The seed meal is just a nitrogen source, you can use anything with nitrogen, like blood meal, alfafa meal, soybean meal, etc.

Rather than simply substituting one type of "fertilizer" for another, ie. Organic for Synthetic, why not spend your time, energy, and money on building up the health of your soil by adding compost and other forms or organic matter and let the Soil Food Web supply the necessary nutrients to your plants? If you get your soil into a good, healthy condition "fertilizers" are not needed.

Try Emery's Garden in Lynnwood. They carry the Dr. Earth line and cottonseed meal is one of their single ingredient products. You could alse call around to other local garden centers - Sky, Swanson's, etc. I'm pretty sure they carry Dr. Earth as well.

Dr. Earth also makes a full line of blended organic ferts as well, if you wanted to skip the effort of making your own. Solomon's book was published before many of the popular organic fertilizer lines hit the markets and your only choice was to blend your own.

btw kimmsr......you DO understand that most organic fertilizers ARE organic matter? And that they DO build up the soil food web? They are just more specific in their presentation and with measured nutrient concentrations than is compost.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dr. Earth

I began using his fertilizer recipe last year with good results. His logic is that you are replacing nutrients lost to the removal of fruits or vegetables from the garden. While I don't live in the PNW, I am able to source all of the products through a natural products supplier in my region. There surely must be suppliers in your area who cater to organic gardeners and producers. As was mentioned many other times, these products are much cheaper per unit weight if purchased in 50# quantities.

gardengal I'm pretty sure kimmsr understands that. His position, if I understand after years of badgering him ;-) on the subject, is to use compost in more of a bulk sense on top of the soil. Organic fertilizer is used in a dusting sense and doesn't leave the bulk of material behind. While organic fertilizers feed the microbes, the bulk on top provides other long term benefits that can't be had by fertilizer alone.

As to finding a feed store in Seattle, go to Google Maps and type in "feed store, seattle, wa" without quotes, in the search line. I got 26,000 hits but only the first 30 or so will be what you're looking for. Eventually you see car dealers and all kinds of stuff. Be sure to call first. Some of the results will be for commodity trading companies and not real feed stores.

If you build up your soil so it is a good, healthy soil you will not need "fertilizers", either organic or synthetic. Compost and a sufficient level of organic matter in the soil will provide all the plant nutrients needed to grow strong and healthy plants, something that such garden writers as Lee Reich, Ann Lovejoy, P. Allen Smith, Rebecca Coles, and many more have been telling people for years, even though some do still tell people they need some "fertilizer".
What I have seen in my garden, and many others around the world have seen, is that adding compost and other forms of organic matter will create a good, healthy soil that will grow strong and healthy plants, and there is no need to spend my hard earned money on "fertilizers".

Once again, I think it is important to point out that there are few absolutes in this business of gardening and one should avoid saying "never". Various situations can and do require various approaches. Cropping or the growing of annual plants that are consumed or otherwise removed from the soil remove a lot of nutrients as well and supplementing these types of crops with fertilizers (oooh, I used that bad word!) is often advised.

BTW, Steve Solomon wrote what is considered pretty much the bible of home composting so I think he can be looked at with at least the same respect and authority as someone like Ann Lovejoy, for heaven's sake. If not quite a bit more.

Steve Solomon wrote what is considered pretty much the bible of home composting

And Malcolm Beck wrote the book praised by Dr Elaine Ingham as "the first book to get it right." You can get it at AcresUSA.com for $19 or at Amazon for $69 (???).

Well, ol Blutranes ainÂt wrote no book; nor does he run up his phone bill talking all over the world. However, I do have enough sense to know if I harvest nutrients from my garden (in the form of crops) those nutrients are going to have to be replaced or something in the future (crops) is going to be lacking. I also know that if a nutrient is not in the compost I make, it will not be in the garden I spread said compost on. Knowing how lacking foods are today, it would be unwise for me to depend on compost to contain everything my body needs for nourishment. N-P-K may be good enough for some, but it is not good enough for me; if I am going to go through the trouble to grow the food, I am going to make sure all the minerals are there not just N-P-K.

Those who choose to rely on compost may want to reevaluate their thrift; there is too much limping and loss of teeth around here that could have been avoided with the addition of a few minerals in their soil. I like being on the safe side, it feels better than walking around with a few extra dollars in my pocketÂ

Blutranes

Thanks for the responses so far.

This is yr 5 for my garden, and I've been using store bought as well as home made compost. Everything I've read about NW soils suggests mineral deficiency (most importantly Ca and Mg). I limed last yr, and was planning on trying the solomon recipe (which includes dolomite lime) in addition to my usual compost. I got the sense that for the amount of leeching that results from the heavy winter rains, compost alone was insufficient.

