I bought organic fertilizer

[Southern Gardener]

at Home Depot. I've never see it sold there until I went in last night to buy a soaker hose. Plant-tone - $9.97 for an 8lb bag. The directions say 1 cup around each veggie plant every month. That will get very pricey and my garden isn't big compared to some. I'm curious if everyone puts their organic fertilizer on each plant every month? The only thing I fertilized last night were my squash plants. :/

 

[digitS']

1 cup = 1/3 pound for my chicken feed . . . DW has been willing to allow me the use of 1 of her cups to weigh my organic fertilizer . I'd guess it is about the same.

If I looked at the right product, Plant-tone is a 5-3-3 fertilizer.

I don't like to skimp on organic fertilizer when I put it on for most crops. Really, all vegetables are heavy feeders with the exception of legumes and even they need a little help getting started. Mostly, the difference in nutrient needs between a radish and a zucchini is the length of time they are in the ground and the size of the plants.

Let's say that you are growing corn. You want LOTS of corn and need 200 pounds of nitrogen for your acre of corn. Since you are using a 5% nitrogen fertilzer, you would need to apply 4,000 pounds of fertilizer, or 2 tons, for your acre of corn.

I put about 4 pounds on a 100 square foot bed (or 40 lbs/1,000 sq ft).

At 1/3 pound per 1 cup, that's 12 cups to 100 square feet. If I had a half-dozen zucchini plants in that bed, 12 cups might be okay. If I had 50 corn plants, or 100 corn plants, I certainly would NOT toss on 1 cup per plant!!

Let's say it is 6 zucchini plants and I expected the first fruit in 6 weeks, then another 6 weeks of production -- applying fertilizer twice seems reasonable. How about if I gave them a cup of fertilizer at first and another cup after about 1 month? That should about do it.

Soil temperature and plant growth rate will make a difference in the need for fertilizer. It hardly makes sense to work fertilizer into the soil when it is only a few degrees above freezing and then apply it again in 30 days after it has warmed to 45 and we are still waiting for our first radish. However, if the weather and soil are very warm and everything else is encouraging plant growth, it wouldn't be so good to allow the plants use up all the available nutrients, then go hungry.

Steve

 

[obsessed]

Make a search for the organic fertilizer post from Mother Earth News. I have been using it for this year and it seems to be doing the trick. I use a plastic dish that I got from like potato salad and I sprinkle it when I remember but it is longer than a month. But I am lazy.

 

[vfem]

I have compost I use and I'm happy with that... but I do buy plant-tone and use it on occasion when my compost is not ready, or I used it all. I happen to really like it... they have a plant-tone mix for Roses and one for acid loving plants (holly-tone) I used it for my azeleas and blueberries.... but I still add coffee grounds as well.

It will be expensive if you were to use it on a large garden area though. I would chose to be cheap and only use it on my long season producers like my tomatoes and peppers. Not to bother with beans, peas or greens.

Just a suggestion.

 

[digitS']

You can think of the N-P-K a little like this:

The K is potassium and the plant needs this for the same reason our bodies need potassium. It is important in maintaining fluid balance in the body cells.

The P is phosphorus. In our bodies and in plants, cells use this mineral as part of their structure. It combines with calcium in bones.

N is nitrogen. About 16% of protein is nitrogen. The green chlorophyll in a plant is made up mostly of carbon & oxygen (which the plant gets on its own), water, magnesium (it may need some help there), and nitrogen. This is why a plant will "yellow" if it has inadequate nitrogen. Green leaves need nitrogen.

An advantage/disadvantage of organic fertilizers is that they may be rather "slow release." They are like compost in that way but the nutrients are likely to be much more concentrated than in compost. A very good compost may be a .5-.5-.5, in N-P-K, whereas an organic fertilizer may be a 5-5-5. So, that means it has 10 times the value in those nutrients.

If you are willing to pay $2 for a 20 pound bag of compost, you may feel comfortable paying $20 for a 20 pound bag of organic fertilizer.

Anyway, the fertilizer I use has bone meal as a source of phosphorus. I really doubt if much of that P is available to the plants in the 1st season but it is available for more than 1 season. To a certain extent, this is also true with the N & K.

Steve

Looking back over what I wrote yesterday about an average garden being less than a tenth of an acre! That choked me up when I read that! Yeah, less than a tenth . . . and a good deal less than that, too! Anyway, I'm going back and delete that . . . sorry!

 

[Southern Gardener]

Steve, thanks for the great information. My squash plants are on the yellowish side and yellow = lack of nitrogen.

My garden is 46x26 = 1196 square feet. So I'd need about 6 8lb bags of fertilizer @ $10.87 = $65.22. :/ I think I'm with V - I think I'll go cheap and start another compost bin.

 

[hoodat]

You can think of the N-P-K a little like this:

The K is potassium and the plant needs this for the same reason our bodies need potassium. It is important in maintaining fluid balance in the body cells.

The P is phosphorus. In our bodies and in plants, cells use this mineral as part of their structure. It combines with calcium in bones.

N is nitrogen. About 16% of protein is nitrogen. The green chlorophyll in a plant is made up mostly of carbon & oxygen (which the plant gets on its own), water, magnesium (it may need some help there), and nitrogen. This is why a plant will "yellow" if it has inadequate nitrogen. Green leaves need nitrogen.

An advantage/disadvantage of organic fertilizers is that they may be rather "slow release." They are like compost in that way but the nutrients are likely to be much more concentrated than in compost. A very good compost may be a .5-.5-.5, in N-P-K, whereas an organic fertilizer may be a 5-5-5. So, that means it has 10 times the value in those nutrients.

If you are willing to pay $2 for a 20 pound bag of compost, you may feel comfortable paying $20 for a 20 pound bag of organic fertilizer.

Anyway, the fertilizer I use has bone meal as a source of phosphorus. I really doubt if much of that P is available to the plants in the 1st season but it is available for more than 1 season. To a certain extent, this is also true with the N & K.

Steve

Looking back over what I wrote yesterday about an average garden being less than a tenth of an acre! That choked me up when I read that! Yeah, less than a tenth . . . and a good deal less than that, too! Anyway, I'm going back and delete that . . . sorry!

Speaking of bone meal don't forget to bury your steak and pork chop bones. I "plant them a foot deep or more so the animals do't get a whiff of them and they aren't in the way when I till. It takes a long time for them to break down but they eventually do. Fish bones break down faster and can even be added to the compost pile.