The concept of throwing fertilizer at soil comes from the synthetic gardening people and should not be part of organic growing. A good reliable soil test will give you the information you need about the soil you have, soil pH, levels of Phosphorus, Potash, Calcium, and Magnesium and how balanced they are. A soil with adequate levels of organic matter, about 6 to 8 percent, should have adequate levels of nutrients and good ph.

do I need to add fertilizer at all? All the things I read say things like "Such and such vegetable benefits from N applications every 3 weeks during flowering/fruiting/etc." "Onions need such and such to bulb."

You are using the word fertilizer as if it can only be an evil synthetic. :) Not true.

Once you get your soil test back then it "might" indicate the need for some supplemental nitrogen as it can dissipate over time. IF some fertilizer is needed for a specific crop, for whatever nutrient, then there are all kinds of organic fertilizers available.

Ideally, with time, good soil care with compost amending results in very fertile soil. But it does take time for the active soil food web to develop - seasons worth in many cases. So in the interim, explore the world of organic fertilizers.

Dave

I am planning on adding a lot of compost and organic material, trying out vermicomposting (I'm saving up my kitchen scraps while waiting for my worms to arrive!), and testing the soil, but what kinds of organic fertilizers do you all use? Don't worry about the availability, I live in Colorado Springs, and the marijuana grow stores abound, so I can pretty much get my hands on anything I want. HA!"

If there's one thing I could say to help you, it would be dont buy any of these products, it's a money game. You could get even better results with your own homeade fertilizers, research how to make compost, leachates, compost teas. All these things bring in everything that your soil needs. Generally, Your soil needs your homeade compost and compost teas, your soil does not need the expensive magic potion fertilizer,etc that these nursery or grow shops make it out. They are in for the money, not your soil health. Research Dr.Ingham Ingham, she is a soil scientist for the USDA, she should have some idea..

Instead of buying these products in bottles at the grow shops, spend your time and money getting good local animal manure for your compost, and even good compost or soil for the garden. My friend works at a farm, i get as much free manure as i please. Actually, urban organics, the makers of sweetpeet(extremmly expensive bagged compost) come over to his farm and take all the manure to make their products to sell.. im getting the same product for free.

"In it for the money" is true for most things the consumer deals with but that doesn't mean the quality of every organic fertilizer product should be written off as nothing but a scam or a "magic potion".

What your soil may need in the way of additives and supplements all depends on the quality of your native soil to begin with. That quality is most definitely NOT the same for all.

So while nothing but homemade compost and compost teas is needed may very well be true for your Ohio soil, it isn't true for all.

Not to mention that not all have access to local manure supplies (thus the need for Urban Organics and similar companies) and not all compost is created equal. So the quality of the compost also needs to be considered.

Dave

Thanks for all the input guys! I realize that the crux of organic gardening is the condition and care of the soil. That's part of why I'm so interested in it. I am working on a compost pile, but my yard is not huge, and getting the materials is a little hard. But I have a few trees and grass clippings and no shortage of newspapers, so that helps. My husband is going to freak when I borrow his truck to go get poop from the stable this week. Maybe if I hose it out really well he won't notice...

I guess what I was asking is does anyone put anything extra besides the normal compost and manure at certain times during your plants' life cycles (onion bulb time, tomato flower and fruit set)? Or is whatever nutrients in the soil in spring enough for the whole season? By fertilizers, I don't mean some special mix or brand. I'm talking about normal stuff, all the meals, rock phosphate, etc.

You could use an inoculate at planting. Everytime i plant i try to brew up some compost tea, or throw some inoculant, even just compost at planting.

Some bury fish or veggie scrapes next to the plants.. Anything like that.. But, Be careful with the fish scraps, rodents will dig up your plants. They ruined my garden a few years back.

vermicompost will give all the nutrients you require. However it takes a long time to get a good worm composter going and you will only get small quantities at first, unless you have sent for a massive amount of worms to start up with.
I have a worm city composter which has 25ltr trays and after six months the worms have multiplied to give me 25 ltrs every three months. Mixed at 10% this is only enough to fertilize a 250 liter raised bed (1m x 1M x 1/4m)
I use mine for my greenhouse plants so do not require large amounts, I produce enough to fertilize around 30 tomatoes, 6 melons, 4 cucumbers , 30 strawberry plants and 4 small fruit trees to give a fantastic flavour.
Happy growing

Or is whatever nutrients in the soil in spring enough for the whole season?