The only way to know what nutrients your soil may be lacking, or have plenty of, would be with a good, reliable soil test which will also tell you about your soils pH and why it is where it is. Contact the local office of your state universities USDA Cooperative Extension Service about having that good, reliable soil test done so you know what you might need.

Oh bruddahÂ

Bullwinkle: Hey Rocky! Watch me put a wabbits outta my hat!

Rocky: Again? But that trick never works.

Bullwinkle: This time for sure!

Tiger coming out of hat- ROAR!

Bullwinkle: Boy, I better get another hat.

1). Feed the microbes the nutrients and one will know they are there (in the soil).

2). Mulch the beds to protect the soil and conserve water.

3). Make sure moisture is there to keep microbes active and plants hydrated.

4). Leave hats out of the experience.

And now, back to our regular scheduled cartoonsÂ

Blutranes

There are still things that science does not know about soil and the interaction of minerals/humus etc. A soil test can show some of the things in the soil but it is not the end all, be all, that some make it out to be. Most soil tests do not test for the atomic level of things. Until they do take soil tests with "a grain of salt" as a suggestion of what is needed but not tablets set in stone.

Rather than simply substituting one type of "fertilizer" for another, ie. Organic for Synthetic, why not spend your time, energy, and money on building up the health of your soil by adding compost and other forms or organic matter

You know, I see this suggestion a lot, usually from the same people.

However, the reality is that sometimes, you're just getting started on a new garden, and Spring comes along, and you'd like to get some things planted. What are your choices? There's no time to build a compost pile and get a batch finished if you want to plant this season (plus, you don't have a lot of stuff to add to the compost pile anyway, since you don't have a garden yet).

You could wait a year (or more) and spend your time building up the soil, and not planting a single thing, or you could dig a new bed, amend it as you're able, buy the "fertilizers" you need (synthetic or organic, as suits you), and actually get something out of your garden this year.

Meanwhile, even though you're using fertilizers, you can continue the soil-building process, making more compost, using some good organic mulch, etc., etc. Next year, perhaps you'll need less in the way of fertilizer. Eventually, you may not need any at all.

I know that I have never been willing to lose a whole year when I wanted a garden, let alone more than that. Last year I was planning my wedding, and I was lucky to get a in a garden at all in my new home. I knew that the soil would have benefited from the addition of a lot of organic matter, but our compost wasn't done yet, and buying amendments can be quite pricy. But...with help from a bridesmaid, I got a tiny amount of soil turned, I got a handful of plants at Home Depot, I amended the planting holes as best I could, and I fertilized through the season with a combination of Gardens Alive! fertilizers and fish emulsion.

My garden last year wasn't all that it might have been, in terms of size or productivity...but by golly, I had a garden, and we had fresh veggies on the table multiple times per week. You can't complain about that. Meanwhile, we kept building that compost pile for use this year.

If I'd told myself that I shouldn't ever buy fertilizers, but instead should wait to plant a garden until I'd built up the soil, I never would have had a garden last year, and I might have been lucky to have one this year.

We all do what we can. Building excellent soil takes some time, but I don't see that as a reason that a person can't get a few plants in the ground right now, and give them what they need this year to produce a decent crop. Telling people that they should "never" buy fertilizers, but instead just wait, sets the bar a lot higher than it needs to be. Gardening, if you'll pardon the expression, is an organic process, and an all-or-nothing approach is rarely called for.

VoR* to leira!

Lloyd

*Voice of Reason

leira,
One of our local garden guys always says, "the best time to plant a tree was 10 years ago. The next best time was yesterday." The same goes for building your soil.

Organic fertilizer CAN be bought today, so for many people that is a good place to start.

"the best time to plant a tree was 10 years ago. The next best time was yesterday."

I'm with you on that, dchall_san_antonio!

I once ran out to the garden center in late June, and paid some silly price for a couple of large potted tomato plants. Tomato-planting time in my area is more like mid-May, but late June is when the new garden at the new house was ready for plants, and I was determined to have some tomatoes that year. I knew it was a risk, but I got some excellent tomatoes when all was said and done, and I never regretted it.

We do what we can with what we have...so when people come here looking for advice, I think we should give them more information about how to best work with what they've got, rather than telling them to plant their tree 10 years ago.

I agree whole heartedly w/ the last 3 posts.

Last year was the first for my garden, I ammeded the soil w/ bags of purchased compost/potting mix/ etc what I could afford. Purchased some mulch and got even more free, it all broke down and is in the soil now, last fall I mulched the garden and lawn heavily w/ mowed leaves, it's all pretty much gone now too. I've built my raised beds and filled them w/ compost made from last years garden/OPBL/Kscraps and am looking forward to a much more plentiful garden. BTW I didn't fertilize last year, but this year I do have some espoma garden tone and will get some tomato tone, Plus lots of teas.

