Know Your Ingredients

Some of the recipes in this chapter include fertilizer products that you'll need to buy at a garden center or through a mail-order supply company. If you're new to using organic fertilizers, you may not know the names of some of these products. Here's a rundown of some products you'll use:

Blood meal: dried blood produced as a by-product of the meat industry; con tains about 13 percent nitrogen
Colloidal phosphate: clay washed from rock phosphate when the rock phos phate is mined; good source of phos phorus
Cottonseed meal: a waste product left after cottonseed oil is pressed out of cot tonseed; may contain chemical residues
Fish emulsion: a liquid by-product of the animal feed industry, made from fish; good source of nitrogen
Creensand: mined mineral deposits; good source of potassium and other minerals
Guano: aged, dried bird or bat droppings; high in nitrogen and phosphate
harvests of vegetables and fruit will require more frequent fertilizer applications, particu larly before and immediately after flowering.

Pick Your Mix
You'll find both dry and liquid fertilizer formulas in this chapter. Dry fertilizers, such as long-lasting granular or powdered mixes, are great for sidedressing actively growing plants. These power-packed organic fertil izers not only supply nutrients, but also im prove the texture and moisture retention of the soil by feeding a vast army of beneficial microbes (as many as 900 billion in 1 pound of soil). And these fertilizers will keep on working for weeks, even months.

In most cases, you can just spread dry fertilizer on the soil around individual plants and lightly scratch them into the soil. If your soil is low on any of the major nutrients (nitrogen is especially soluble, so it leaches out quickly from the soil), these dry fertilizers may be the best way to pro vide them.

The liquid fertilizer formulas we've col lected take the form of fast-acting teas and mixtures for foliar feeding (spraying the leaves of a plant) and soil drenches. While it's no substitute for a balanced soil, foliar feeding can be the best way to supplement your plants' diets. Like the vitamin and mineral supplements we humans take to combat high stress levels or to make up for poor eating habits, foliar feedings don't replace good soil fertilizers, they merely supplement them. If major nutrients or trace minerals are missing from the soil, these liquid fertilizers, sprayed directly on the leaves, will provide them fast! Plants will immediately absorb the micronu-trients from liquid fertilizers like manure tea, compost tea, and seaweed solutions. Since plants can't store excess nutrients in their leaves and draw on them later, you'll have to repeat foliar feedings at regular intervals.

Bucket beat bags
It's cheaper to buy fertilizer ingredients in bulk and split the costs and the resulting mix with a gardening friend or neighbor. But splitting a batch isn't always possible, and it's a good idea to be prepared in case there are leftovers.

You'll need containers, of course, but labels are just as important. Always label fertilizer containers before you fill them so there's no chance of forgetting a label or confusing the contents with another garden product.

Store homemade fertilizer in 5-gallon plastic buckets with lids. That way, mois ture (and pests) can't get into the mix and spoil it. You can get buckets for free—or for • a small fee—from grocery stores and restaurants. Attach your labels, or use a permanent marking pen to write the date and ingredients on each bucket.

Fast, fun, and fabulous fertilizer Quick-fixes

Feed the soil, and the soil will feed your plants. That's one of the basic tenets of or ganic gardening. In most cases, an annual application of rich compost or well-aged manure will provide enough nutrients and organic matter to sustain your plants all through the growing season. Even so, your garden will probably need a quick pick-me-up from time to time. That doesn't mean that you have to run out to the garden center and drop some cash on an expensive fertilizer. Chances are you have the ingredi ents for making your own inexpensive, earth-friendly plant food right at hand.

We've polled garden experts from around the country for their favorite fertil izer formulas. Many of these fertilizer mixes, blends, and solutions provide more than the big three nutrients of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. They also include vital mi-cronutrients, plant growth hormones, soil conditioners, and even disease and insect fighters. Some of these time-tested fertilizer formulas include traditional, easy-to-find materials, like fish emulsion and manure. Others make use of more unusual ingredi ents, like Epsom salts and vinegar. Still others make the most of kitchen and garden wastes, including coffee grounds and weeds.

