Some of you might know that when I first started planting, I practice organic planting from seed to harvest. In my old place I used to get lots of vegetation matter from my own compound to compost and there was never a short supply. I had never before bought any fertilizers, potting mix or soil except for seeds only. When I downsized to a smaller home, I had problem with the earth, very rocky, dense and unfertile because the house is located on a cut portion of a hill. Digging the ground to make my veggie bed was tough. I had to purchase some potting soil to fill in the bed in place of the stones and rocks that was removed. I used compost that I brought with me and had a couple of decent harvest. To make the compost nowadays I had to depend on grass clippings form my neighbour and my mother in law. The compound here is small and I can't get enough vegetation to make enough compost for my gardening needs. Since we return from Europe about 6 months ago, I have yet to get any harvest. Some of the ground in the grow bed had become hard again because of high content of mud. Seeds planted does not germinate well ... I guess they must be very old. Those that germinated did not grow well and supply of compost is almost zero. Last week got myself some new seed and is now happy looking seedlings. Looking at my seedlings and the grow bed, I felt that I might be wasting my time when I have nothing to feed them except for some semi composted compost. I thought maybe I should start using chemical fertilizers as a supplement like most people take vitamin supplements SHOULD I MOVE OVER?
It may not be a matter of choice. Grass clippings may not have any nutrients in them to speak of. If you don't have manures to work with you just may need to use some synthetic ferts to get a crop. You can't go to any farms to get any to bring back? If not try what you can to get a crop of any kind.
KK, look around for organic fertilizers--fish meal, composted manures, bone meal--you can still use the grass clippings and supplement them with a non-chemical fertilizer. But, as Carolyn said, if you have no choice, synthetic fertilizers are better than not having any crops.
I'll ditto what Carolyn and Marlingardener said and add these suggestions; look around for horse and/or chicken farms from which you may be able to get the manures and stable sweepings at reasonable costs.. Look for baled hay and/or straw to use as mulch.. Now, even if you can find these things, it will still take some time for their addition to turn your vegetable beds into fertile growth mediums.. In the meantime use the organic fertilizers supplemented with sparingly added commercial fertilizers.. If you expend the effort, all indications are that you do, then you deserve to reap some benefits.. So, good growing, KK!!!
Thanks Carolyn, there is no animal farm near by and the only animal manure that is easily available is chicken manure. I think I'll give that a try. Marlingardener, I went out to the supermarket gardening section to look at fertilizers and there are organic fertilizers so the labels claim. I am quite suspicious about it and they much more expensive then synthetic types. I only trust the chicken manure because I can tell from the smell and I had used it before to plant tomatoes. I'll keep on looking for the organic type in other places, thanks MG. Thanks Henry Johnson, sad to say that with development, the chicken farm around here had disappeared and horses are a very rare sight here. Horses can only be seen in polo and turf clubs and they are only a few here in this country. Baled hay or straw is non existence here, the best I can get is grass clipping and that too is now in very much short supply for me. I guess I just had to put in more effort. Thank you all for your suggestion and encouragement, I think I'll stay in the middle, meaning 50:50 or even 70% organic:30% non organic. Having looked at the non-organic kind of fertilizers, I have some question: 1. Is higher the NPK value better? 2. When it mentioned that it is a growth inducer or a flowering inducer or fruiting inducer or and so on .... does that means some kind of special chemical is added to it besides the NPK value? 3. Urea and sulphur is sold by itself, is it a good idea to use it? Thanks in advance for your comments.
Be very careful with the chicken poo. It is hot even after it is dried. which means too much will burn your plants to death... and that isn't really much in the way of chicken poop. I would not use urea and chicken manure together. You might find it necessary to go a bit farther for organic materials. The highter npk depends on what you are putting it on, but the higher the ratio the more expensive it might be, but you can still use it, just use 1/2 as much for a lower ratio. if you had 20-20-20 you could use 1/2 of the recommended amount to obtain 10-10-10 or vice versa.. if you have 10-10-10 use 2x to get to 20-20-20. We use a variety of ratios depending on the maturity of the plant, what it is bearing and what the fruit stage is. you may not have the luxury of the different ratios available to me. I use anything from 12-48-8 as a crop started to 9-15-30 as a crop finisher. 20-20-20 is a greenhouse ratio, 20-10-20 is another greenhouse ratio.. but you don't want a lot of nitrogen on tomatoes otherwise you will get beautiful green plants with no flowers or fruit. so IF you can get your nutrients separate it might be a good idea for you, if not cut back on your amount if the nitrogen level is high. I use these because I irrigate the plants and I plant everything in plastic mulch. I add organic manures in the Fall, but I don't expect it to feed the plants for the whole Summer.