Bravo, leira. A lady after my own heart.

He also talks about far supply stores having cottonseed meal, but for the life of me I can;t find one. If anyone out there in Seattle/Puget Sound area knows a local place that sells this stuff, I'm eager to find out.

Get whatever seed meal is available. I don't think cottonseed meal is necessarily the best because of the large amount of pesticides applied. We have soyabean meal available in bulk at the feed mills here.

A soil test is one tool a gardener can use to make the soil in the garden better, but it is only a guide, it is not the end all for what is needed in the garden which is mostly enough organic matter. Without a soil test, done periodically, a gardener can easily put more of one nutrient in the soil which will cause growth problems as well as contribute to the pollution of our world. Even someone putting too much manure on the garden can contribute to the nitrites and Phosporus that are in our drinking water today, it is not just the CAFO's that are doing that.
Some will tell you that soil tests are not needed, that they can tell if their plants are strong and healthy without, and then tell you that insect pests and plant disease are common in any garden. People I know that spray with liquid plant food on a regular basis have plants that look pretty good and blossom pretty well and are constantly being bothered by insect pests and plant diseases that require spending more money on means of control, that someone with a garden with good, healthy soil growing strong, healthy plants will not need to.

Rather than simply substituting one type of "fertilizer" for another, ie. Organic for Synthetic, why not spend your time, energy, and money on building up the health of your soil by adding compost and other forms or organic matter and let the Soil Food Web supply the necessary nutrients to your plants? If you get your soil into a good, healthy condition "fertilizers" are not needed

Let me first say that I am an SOS (Student-of-Solomon), so take what I say with a grain of salt. One of the gems that I take away from Solomon's writing is that the nutritional quality of the vegetables grown on a given patch is largely affected by the inputs (whether it is organic matter, organic fertilizers or chemical fertilizers). The problem with simply adding compost and expecting it to miraculously cure your nutritional deficiencies is that locally produced compost will share the same defficiencies as the soil. In other words, hay, vegetable matter, grains, weeds, and manure, that started it's life in the soil from your area will most likely have the same deficiencies as your own soil.

The idea behind the Complete Organic Fertilizer is that it reintroduces nutrients needed by heavily feeding vegetables in a slow-release, non-chemical base (note that it may or may not meet strict guidelines for organic designation, but can be seen as more organic than most fertilizers).

Do yourself a favour and get yourself some compost (trucked in or produced on site) on the beds to use in conjunction with the COF. As for the original question regarding seedmeal, get whatever is available locally for a good price: usually alfalfa meal, soybean, canola.

Best of luck.
Michael

The Dr. Earth cottonseed meal I referred to and that is readily available in his (our) area IS organic/not treated with pesticides. This not an agricultural area - it's pretty heavily urbanized - and local feed stores tend to cater primarily to household pets so the OP would need to do some trekking to find bulk commodities of a range of feed types. Alfalfa and CGM are the easiest to find locally. But most of the better retail nurseries in the area (and there are many) will have organic ferts available in both single ingredient formats as well as blended formulations. Organic fertilizers and organic gardening methods predominate in this region, whether one is growing vegetables and other edibles or simply ornamental plants.

When I lived there I had zero trouble finding organic. And if you want bulk organic go up to Skagit Valley (or Plan B: B'ham) and make a day of it.

And what leira said.

Dan

anyone know of where we can get a hold of Mr. Peabody's Wayback Machine?
We could solve all our soil and tree planting problems.
Sherman
are you out there?

MLorne, I couldn't have said it better myself. I've read everything from Mr. Solomon that I could get my hands on. He's somebody who has been there and back, and didn't just rely on convention, but did decades of trials and experiments for himself. I consider his work a valuable resource for PNW gardeners. It seems like every time I pick up a vegetable gardening book, it was written by somebody on the east coast. I was very glad to find such a good local resource as Steve Solomon.

Feed or farm stores ought to have cottonseed or soybean meal. Used for poultry or livestock feed. Wilco nearby my house has both as well as seaweed meal. You may have to drive out to the rural areas, but it's well worth it to stock up.

Regarding pesticides on cotton seed meal, what Steve Solomon says about this is that the oil is extracted from the seed using oil solvents which easily dissolve the oil-based pesticides. He then wonders how the resulting oil can be used as a food product. I'm just repeating what he said, I really don't know. Anyway, I notice that cottonseed meal is not approved for organic farming, but soybean meal is. Probably the pesticide issue. I like the cottonseed meal's acidity to offset the lime's alkalinity. Probably doesn't really matter, but I do like to use cottonseed meal on acid-loving plants like blueberries and potatoes.