what is the best way (most organic) to fertilize a vegtable garden?

Comments

1. Michelle S says:

   May 31, 2010 at 8:43 am

   compost tea.
2. Jim says:

   May 31, 2010 at 9:27 am

   Make your own compost like I do.
3. discostu says:

   May 31, 2010 at 10:26 am

   compost is the best
4. Sandy G says:

   May 31, 2010 at 10:56 am

   Make compost with rotted leaves, kitchen vegetable scraps and a little dried blood or natural other nitrogen source. Read up about making compost and start a small compost pile in your yard. It adds humus to your soil and is very nutritious.

   If you cannot use compost, buy bags of composted cow manure.
5. rjq21 says:

   May 31, 2010 at 11:11 am

   COW MANURE
6. Lauren B says:

   May 31, 2010 at 12:00 pm

   I manage a nursery and get asked this question a lot. A brilliant way to fertilize a veg garden is manure. This could be farmyard manure which needs to be well rotted for about a year. It can be incorporated into the soil before planting and provides an excellent source of nutrients. Leaf mould is also brilliant. If you have already planted your veg organic poultry manure a can be used and dug in the soil around the plants. You must make sure not to let it touch the actual plant stems as it may burn them. It releases a lot of nutrients and is organic too. Hope this helps
7. Snackie says:

   May 31, 2010 at 12:57 pm

   Rabbit and goat manure are mild enough to use without burning up your plants. Other animals’ manure needs to sit and “cure.”
8. machotti1 says:

   May 31, 2010 at 1:30 pm

   The natural way to an organic garden is to start a compost pile. This is garden clippings, decaying leaves, kitchen waste, no meat or dairy added please. After it all is layered, over time it begins to break down into dark crumbling rich compost loaded with nutrients to feed your veggie garden. If this is not readily available then you can purchase organic compost, or chicken,or steer manure as well as other aged manure. We use horse manure with our compost pile because it happens to be handy. So either way weather you purchase natural manures, natural fertilizers, (fish emulision), or compost or make your own compost there are no chemicals used. The whole idea for organic gardens is not to use any chemical fertilizers. Chemical fertilizers kill the natural bacteria and nutrients in the soil and turn the plants into fast food junkies, dependent on the chemical fertilizers, leaving the soil and plants open to insect and bacterial infestations. By using chemical fertilizers to much growth will be too fast and a greater chance of infestations are doomed to happen. I hope this answers you question. Also your county extension service can help you with the sources need to locate organic fertilizers, and other ways for organic gardening.
9. Truth says:

   May 31, 2010 at 2:05 pm

   The problem with animal manure is do you know where it came from ? To be organic you have to know how many chemicals have been fed to the animals. Growth hormones, antibiotics etc. These will all end up in your garden and it wont be organic.
   Like most dairy products are full of the above named chemicals . Healthy ?? I think not !!!
10. Blondi says:

    May 31, 2010 at 2:30 pm

    I don’t know if you have much access to grass clippings where you live, but if you can find a source for them which you can prove is not contaminated by chemical fertilizers, it’s a great way to feed your garden and mulch it in one action. Piling organic grass clippings to a depth of about 3″ reduces the amount of water lost through evaporation, cools the roots of your plants, and feeds nitrogen to them as well. After three or four days, you are left with an attractive tan “carpet” which keeps the weeds from sprouting as well!

    We have a few trusted yards which we remove the clippings (already bagged up for you – feel the bags for sticks and reject those). We pile them around our plants and then sit back and wait for the rain and sunshine to do the rest!

    We’ve been doing this for years and won’t garden any other way!
11. shedahudda says:

    May 31, 2010 at 3:07 pm

    one or another form of compost.
    including regular compost. vermicompost,compost tea

    well rotted manure

    fish fertiliser
12. jt c says:

    May 31, 2010 at 3:59 pm

    All the answers will work, but the easiest is to add grass clippings. They will quickly rot and be about the same as manure.
    Just be sure it has not been sprayed or fertilized with anything that is non-organic.
13. ohiorganic says:

    May 31, 2010 at 4:00 pm

    Fertilising the garden is a multi-faceted affair in organic growing. You are literally feeding the life in the soil which in turn converts inorganic and organic molecules into forms the plant roots can use

    Compost is very important for feeding the soil but you also should be growing green manure crops to add organic matter. These include things like buckwheat in summer, annual rye, clover, cow peas, vetch in spring/fall/winter. Green manure or cover crops are crops grown to mowed down and incorporated into the soil. These do an amazing job of improving all soils.

    Most soils are deficient in an array of minerals so adding things like rock phosphate, green sand, sul-po-mag, gypsum, lime, etc can be very helpful. You should do a soil test before adding so you know what you are dealing with. Do not use the home rapid tests as they are wildly inaccurate and do not give you the in depth information you need to properly deal with soils organically (There is so much more to soil than NPK and pH) this link should get you the info you need about soil testing attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/soil-lab.html

    I like folier feeding a lot and have found water soluble kelp is an excellent folier feed. Maxi-Crop is the best known brand