We hope these gardener-to-gardener formulas will inspire you to cook up some of your own creative mixes by making use of locally available materials for fertilizer. Collect wastes from local breweries, ma nure from zoos or local farms, leaves from curbsides, and kitchen scraps from restau rants or grocery stores. Many establish ments will be glad to have your haul away their wastes for free.

Mix and Match Organic fertilizer

"Make your own custom organic fertilizer for almost any plant, says Bill Wolf, co-author of Rodale's Chemical-Free Yard and Garden. In general terms, there are three basic nutrients that a good general organic fertilizer should supply: nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. You can save money by buying organic amendments that supply these nutrients and mixing them yourself in the proportions Bill recommends. The specific quantities of each nutrient will vary according to the materials you use, but all will give a balanced supply of nutrients.

Ingredients and Supplies

2 parts blood meal or 3 parts fish meal
(nitrogen source)
3 parts bonemeal, 6 parts rock phos-
phate, or 6 parts colloidal phosphate
(phosphorus source) 1 part kelp meal or 6 parts greensand
(potassium source) Dust mask Gloves
Safety goggles

Directions
1. Choose I nitrogen source, 1 phosphorus source, and 1 potassium source from the materials listed above. For example, you could select blood meal for nitrogen, rock phosphate for phosphorus, and greensand for potassium.
2. Mix the 3 materials you've chosen in the proper proportions. Be sure to wear a dust mask, gloves, and safety goggles while mixing the ingredients.
3. Apply the custom fertilizer around the base of established perennials, fruit trees, or roses. You can also mix some of the fertilizer into the soil of a bed before planting vegetable or flower transplants.

Kelp helps your plants
Kelp meal is the single product that Bill Wolf uses most to fertilize plants because it is such a complete source of the minerals that plants need. He advises applying 10 pounds of kelp per 1,000 square feet for fruit crops, vegetables, lawns, or ornamentals. Adding 1 teaspoon of kelp meal to the potting soil in a 6-inch pot will keep container plants looking their best.
Bill also says that if you can get fresh kelp or seaweed, by all means use it! He recommends rinsing the seaweed to remove salt, then applying it as a mulch or adding it to your compost pile. It decays quickly and is weed and seed free!

Skeeter Beater

As the weed fibers begin to break down, and the water becomes brown and thickens, algae may grow on the top of your weed-tea container. That's fine. "But mosquitoes can be a problem in the barrels," warns Neil Strickland. He adds minnows to his barrels to feed on mosquito larvae, but suggests that if you don't want to fool with fish, you can cover the containers with screens or lightweight row cover fabric to prevent mosquitoes from laying eggs in the water. Use a transparent or translucent cover and don't seal the top, because the process that breaks down the plant matter requires oxygen and sunlight. Don't use both a cover over your weed barrel and minnows inside it—the poor minnows won't have anything to eat!

If cold weather forces you to shut down your weed tea preparations for the winter, make good use of the rich sludge at the bottom of the barrel. Add the sludge to your compost pile to get even more benefit from the microbes and nutrients in it. Start a new barrel with fresh weeds when spring arrives.

Potions and Practices for Organic Pest Control

On any warm summer day, your garden is filled with flying, crawling, and jumping insects. But very few of these creatures arc plant pests. Most of them—including spiders, lady beetles, and many wasps and flies—are more interested in capturing other insects than in aggravating gardeners. So controlling the few insects that are pests really isn't hard. Organic gardeners have devised lots of useful sprays, barriers, and traps for controlling pests without chemical pesticides.

Pest insects usually have specific food requirements. Many of the pest control formulas in this chapter work by tricking pests into thinking that they are on the wrong plant or making them eat something that they can't digest.