As a very general rule, no, not IMO. Some crops, by nature, require supplemental feedings at specific times. But it also depends on your soil and how long you have been developing your soil. New organic gardens may need some pH adjusting for example. My native soil is very alkaline so I have to annually treat it with sulfur. My soil is also very low MG so I have to supplement it with epsom salts.

But even once you have a good handle on your soil you still have to monitor the plants. Regular side dressing most all plants with compost throughout the season is especially beneficial, watering some plants with compost tea every couple of weeks as fruit set happens, addressing specific N needs like corn and onions with a side dressing of alfalfa or blood meal, etc.

So even though my gardens are many years old, if I only amended my garden soil in the spring and expected every thing to do fine all season I'd really be fooling myself.

Dave

When I started gardening here, some 40 years ago, the first soil test told me this soil had a pH of 5.7 and had low optimum levels of Phosphorus and Potash and the balance of Calcium to Magnesium was out of balance (Mg way low).l After adding nothing but compost and other forms of organic matter another soil test told me the soils pH was now 7.2 and P, K, Ca, and Mg were in high optimum levels and in balance. No "fertilizers" were used, no remineralization was done nothing except adding that compost and other forms of organic matter. People
I correspond with all over the world tell me they have seen the same, or very similar, results, although this does involve adding more Organic Matter to soil then Ma Nature usually does annually. This does involve adding more
Organic Matter then many gardeners do each year.
If the soil is properly prepared before gardening begins there will be no need to "(side dress) or other wise supplement feed the plants during the growing season.

Apologies if someone already mentioned it...
since there's plenty of 'add compost' type replies, I thought it worth mentioning:
my understanding is that finished compost always reflects the mineral make-up of its source material's soil.
So unless the local soil isn't deficient in anything (which would be pretty unusual) it's worth bringing things in from other locations.
I've bought rock dust for remineralisation. A sack goes a looong way.
I'm a massive fan of seaweed, which is very mineral-rich.
Judging from your location there's probably not much near you though!
I'd say seaweed concentrate might be one of the few commercial amendments I'd buy, if I wasn't next door to a beach.

I agree feijoas. Given the wide disparity in soils not to mention the wide disparity in compost ingredients and quality I find it difficult to buy into the "that's all that is needed for the whole season" school of thought no matter how much or how often it is added to the soil.

It is great stuff, no doubt, and certainly it can do no harm. But there are simply too many other affecting variables to write off the need for other supplements now and then.

The concept of "need" is very subjective but increased plant health and increased production results from season long supplements when needed.

Dave

Bottom line is do not spend your money on things you do not need. Years ago there was a theory that you could "bank" nutrients in the soil, until research showed that excess soil nutrients were washed out of the soil into the ground water where they became pollutants.
Nutrient balance is the key healthy soil.

I don't add fertilizers to soil, actually I've never heard of it. But I do use ferts. Chicken manure is a great all around, I also use Espoma organic ferts, depending on what I'm putting it on. I only fertilize at planting time and once a year for trees and shrubs. I also use a ton of fish emulsion every couple of weeks for my tropicals, and other nitrogen loving plants, but very sparingly on veggies.

I don't add fertilizers to soil, actually I've never heard of it. But I do use ferts. Chicken manure is a great all around, I also use Espoma organic ferts, depending on what I'm putting it on. I only fertilize at planting time and once a year for trees and shrubs. I also use a ton of fish emulsion every couple of weeks for my tropicals, and other nitrogen loving plants, but very sparingly on veggies.

So what point are you trying to make? You say you don't add fertilizers and never heard of adding fertilizers to soil and then you proceed to list all the fertilizers you add - chicken manure and Espoma organic ferts ARE fertilizers.

Dave

If your planting area is already 30% compost you may not need anymore until next season, it depends on the quality of the compost. I also ditto the idea of seaweed. I have used it successfully for 40 years. I also use Super Thrive for 3-4 weeks after transplanting as it stimulates roots, but so does seaweed. I also use Spray N. Grow for the first 2 months of the season as it stimulates blooming and fruiting and seems to improve taste.

Manures are great but be advised: horses do not digest weed seeds. I learned that the hard way. I did have a great stand of wildflowers and native plants though!

I use several fertilizers as I am still experimenting. One I like for my alkaline(7.6) soil is Acid Mix, a plant based organic. It helps counteract the alkaline soil and water.

