What Is Used As An Organic Fertilizer

Anymore, there are so many types of organic fertilizer, it can be difficult to know which organic fertilizer is best for your gardening situation. Some fertilizers are better for vegetables and some are better suited for getting more blooms on your plants.

In this article we will go over the different types of organic fertilizers and which situations they will most likely work the best.

Different Types Of Organic Fertilizers And When To Use

I have put together a list of organic fertilizers to use in your garden and landscaping. What I love about organic gardening is that it is so simple and I never burn any plants because of fertilizer.

Composted Manure: Composted or aged cattle, horse, swine and poultry manure. Fresh manure, which can be applied as a top dressing to planting beds in the fall, should never be used in direct contact with plants. Composted manure can be added as a mulch throughout the growing season.

Compost: Compost is organic matter that has been decomposed and recycled as a fertilizer and soil amendment. It can be worked in the soil during fall, spring and as a mulch throughout the growing season.

Earthworm Castings: Fertilizer high in useful minerals and bacteria. The NPK (the proportion of three plant nutrients in order: nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K)) is high and has over 60 trace minerals, almost an ideal additive to soil.

Fish Emulsion: Fish emulsion is a fertilizer emulsion that is produced from the fluid remains of fish processed for fish oil and fish meal industrially. In addition to having a typical NPK analysis of 5-2-2, fish emulsion adds micro nutrients.

Seaweed: Has been shown to be valuable additions to the organic garden and can be abundantly available free for those living near the coast. Seaweed has an NPK rating of about 2-3-1.

Greensand: It is a common ingredient as a source of potassium in garden fertilizers, such as in organic gardening and organic farming. Greensand may not look like much of a fertilizer, with an NPK rating of only 0-0-0.1 to 0-0-3. But it is the trace minerals present in greensand that prove its worth.

Epsom Salt: Epsom salts help certain plants grow stronger and produce better, like roses.

Guano: Guano is collected from natural deposits of seabirds and bat droppings in areas where favorable climatic conditions ensured a minimal loss of nutrients through leaching. exceptionally rich source of natural nutrients that supplies many beneficial enzymes and bacteria, large amounts of minor and trace minerals as well as being high in nitrogen and phosphorus. Typical guano contains somewhere an NPK rating of about 9-6-2.

Blood Meal: Blood meal is a dry, inert powder made from blood used as a high-nitrogen fertilizer and a high protein animal feed. It is one of the highest non-synthetic sources of nitrogen and it’s fast acting. Blood meal has an NPK rating of 12-0-0.

Bone Meal: Bone meal is a mixture of crushed and coarsely ground bones that is used as an organic fertilizer for plants and formerly in animal feed. As a slow-release fertilizer, bone meal is primarily used as a source of phosphorus. Bone meal has a recorded NPK around 0-11-0.

Teas: Compost tea is a liquid solution or suspension made by steeping compost in water. It is used as both a fertilizer and can also prevent plant diseases. The liquid is applied as a spray to non-edible plant parts such as seedlings, or as a soil-drench (root dip), or as a surface spray. NPK rating varies depending on what the tea is made of and it’s concentration.

Commercial Organic Preparations: Nurseries and gardening centers have a whole slew of multi-purpose, concentrated liquid and powder fertilizer for optimum garden health.

Things to Know Before Adding Any Organic Fertilizer

Be sure to do some research about which NPK ratio is needed for the plant you are looking to fertilize. Trees and shrubs may need 16-4-8, 12-4-8, or 12-6-6,citrus may need 12-6-5 and flowers may need 3-1-2 for better blooms.

So the best way to provide a complete diet for your plants is to vary and combine different combinations of fertilizers as no one fertilizer is complete.