You'll also find formulas in this chapter for bigger pests, like squirrels, deer, cats, and dogs. These pesky animals can frustrate gardeners by eating or trampling plants. But, although we don't want animals to hurt our gardens, we also don't want to hurt the animals, so all of the formulas you'll find here are strictly nonpoisonous. They work by conditioning ani- Ichneumon mals to look elsewhere for dinner. wasp Use these same approaches when developing your own formulas to solve unusual pest problems in your garden. For example, if you have a problem with an insect that eats one type of plant but is never seen on another, try planting the two types of plants close to each other to confuse the pest and lessen the damage. Or you might brew a tea from leaves of the plant the pest ignores and use it to drench the plant that the pest likes. It just might fool them!

Your first defense against Pests

If you spot insect pests on a plant, simply pick them off! Then dispense with the pests using two flat rocks or whatever squashing method you can think up.

If the pests are too small, fast, or numerous for hand-picking, take action right away with an appropriate pest control formula. Pest populations tend to build up very quickly, and it's always easier to control a pest problem the day you discover it than to wait for another day—by then, you may face double the problem.

Deluxe Seed-Starting and Soil-Block Mix

Your seedlings will get off to a great start in a loose, light planting mix like this recipe from Maine's master organic grower Eliot Coleman, author of The New Organic Grower. Use the mix in traditional plastic seedling flats, recycled yogurt cups, or other containers, or try making soil blocks—lightly compressed cubes of potting soil made with a special tool called a soil block-maker (see "Sources," beginning on page 308). Eliot says that the advantage of starting your seedlings in soil blocks is that "roots grow throughout the block of the soil up to the edges and then wait, poised to continue growing as soon as they're set into the garden, instead of circling around the walls and becoming rootbound as they do if grown in regular containers."

Ingredients and Supplies
10-quart bucket (for measuring)
1/2 cup lime
40 quarts peat moss
Dust mask
Wheelbarrow
1 buckets coarse sand or perlite
1 cup colloidal phosphate 1 cup greensand
1 cup blood meal (if you plan to use the
mix for growing larger transplants) I bucket soil
1 buckets very well-aged compost, sifted

Directions
1. Mix the lime into the peat moss. Wear a dust mask to avoid breathing dust from dry ingredients. A wheelbarrow is a good mixing container.
2. Combine the peat-lime mixture with the coarse sand or perlite, the colloidal phosphate, and the greensand, which provides potassium and trace elements. If you're making this mix for growing larger transplants, add the blood meal, too. Leave out the blood meal if you're making small soil blocks for germinating seeds—they don't need the extra nourishment.
3. Mix in the soil and the compost and stir all ingredients together thoroughly.
4. Fill your containers with the mix and tap them to eliminate any large air pockets. Then plant your seeds according to the packet directions and loosely cover the containers with plastic to keep the mix moist until they sprout.

Yield: About 1 bushels of planting mix

Note: To make soil blocks, Eliot recommends moistening the mix with about I part water to 3 parts mix. Spread the moistened mix on a hard surface at a depth that is thicker than the blocks you're making. Press the block-maker into the mix with a quick push, followed by a twisting motion when it hits the table surface. Then lift the block-maker, set it into your tray and eject the blocks with the plunger. You can set your finished soil blocks in regular plastic seedling flats or, Eliot suggests, try using plastic bread trays from a commercial bakery.


Word of Damping-Off
Moisten your planting mix before using a soil block maker—moist mix makes it easier to form blocks that will hold together.

The compost in Eliot Coleman's seed-starting mix will help prevent damping-off, a fungal disease that infects seedling stems and causes the young plants to fall over and die. Other steps to prevent damping-off include:
► Providing good air circulation. Run a small fan near the pots and don't plant seeds too thickly.
►Cover seeds with a layer of milled light sphagnum moss (often sold as "No Damp Off"). Studies have shown the moss contains compounds that inhibit damping-off.
►Give seedlings the brightest light you can. If you don't have a greenhouse or large south-facing window, use fluorescent shop lights and keep your plants just an inch or so below the tubes

Raise Your Beds and Lower Your Labor

Improve your soil with NO digging, using this nifty raised bed recipe from landscape designer Pat Lanza of Wurtsboro, New York. You just layer the ingredients for these "lasagna" beds right on top of the existing sod or soil. Pat says that her recipe will give you a raised garden bed "in half the time and with a third the work" of conventional bed-preparation methods! Pat's "lasagna" recipe is for a 4 X 12-foot garden bed.

