I am not quite sure where you are getting your idea... of course fertilization is okay. Uh, MY humble opinion is that Americans do some OVER fertilizing.... we are programmed to have perfect large veggie/flowers... like miracle gro. But there's certainly nothing wrong with fertilizing.

I think you misunderstand "organic fertilization" - staying organic doesn't mean NO fertilizing, it means no fast acting synthetic chemicals

the object is to feed the soil organisms organics [compost or other "natural" fertility boosting amendments], so that there's a constant source of organic nutrients for the microherd to convert to mineral nutrients as the plants need them and can make use of them

any soil, even a good rich loam, will deplete eventually with intensive croping and no additions, so yes, compost is the answer - feed the soil, not the plants

Bill

If you are planning on growing and removing anything - eg any veggies, lowers et - you are going to be removing a significant amount of nutrients. Even if you took everything growing in the soil and let it decompose in place, you would lose a certain amount of nutrients as gas produced by the organisms that break down the organic matter.

If you want to garden organically, you have 2 basic options for breaking that cycle. The first is to bring in organic matter from outside your yard (organic fertilizer, compost etc) to replace those nutrients. The second it to utilize any of the popular cover crops in the clover or legume family that have the remarkable abilility to fix nitrogen from the surround air. If you are growing a small veggie or flower garden, it is probably easiest to just bring in some compost or organic fertilizer. If you are growing acres and acres of crops, that won't be economically feasible and you will have to plan a season of cover crop in your rotation.

Have you read all the FAQs on this forum?

Some consider using fertilizer of any kind to be a 'no-no' because the idea is to improve the soil to the point the soil does everything a plant needs.

I consider this both realistic and ignorant.

First, ordinary yard dirt simply cannot support much without added fertility. An organic program that focuses on adding organic material in large amounts can, after several years, produce a soil capable of sustaining most plants without any supplemental fertilizer, but this is not to say no supplementation.

The term fertilizer is kind of a wierd term. It means to put nutrients into the soil that the plants can use.

Those who advocate no fertilizer don't mean do nothing, they mean add lots of compost to the soil.

Compost, in large amounts, will provide enough fertility for nearly anything after several years.

Is compost a fertilizer? Well, it could be viewed as such under this approach.

For a perennial bed, compost alone is usually enough. For native plants, it is more than enough. For annual flowers that require fairly high fertility to bloom all season it may not be enough. For veggies that are removed from the soil, it isn't.

Some added fertility will be required for annuals and veggies (usually annuals). This can be done with nothing but compost, but the results of this approach seem to vary based upon native soil type. Mostly clay and it works out. Mostly sand and you would need dumptruck loads for it to work out.

A general rule of thumb is any bed that plants remain in can be taken care of with compost alone, but it may take a few years of adding compost before it only takes compost.

Any bed that sees plants removed from the soil every year or less will require something more. That something more could be more compost or it could be fertilizer.

If you get your soil built up into a good, rich, fertile condition so it has a well balanced source of nutrinets for your plants to grow strong and healthy you will find that you no longer need "fertilizers". The whole concept of "fertilizing" is based on the idea that plants need annual applications of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potash (NPK) to grow. Organic gardeners know that plants need much more than that and try to add materials that will make all of the nutrients available in ways that the soil bacteria can make them available to the plants, as athe plants need them, not so nutrients are not so readily available, ie. soluble, that the nutrients simply flow through the soil into the growund water adding to the pollution we already have.
Once you get your soil into that good, healthy state you simply will no longer need "fertilizers".

I have volunteers from my compost and from being lazy and letting veggies rot in the fall... my dirt MUST be pretty healthy, because I have a HUGE crop of tomatillos growing up in soil that I didn't compost this year... they're all lush and flowering, almost the healthiest looking plants I've got. They are growing with no fertilization of any type this year.

However, tomatillos are the craziest weeds of all time. The triffids and Audrie2 are both descendant of the tomatillo.

no way! :D Okay... I will let you have your little humor. Tomatillos don't harm people... they are good plants, and they AREN'T mobile.

Username, could you describe what you mean by ordinary yard dirt? Because I don't believe there is any such thing.

Not to mention the remarkable range in requirements and/or adaptability of plants. For instance, I have currently a sage plant growing fantastically in unamended builder's sand. It's on its third year, and over four feet wide. Once in a while I take a leak on it - other than that it gets rain.

A zuccini or tomato plant probably wouldn't produce quite so well in that soil, but the sage plant doesn't necessarily like rich soil. On the other hand, I second the observation that often the best-growing plants of any given season are unexpected and generally un-fertilized. IME, adaquate sun and rain are a lot more important than introduced fertilizer.