Organic Fertilizers

The difference between organic gardening and chemical based gardening is philosophy and approach. Organic gardeners treat the soil as a living organism that needs to be cared for. Chemical gardeners view soil as dirt, something for chemical solutions. For organic gardeners a healthy soil is a productive soil.

Organic garden fertilizers should only be used to supplement soil fertility and not as long term sole source fertility program. Its important to supplement organic garden fertilizers with compost, manures and cover crops as your primary source of additional nutrients.

Organic garden fertilizers are non-synthetic based naturally occurring substances used to make soil more fertile. They are derived from animal or vegetable matter. (e.g. compost, manure) Processed organic based fertilizers include:

• Compost
• Blood meal
• Bone meal
• Amino acids
• Humic acid
• Seaweed based fertilizers.
• Fish meal
• Feather meal
• Decomposing crop residue (green manure) 

Organic Fertilizer eStore

The following organic garden fertilizers are available commercially.

Organic Fertilizers by Macro Nutrient Composition (percent)

Not Just Any Organic Fertilizer

Its important you know the source of your fertilizer. The sources of nutrients above can be just as detrimental as chemical based fertilizers. Just because it's listed as an organic or natural fertilizer doesn't mean that its source didn't have a disease or that pesticides and herbicides were used on the plants source or they're laden with heavy metals. Ensure that the source itself is organically grown.

We're Living in Mad Times

I should let you know that in recent times, many organic gardening organizations are completely getting away from animal based fertilizer, because of diseases such as, "Mad Cow" and other diseases associated with the practice of feeding animals the meat by-products of other animals.