Since you are just starting there will be a learning curve. Give yourself some time. I considered myself a good organic gardener for many years and got wonderful yields of everything I tried. Then I moved to "the country" and mother nature taught me a lesson big time. Dead fruit trees, stunted veggies, fungal soil disease killing stuff, 30 mph winds shifting directions in early spring, varmints stealing what few peaches I have ever gotten. Humbling⦠but at 6 years of trying I am getting decent yields of everything pretty much as long as the varmints don't wipe me out. I kept trying. One of my store bought composts ,as it turned out, had way too much wood in it and was sucking what little nitrogen I had out of the soil. Aha, switched to a good turkey compostâ¦. major improvement.

At any rate, enjoy it and best of luck! Keep us advised of your progress and experiences. I only tried gardening in Colorado one season and we had to move before anything really got going.

I fertilize plants Dave, plants that are in the soil. Do you fertilize soil without plants in it?

Do you fertilize soil without plants in it?

Of course. All my gardens get compost and composted manures worked into them long before anything is planted in it and again in the fall after harvesting everything. They also get rotations of cover crops that get tilled in to the soil long before anything is planted.

And the containers all get a good amount of various organic fertilizers mixed in with the potting mix before planting any thing in them.

Dave

I understand, I guess it's just a difference in semantics. I refer to those as amendments and have always heard them referred to them as such. I was wondering why nobody was answering the littlelizzie's questions about fertilizers.

Another great amendment/"fertilizer" is leaf mold. I make a ton of it every year. I also steal all of my neighbor's leaves, because I use leaves to protect all of the many non-hardies I grow.

That was my point in my first post.

You are using the word fertilizer as if it can only be an evil synthetic. :) Not true.

Anything that improves the soils fertility is a 'fertilizer'.

So all the great 'soil amendments' like compost, leaf mold, composted manures, etc. - that improve the soil's texture, tilth, water management abilities, nutrient levels and availability, etc. are also 'fertilizers'.

Dave

Great discussion.

I second (third?) the idea of seaweed -- the best way to add it is to use it as an excuse for a trip to the beach (IF you're closer to a coast than the OP is)
Bring a big sheet out onto the beach, lay it flat and fill it with seaweed, then pull the corners together and drag it to your car.

It makes for excellent conversation with the folks who are sun bathing :)

If you source your own seaweed, rinse it well a few times (after harvest, and a time or two after it dries out a little bit) to get the salinity of it down a bit.

also, it's technically not legal in many areas to harvest seaweed, because it's part of the natural soil/erosion protection scheme...but even with laws in place very few municipalities enforce it on people harvesting seaweed.

"That's part of why I'm so interested in it. I am working on a compost pile, but my yard is not huge, and getting the materials is a little hard. But I have a few trees and grass clippings and no shortage of newspapers, so that helps. My husband is going to freak when I borrow his truck to go get poop from the stable this week. Maybe if I hose it out really well he won't notice"

I used to live in Falcon- there are sources for what you're looking for. Keep an eye on Craigslist and Freecycle. If you don't have any trees, watch for OPBL (other people's bagged leaves). After Halloween watch for churces getting rid of their straw bales from their "harvest" parties. Watch for homeowners getting rid of decorative straw bales after Thanksgiving. Horses are pretty plentiful as you probably know- some places are nice and will use the tractor to load for you. Some places out east have goats or alpaca as well. Starbucks for coffee grounds (some others save them as well- there's a roaster just east of I-25 I can't remember the name of right now, but they gave me grounds and chaff. For quite a while I had an arrangement with someone who raised rabbits in the next neighborhood over.

I think the zoo sells it as "Zoo Doo" and it goes fast and for $$$. I might be thinking of a different zoo somewhere else we've lived though.

If you're interested, I'll add the link to my blog. It's not updated (and I don't live in CO anymore). Also, if you haven't already, check out the Rocky Mtn Gardening forum here on GW.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tales of a Transplanted Gardener

another idea for compost ingredients: feed store hay sweepings

In my area feed stores allow you to scoop up their sweepings. One stores it in a dumpster & another in a 3 sided concrete bin that is much easier to load up. Most of it here is straw with some leafy bits of alfalfa hay or orchard grass. I've used it for years without creating a weed problem. I've learned it works really well as winter mulch as long as I pull it back in spring to allow the soil to warm. If left on it keeps it too cold.