Ingredients and Supplies

Newspapers, wet (no glossy colored sections)

4-cubic-foot bale peat moss, moistened

3 bushels grass clippings

3 bushels shredded leaves

3 bushels compost

4 bags dehydrated manure or 4 wheel - barrows full of aged barnyard manure

1 bucket wood ashes or 4 cups limestone

Plastic sheet (to cover bed)

Stones or bricks

Directions

1. Measure the bed and mark the corners, then stomp down any tall weeds or grass.

2. Lay wet newspaper—about 10 to 12 sheets thick—over the sod, overlapping the edges.

3. Now make your "lasagna": Cover the paper with a 2-inch layer of moistened peat moss, then 4 inches of grass clippings, 2 more inches of peat, then 4 inches of shredded leaves, 2 inches of peat, 4 inches of compost, 2 inches of peat, and 4 inches of manure. (You can substitute other organic materials, such as hay or straw, for the peat moss, grass, leaves, compost, and manure.)

4. Moisten each layer thoroughly as you go, repeating the layers until all the ingredients are used. Sprinkle the ashes or lime over the top of the bed.

5. Cover this "lasagna" with plastic, using rocks or bricks to secure the edges, and let it "bake" for at least a few weeks—the longer the better.

6. When you're ready to start planting, remove the plastic, and stir all the ingredients together with a garden fork. Then pop in your plants, water, and mulch.

Yield: One 4 X 12-foot raised bed that can provide fresh herbs, vegetables, and flowers for 1 to 4 people all season

Note: Pat says this recipe gives you a rich, raised bed with delicious soil and without any digging. "It's so easy, and it takes little time and little money," she adds. And, just one season after you build your bed, you'll lind that even the hardest clay soil under it

will be looser due to the magic worked by the composted materials in the bed (and the earthworms they attract).

Create the perfect soil for raised beds! After covering the top of the pile with plastic, sun-bake lasagna-like layers of organic ingredients for a few weeks. The materials will break down over time to create rich, crumbly compost you can grow your plants in.

Paralyzing Pest Salsa

Paralyze pests with salsa that's only a little stronger than you might eat on your chips. The creator of this formula, Santa Barbara gardener and author Kathleen Yeomans, uses it to control pests ranging from ants to black widow spiders. "This is my favorite all-purpose insect spray," Kathleen says. According to Kathleen, the spray will make ants pass out cold, and it has actually killed a black widow spider.

Ingredients and Supplies

2 pounds ripe, blemished tomatoes

1 large onion

1 pound fresh chili peppers

2 cloves garlic

Food processor or blender

1 cup vinegar

1/2 teaspoon pepper

Cheesecloth or coffee filter

Pump spray bottle

Directions

1. Roughly chop the tomatoes, onion, peppers, and garlic.

2. Place the chopped vegetables in a food processor or blender and blend until liquefied.

3. Add vinegar and pepper to the mixture.

4. Strain the mixture through several layers of cheesecloth or a disposable coffee filter.

5. Pour the strained liquid into the pump spray bottle.

6. Spray the liquid directly on pests that you spot in your garden.

Yield: About 3 cups of insect-knockout salsa

Note: Crushed garlic contains allicin, the smelly compound that confounds the sensory receptors of insects in search of a tasty plant feast. Hot peppers are loaded with fiery capsaicin, which gives a chemical burn to marauding mammals and some solt-bodied insects. Onions help give the salsa an extra aromatic kick, and the sulfur in them may suppress some fungal diseases. Many pests avoid tomatoes, so the unmistakable tomato odor signals them to look elsewhere.

