Fertilizers and pesticides are very different. Plants require various nutrients, just like humans and animals do. Whether the nutrients are from an organic source or synthetic source the stuff that enters the plant is identical.

Having said that, whether adding lime and 10-10-10 makes sense for your garden is something a soil test would reveal. Lime adds calcium and raises soil pH. I wouldn't use it just for calcium, I would make sure your soil's pH would actually benefit from being raised a bit over time.

The 10-10-10 fertilizer is the synthetic equivalent of adding a bunch of compost or manure to a garden. It is a shotgun approach intended to make sure all the bases are covered in terms of the macro nutrients.

You can provide all of your plants needs either organically or with synthetic fertilizers just fine. Where organic matter really shines is it's ability to improve your soil's structure and water/air retention characteristics over time and with repeated use.

You asked what we do. In my case my raised beds are 30-40% compost and I use a little soybean meal for it's nitrogen. That's it.

If you use a synthetic fertilizer, are you really gardening organically?

That would have to be no. If gardening organically is important to you (and that's an if, of course, because certainly people do use Miracle Gro on their gardens and get good yields), then synthetic fertilizers are one of the first things you should find a way to drop.

justaguy2: Thank you for that explanation. I guess I just had it stuck in my head that synthetic fertilizer = chemical, and chemical = bad.

If you think back to high school biology class you will recall photosynthesis. If the plants are provided with rich soil and enough water, fertilizers are really not needed. Plants make there own food from water, carbon & the sun.

I do fertilize on occasion and only use fish fertilizer as it builds your soil well giving your plants a boost. One other thing to consider is with fertilizer prices sky rocketing last year the organic fertilizers are basically the same price as the synthetic ones. I would however suggest concentrating on building your soil with compost, blood meal, bone meal & green sand.

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By organically, I mean are you adding potentially harmful (in large enough quantities) ingredients into your soil? How does Miracle Grow differ from a pesticide?

Good questions tho as much as I personally dislike MG, (a commercial for it is running on TV as I write) I wouldn't equate it to a pesticide, not even to a herbicide. ;) If used according to label directions it is likely safe and many report success with it. My personal antipathy to it is based on what I consider its grossly misleading advertising.

And I think it is important to keep in mind that it is almost as easy to over-use and abuse organic fertilizers as it is chemically based ones. Runoff, soil contamination, plant problems can just as easily result from organics if used indiscriminately.

What do all of you do?

Like JAG, I use lots of compost. I also used well composted manure, some foliar feeding, some Epsom salts and Tomato Tone or similar product in the hole at planting time, and lots of compost tea throughout the season. But I have also used Peters (similar to MG) as well as other chemical ferts now and then in fertigation with my soaker hose system.

It doesn't have to be an either/or situation. ;)

Dave

Personally, I didn't think I could get the soil up to snuff the first year so I did add some 10-10-10 along with a whole lot of manure, but I hope to build the soil up with compost next year so that I do not require it.

I think you can benefit from the organic methods, which will give you a rich soil that will provide vitamins/nutrients for your veggies, pesticide free, without being strict about it.

MG is nothing more than small amounts of water-dissolvable commercial-quality fertilizers, dye, and a huge price markup. There's not much "new science" or lab weirdness going on with the stuff.

It's pretty harmless to everything if used properly. Over the years mixes with high P concentrations might not be so friendly, though. I think it's good stuff (besides slow release prills of fertilizer) for containers.

I hate MG's bagged soil mixes, but that's another story.

I use a mix of approaches when it comes to fertilizing. Soils in western Washington tend to be very nutrient poor - at least in terms of Nitrogen. Many of the trace elements are hard for the plants to use due to low soil temps, poor structure, etc. So, although I tend to use organic approaches (especially by avoiding synthetic pesticides) I will use something like 10-10-10 once in a while, especially early in the year when soils are cool and organic processes are very slow.
One of the problems with inorganic fertilizers is that the nitrogen is very liable to leaching into the water. Organic fertilizers are much better at not releasing a flood of nitrogen into the watertables, rivers and lakes.

Thank you for your input. What I think I'll do is go with 1/2 compost, 1/8 peat, 1/8 vermiculite, 1/4 topsoil, and add Garden Tone at planting time. Then I'll check the pH and nutrient levels throughout the summer to see where I'm lacking and respond appropriately.

Sure, synthetic fertilizers are easy and available and give good results, but forget for a moment the end result in YOUR vegetable garden and look at the bigger picture...

Not only do fossil fuels make up some of the components of synthetic fertilizers, large quantities of fossil fuels are used during the production and transport of the product.

Using synthetic fertilizers is not a sustainable gardening method. You should consider that when making your decision.

Folks who have to buy organic fertilizers/manures in a bag etc are also buying a product that requires fossil fuels during the production and transport.

Not everyone has acreage and farms :)

I use generic chemical fertilizer on my lawn, then collect and compost the clippings. I then fertilize the veg garden with compost. If this doesn't count as organic, I may never get any closer. If organic fertilizer's for the lawn are ever remotely equivalent to chem, I'll switch.