Carolyn beat me to the chicken manure warning. But one easy and safe way to use it is manure tea !! About a gallon of chicken manure to 5 gallons water,,stir and let sit at least 5 days stirring well each day. Then when ready to use mix the manure tea with equal amount water. Just let the remainder sit in the bucket and use the dilute stuff to water and feed your garden. Chicken manure added to your compost bin will speed up the process a bit. Just do not use too much or it will smell. I use 17-17-17 on my garden and just adjust the amount for the particular crop. Another thing you might check on are the markets in your area. Usually they will give the trimmings to anyone that wants them. They take all the outside leaves from lettuce and some of the vegetables and fruit go bad before they can sell them. Just take them a container and gather them up for your compost bin. Many people here get the trimmings for their chickens. And then there are worm castings if you care to have a small worm bin. But I thought you already did that,,didn`t you ?? Worms also will speed up the composting process and add nutrients.
KK, I forgot to address #2... the "inducer" is the nutrient that influences or gives it more (of that nutrient) to produce the desired effect..More nitrogen produces more foliage growth, more potassium produces better root growth more phosphorus produces more flower/bud development. Someone once posted..."up, down, all around" to give you a better "rhyme"memory of what each nutrient is better suited for, but the plant needs all of them, just not all of them at the same amounts at the same time.
Its all there, all mentioned what I could have suggested. If we have any soil bother its usually clay; clay is excellent for some plants but not for others, thankfully my soil is ok if full of Couch grass through the summer. For K.K I would have said Mulch/Compost/or digging right down to see how far the bad stuff is. Grow your seeds in the house till you think they are big enough to survive. You can veg and flower garden in pots. Add a Fern in a pot, a dwarf Canary Island Date Palm. An Ensete banana plant in a pot. The Ensete in good sun may even get you a banana fruit.
Wow!!! Thank you for sharing all that knowledge about fertilisers. Now I am very much more confident what I should do . Carolyn thanks for the warning about the chicken poo, I thought that since chicken poo is organic then adding any amount is not a problem except for the 'aroma ' . OK I'll look for the highest NPK and do some cost comparison before buying. I don't think I can get them separate except for urea and sulphur. The "up, down, all around" is great. Mart manure tea! No I don't think I can do that. My surrounding neighbours are no more than 15feet from my fence and I am sure they would not be happy to be treated with the 'aroma'. The chicken manure I am using is dried and pelletised. The smell is quite strong when it get wet. Thanks for the suggestion and I am going to use it with more caution from now. Now a days the veggie sellers hardly or never give away anything. Because of the large number of foreign workers always looking for very cheap stuff, the are able to sell them. Yes worm casting, my worm farm is in recovery. When we left for Europe, I released all my worms in the veggie bed. I restarted it when we return and started out with 16 worms caught from Becky's mum garden. After about 4 months, I changed the beddings and counted there were about 50 or more worms. Worms found while digging the veggie beds are also relocated to the worm farm. Hope to get a constant supply by end this year. Thanks Kate, digging right down is almost impossible. When I first started to dig, my neighbour warned me about how hard the area is. The earth is very dense and rocky. I dig down to about a foot or more and do the water test. If the water stay for more than 24 hours, I would either dig deeper or use a cold chisel and hammer in as far as it can go making a hole in it. Then it is the water test again and if it fail, move on to another place. Luckily only a single spot fail even though all the other places takes awhile before the water disappear. I have compost but is in very much short supply. I start my seeds in a shaded place outdoor and some I do direct sowing. Now with the extreme hot weather I am starting my seeds in starter pots. I do have some plants in pots especially herbs.
KK, The manure tea doesn't smell rank nor are you spraying it like our farmers spray liquid manure. No one will even notice it. don't worry about it. The fish comment (jane, maybe?) is a great one. IF you can keep varmints out of the garden if you do it, but burying dead fish, fish parts or the like is a fabulous way to add organic ferts. to the soil. My niece is doing a project for school on the benefits of fish compost. They have the nicest plants you have ever seen. They go bow hunting ( using a boat) for carp. It must be a real sport because no 15 yo girl spends the night awake "hunting" fish if it is boring. then they bring the dead fish home (these are invasive species and it is a legal "hunting" option for controlling the populations of them) and bury them in the garden or flower containers they are going to plant in for the coming Spring Summer.
Carolyn I'll try a small batch since I had so little growing in my garden and see how it is. Burying fish parts sounds good and I can get lots of fish guts from my fishmonger. Fish hunting with a bow sounds interesting and I'm sure your niece must be pretty good at it. Going to the market this Friday to get some fish and I'll add fish guts into the list. Thanks Carolyn. Got my fertilizer yesterday, it is N=15, P=15, K=15 and it is mentioned as a growing inducer. Since the majority of my plants are leafy veggies so I guess this should do the job for me plus my whatever compost I have. I intent to use it in the early stages of planting and move on to chicken dung in later stages before harvesting. I guess with the fish guts, chicken dung and this fertilizer should do for now. Hope to I do not have to buy anymore fertilizer after finishing this pack of 400gm.
Just keep the inducer about 6 inches away from the plant so not to burn. About a tablespoon worked into the soil on both sides of a tomato plant should do. That's about what I use, Then rain or when you water it will feed the plant.
Thanks Mart, I thought of just sprinkling it around the plant. Now I know not too close to the plant. Thanks again.
You can top dress KK but wait till the plants are a little larger. Aside from the possibility of burn,, the roots that need the food are growing away from the stem... You want the roots to spread outward for a healthier plant.