Caution: This salsa can be highly irritating if it gets in your eyes or mouth, so spray it only on a windless day.

Satisfy Acid-Loving Plants with Sulfur

Even if your soil isn't naturally acidic, you can grow acid-loving plants like azaleas, rhododendrons, or blueberries, says Dan Hartmann, general manager of Hartmann's Plantation in Grand Junction, Michigan. The secret is to add the right amount of sulfur to the soil to lower the pH. Dan explains how to figure out "the right amount."

Ingredients and Supplies
Soil pH test results
Granular or powdered sulfur
Peat moss or acidic compost

Directions
1. Before you can determine how much sulfur to add, you need to get your soil tested to find out the pH. Check with your garden center or local extension office for information on testing services,- home test kits are also available.
2. Use the chart on the facing page to determine how much sulfur to add to lower the pH to about 5.5, which is low enough for blueberries and many other acid-lovers.
3. "If possible, apply the sulfur to the planting area in the fall," Dan advises, "or at the very least 1 month before you plant in the spring."
4. If you absolutely have to plant immediately, amend the soil in the planting hole with up to 50 percent peat moss. Then apply the sulfur to the top of the soil just beyond the planting hole. The naturally acidic peat moss will get the plants started and by the time their roots reach into the soil outside the peaty area, the sulfur will have had time to lower the pH.
5. Dan says you'll also need to add more sulfur in the future. "Probably every year if you started with a pH 7 soil,- every other year for pH 6.5,- and every 3 to 4 years if your soil was pH 6." He cautions that you should apply sulfur only in the winter when the plants are dormant.

Super - Simple Seed Starting Mix

This variation on Connie Beck's mix (above) substitutes vermiculite (moisture-holding bits of expanded mica), guaranteeing that transplants get off to a good start.

Ingredients and Supplies
1 part vermiculite
1 part compost (sifted)
Milled sphagnum peat moss, or clean, fine sand

Directions
1. Blend vermiculite into compost and fill flats or small (4-inch) pots with the mix.
2. Sow your seeds as directed on the package.
3. Sprinkle a fine dusting of moss or sand on the surface of the mix to discourage the fatal disease called "damping-off" that can infect seedlings at ground level in moist conditions.

Fruitful fruit trее fertilizer

With plant food—as with people food—moderation is the key. Fruit trees need nitrogen to bear good crops, but too much nitrogen makes them grow too many leaves at the expense of flowers and fruit. Fish emulsion is an excellent source of nitrogen for fruit trees. By following a three-times-a-year fertilization program, you can bring young fruit trees to bear without a hitch.

Ingredients and Supplies

1 teaspoon fish emulsion

5 gallons water

5 gallon bucket

Directions

1. To fertilize newly planted fruit trees, mix the fish emulsion and water in the bucket and apply. Soak the feeder root area (see the illustration at the right) with the full 5 gallons of formula 3 times: once in early spring while trees are still dormant, once after blossoms fall, and again in early summer.

2. Every year after the first year, increase the concentration of fish emulsion by 1 teaspoon, until the trees reach maturity. Apply the full 5 gallons to the feeder root area 3 times per year, just as described above. By the time the tree is full-size, you'll probably be using 10 teaspoons of concentrated liquid fish fertilizer with every 5 gallons of water for a semi-dwarf (12- to 15-foot-tall) tree.

Yield: 5 gallons of fruit tree fertilizer

Variation: Another good way to fertilize is to mulch your fruit trees early in the spring with 2 or 3 inches of compost or hay that's been fortified with a high-nitrogen organic material like manure. Simply sprinkle 2 shovelfuls of dried manure over the ground before you apply the mulch.

When you fertilize young fruit trees, pour the mix around each tree in a band that extends T inside the drip line to 3' outside the drip line. This way, you'll reach most of the young tree's feeder roots.

Super - Simple Potting Mix

What could possibly be simpler than this two-ingredient container mix recipe from Connie Beck, who teaches vocational horticulture in San Diego County, California. You can buy perlite—a very lightweight natural mineral—at garden centers.

