for gardening by replenishing it with vital nutrients. Being insoluble, they nourish the plants gradually and do not cause leaching as in the case of their caustic counterparts.
Plant dressings, as organic seaweed fertilizer, do for the plant what vitamins and minerals do for a human body. Considering the myriad benefits, it is advisable to switch to using organic garden fertilizer if you want your plants, veggies and your family to be healthy.
About the Author
Clint Sidney is a gardening enthusiast and enjoys giving information about Organic Garden Fertilizer. You can learn more about gardening at GreatGardener.eHelpshome.com.
Should I compost worms or buy organic fertilizer?
My friend thinks I should just buy a gallon of fertilizer for $45 than just composting worms in my worm bin. He said it takes too much effort for what you get when you can have a gallon that would last probably a year for a backyard garden.
I say as a long time organic farmer you need both. Unlike non Organic growing, you need a multifaceted approach to soil fertility.
The worm castings are wonderful food for your soil, so is compost (and you should have a couple of compost piles working along with the worm farm that produces worm castings.) you should also be planting cover crops that are there to be grown than turned into the soil and if you have not yet done a soil test you should do so (do not use the kits they sell at the box stores as they are wildly inaccurate as most people do not use them correctly because they do not use distilled water and if any other water is used than the results will be way off) your county extension agent should have information as to who does soil testing (they may, though fewer and fewer extension services do this any longer and they test for the not Organic farms so you have to make your own interpretation of the test and what remedies to use). A good soil test costs around $25 and is worth every penny.
My favorite liquid fertilizer is Maxi-crop, a water soluble kelp powder. You can buy an 11 ounce can of it for around $25 and it will make something like 50 gallons of juice. And because it is a powder it has a very long shelf life. if you buy a gallon of a liquid fertilizer you have about 4 to 6 months to use it all up before it becomes junk.
Using a Compost For Your Organic Garden Fertilizer