Do all of the ingredients of compost have to be organic for compost to be "organic."

If organic fertilizer's for the lawn are ever remotely equivalent to chem, I'll switch.

I have been fertilizing my lawn (Kentucky Blue Grass) with nothing more than soybean meal applied at the rate of 10-20lbs per 1,000 sq ft for years.

Spreads like a dream in a broadcast or drop spreader.

I'm sorry - I left out the word "cost." If the cost is ever equivalent. By your recommendations, I'd need 300-600lbs of soybean meal to fertilize my 200x150 lawn. What would that cost me?

Haven't looked at grain meal prices this year (or the synthetic lawn ferts). Historically it has cost me about the same as using Turf Builder.

If you have a grain mill/farm coop near you they are the place to go. They will grind it for you and put it in large bags and away you go.

I have young kids and we always can find a neighbor to freak out as I spread the soybean meal (they don't know what it is) and one of the little ones will run into the spray, dip their hand into the hopper and eat some. This has started a couple interesting conversations over the years ;)

In my garden, I try to fertilize responsibly. I build the soil when I can, (spring and fall), and fertilize when I must, (Late summer).

I only fertilize the lawn to improve the quality of the clippings for composting. Healthier lawn helps keep weeds down too.

Synthetic fertilizers like 10-10-10 will not harm you. As noted above, they are not to be confused with pesticides (not that these necessarily will harm you either -- but that is a much more complicated issue). There are reasons not to use them, some which are mentioned above: problems about sustainability (they are made from oil or gas ultimately); they are like a quick fix for plants; it has been argued that plants grown with them do not have the nutrient levels of those grown with organic fertilizers (by which I mean non-synthetic ones); it is said they ruin the soil. But all these claims must be looked at in context. If you use cottonseed meal, for example, it will have been grown, probably using synthetic fertilizers and pesticides; it is heavy and must be trucked from where cotton is grown -- so who knows which comes out on top in regards to sustainability. They are a quick fix for plants, and organic fertilizers that release nutrients more slowly are preferable, but some plants like to get a lot of nutrients quickly and some need a lot. As for nutrient levels in food, if you under fertilize with organic fertilizers or the nutrients are unbalanced you could easily have the same result -- there is some sad looking organic produce sold at farmers markets. They will only ruin the soil if this is the only input to the soil you make, but you are adding compost and if you do this and use a synthetic fertilizer in reasonable amounts you should have no problems. The bottom line: don't beat yourself up on this. Sounds like what you are doing will work just fine. If you like, try different methods on the same kinds of plants and see what, if any difference, it makes.

Some folks claim that chemical fertilizers are unsustainable, but replacing them with kelp and fish-meal is in no way sustainable either. There's only so much kelp, rock phosphate, manure and fish! Fortunately, while fossil fuels are used to make fertilizer, they are not REQUIRED.

Urea is one of the main synthetic fertilizers, and is popular because it has the most N per pound of any fertilizer, resulting in the lowest transportation costs. Now urea is made by dissociating natural gas to get hydrogen, then reacting the hydrogen with nitrogen from air to make ammonia, then ammonia is reacted with carbon dioxide to produce urea. This process did start with natural gas, a fossil fuel, but the next step is hydrogen - which can be obtained in other ways that are sustainable, such as electrolysis or methane from bio-reactors could be used. There is nothing inherently un-renewable or un-sustainable about the process, natural gas is just the cheapest feedstock at the moment. It maybe sounds kind of icky, but organic fertilizers come from a cow's rectum...

Frankly, I believe that 'organic' is not about sustainability or health, but mainly a marketing campaign to justify higher priced local food. There are some good points, regarding soil health and whatnot, but much of it is also baseless superstition. As with anything, keep the good parts, dump the bad parts, rinse and repeat and gradually the world becomes a better place.

I agree, the important parts of the organic methods are to amend soil to keep it healthy, and to avoid use of pesticides unless you must use them. Everything else about it is religion.

You know what's funny? When I started this post, I figured it would get a few responses and then disappear. I'm happily surprised it has garnered so much attention, because I needed a real world education on this topic. The only problem is that I spelled "synthetic" wrong in the first post! Coming from someone who prides himself in accurate grammar and spelling, this is embarrassingly ironic. Regardless...

I agree most with the last couple of posts... plants need nutrients to reach their full potential... how those nutrients are delivered IS a matter of religion. They can be fed "organically" (use of this term is clearly up for a larger debate), or "synthetically". Either way, the nutrients are being delivered. Personally, I like the idea of low maintenance. Therefore, I believe I'll be using a slow release fertilizer like Garden Tone at planing time, and perhaps side dress a couple of times throughout the season. And maybe I'll try a fish emulsion or bone meal as well. It just plain amazes me that there are so many methods. The same could be said about gardening in general... so many methods, so many personalities. Keeps you tuned in, that's for sure. I still don't think my wife will ever understand..........

Well, if you want low trouble, just add enough composted manure that your organic content is 5% or so, and you won't need to fertilize much.