Ingredients and Supplies
I part perlite
1 part compost (sifted)

Directions
1. Moisten the perlite before you start mixing—it's usually very dusty.
2. Mix the perlite into the compost, and you're ready to plant!

Note: Connie says that this mix is so good at preventing diseases that she lacks examples of plant problems to show her students.

Flowering houseplant fertilizer

Foliage plants will put on plenty of leaf growth if you feed them with a high-nitrogen fertilizer, like fish emulsion. But flowering houseplants need more potassium and phosphorus to put on a blooming big show. Go ahead and give flowering plants fish emulsion when you fertilize your foliage plants, but supplement their diet with this mix, which has an NPK (nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium) ratio of 5-6-4.

Ingredients and Supplies

2 parts cottonseed meal

2 parts bonemeal

2 parts wood ashes

Bowl or bucket for mixing

Directions

1. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.

2. Using a fork, work the fertilizer into the top layer of soil, applying every 6 to 8 weeks at a rate of 1 teaspoon per 6-inch pot.

3. Store unused fertilizer in a sealed, labeled container for future feedings.

Be gentle when you work fertilizer into houseplants soil—you don't want to tear up the plant's roots. Use an old fork or a chopstick to mix the fertilizer into the soil without injuring the plant.

A Quick Pick-Me-Up for Plants

The caffeine in coffee gives us a quick pick-me-up, but coffee and coffee grounds contain nutrients that can give plants a gentle jolt. They're a rich source of nitrogen, tannic acids, and other nutrients. Acid-loving plants, especially, respond to coffee grounds and leftover coffee. (For a list of plants that will benefit from a coffee pick-me-up, see "Acid-Loving Plants" on the facing page.)

Ingredients and Supplies
Coffee grounds
Newspaper

Directions
1. Air-dry coffee grounds in a thin layer on newspaper outdoors.
2. Work the grounds directly around the base of acid-loving plants, or, for container plants, sprinkle the surface of the soil lightly with grounds.
3. Repeat monthly.

Note: You can skip the drying step by putting wet grounds directly into your compost pile. II you don't have enough coffee grounds to go around, stop by the local coffee shop or diner and load up. Most are happy to let you take all you can carry. You can also water plants with diluted leftover colfee in water for a quick green-up. For outdoor garden plants, use a 1:2 dilution of coffee in water. For tender or indoor plants, use a 1:4 dilution.

Don't throw away those coffee grounds! Instead, spread them out in а '1/4" layer on a metal tray to dry. They'll make excellent fertilizer for your acid-loving plants.

Save your eggshells Too
When you set aside the coffee grounds from your morning coffee, make sure you save the eggshells from your breakfast eggs as well. Sprinkle the eggshells in your compost pile. Eggshells supply calcium, and the beneficial microbes that break down organic material in your compost pile will work faster and better if you put a little calcium in their diet.

Super food for roses

"Roses really respond to organic fertilizers," says Judy McKeon, chief horticulturist and rosarian for the Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. "We fertilize all of our roses with this organic blend in early spring and give repeat-bloomers a second application in early summer," she says. "They respond with fantastic foliage and flowers."

Ingredients and Supplies

2-gallon bucket 1 cup alfalfa meal 1 cup fish meal 1 cup greensand % cup bonemeal 1 cup gypsum Dust mask

Directions

1. Mix all ingredients together in the bucket. Wear a dust mask while you work.

2. Pull back mulch and work the mix gently into the soil.

3. Reapply mulch and water well.

Yield: 4,1/2 cups of natural rose food

Note: This formula makes enough fertilizer to feed 1 large rose bush or several small ones. If you prefer, you can triple or quadruple the recipe and store the extra rose tood in a sealed, labeled container in a dry, cool place.

In early spring, push back the mulch around your rose bushes and work organic fertilizer into the top inch of soil. Then remulch the soil and water well. Results—robust roses!

