Choosing the right fertilizer
Does growing organic mean skipping fertilizers altogether? Not in my garden- you just gotta choose the right one.
While it may be tempting to buy the jug featuring the cool skull and crossbones on it, um… yikes. Reach for the fish fertilizer instead.
Just drop by your hardware or gardening shop and look for a jug of the liquid stuff. All you gotta do is mix a bit into your water jug and water your plants like you always do. You can pay a bit extra to get the kind that doesn’t stink, but I like the stinky stuff ’cause it brings the cats a-runnin’, so save your pennies.
You’ll see a series of three numbers on the label. Those numbers represent the amount of nutrients in the fertilizer.
Here’s what you really need to know: the first number is for developing leafy greens, the second number is for developing fruit and flowers, the third number is for developing roots. So if you’re looking for a fertilizer for your root crops, look for one that has a high third number. For lettuce, you want a high first number. For tomatoes, the first and second numbers are the most important, and so on.
Now here’s the crazy thing: all save-the-world-soapboxing aside, organic fertilizers actually work better.
I’ve tried 20-20-20 before because I thought it would be a juicy all-purpose option. I inherited a left-over container from a friend, in case you’re wondering. 20-20-20 is always an artificially derived powder-based fertilizer, and I found the results were… ok. I used it on my flowers and they perked up a bit, but not a whole lot.
When I tried a fish fertilizer that had much smaller numbers, like 2-3-0, my plants jumped up like frogs in a dynamite pond. Even though the nutrient values were more moderate, the results were much better. My guess is that the fish fertilizer contains a whole bunch of other micro-nutrients and stuff that plants need, so not only is it a natural, organic source or nutrition, but it’s way more effective.
The moral of the story is: 20-20-20 bad, fish fertilizer good. Of course, if you’re vegetarian, vegan or have sensitives to seafood, you’ll want to skip the fish stuff.
Instead, another great option is Gaia’s Alfalfa meal. This one needs to be worked into the soil, but it’s approved for organic food production. The entire Gaia line-up is rock solid, so rock on my fellow gardeners. Rock on.
No comments yet.
Leave a comment
Cracked Pot Pix