Fabulous Fertilizer Fix for Bulbs

Bulbs need more than bonemeal to do their best. Bonemeal does supply daffodils, tulips, and other bulbs with the phosphorus and calcium they crave, but this fertilizer mix offers more. To give your bulbs a more complete diet this fall, add nitrogen (from blood meal) and potash (from greensand or ashes) to your bulbs' bonemeal meal.

Ingredients and Supplies

2-3 pounds blood meal

2-3 pounds bonemeal

2-3 pounds greensand or wood ashes (use greensand if your soil's pH is near neutral, use wood ashes to raise the pH if your soil is acidic)

Dust mask or respirator

Cloves

Safety goggles

Bucket, washtub, or plastic drop cloth Shovel

Free Fertilizer Mix

If you have horses or cows—or access to a stable or farm—you can substitute dry manure for the Fabulous Fertilizer mix. (Store-bought manure will work as well.) Use 16 gallons of dry manure, or a Vi-inch layer per 100 square feet of bed. Reapply each spring.

Compost is another great free fertilizer option. Rather than making the Fabulous Fertilizer mix, you can apply 16 gallons (or a 1/4-inch layer) of compost per 100 square feet of bulb bed in fall and 2 pounds of blood meal in spring each year.

Directions

1. Put on a dust mask or respirator, gloves, and safety goggles (fertilizer materials are dusty), then mix all the ingredients in the bucket or washtub or on the drop cloth, stirring them together with a shovel.

2. Topdress established bulb beds with the mixture in early spring when the foliage starts to emerge from the ground. Broadcast the fertilizer over the soil surface without working it into the soil. Wear your dust mask or respirator, goggles, and gloves for this step, too. Digging around the emerging bulbs can damage roots, so let spring rains wash the fertilizer into the ground.

Yield: Enough fertilizer for 100 square feet

Variation: Substitute 2 pounds colloidal phosphate for the bonemeal. Colloidal phosphate breaks down gradually over about 5 years, so test your soil to see what it needs before fertilizing again.

Compost Is - His Plants' Cup of Tea

Malcolm Beck of San Antonio, Texas, knows compost. He is the author of The Secret Life of Compost, and he manufactures and sells up to 100,000 cubic yards of it every year. Malcolm believes that compost solubles (the materials that are released when you make the compost tea) are the best part of the pile. He says that these dissolved minerals, microbes, hormones, and other ingredients in compost tea feed the plants, act as a general tonic, and also discourage some pests and diseases. So he makes a simple but effective tea from compost and uses it to feed his plants regularly.

Ingredients and Supplies

5 - gallon (or larger) buchet

1 tablespoon molasses

Biostimulant (optional)

Directions

1. Fill the bucket 'A full with compost.

2. Fill the bucket to the top with water.

3. Add molasses and biostimulant (optional).

4. Allow the mixture to stand for 2 to 4 days.

5. Strain the mixture through a piece of old panty hose and dilute until the color of iced tea.

Yield: About 4 gallons (or more, depending on the size of the bucket) of compost tea

Fungus - Fighting Tea

Malcolm Beck says that there are many active ingredients in compost that can help control diseases and deter insect infestations, including many kinds of soil microbes. You can put his basic compost tea to work as a pest fighter, but for fungicidal use, allow the tea to sit for two weeks before using. Malcolm is even using compost tea as an ingredient in a new remedy for repelling imported fire ants.

Note: Apply as a soil drench or foliar (leaf) spray to seedlings, vegetables, and fast-growing plants once a week. Use once a month for slow-growing houseplants.

The Worms` Turn

Jay Mertz always makes room for earthworms at Rabbit Hill Farm in Corsicana, Texas, where he and his wife, Joanne, raise earthworms and sell castings, potting soil, and organically grown plants. He knows that earthworms not only aerate the soil to a depth of 6 feet and make minerals more available in the process, but each earthworm also produces rich fertile castings, or manure, and lots of it—up to its body weight each day! The castings contain several vital nutrients as well as an enzyme that increases the moisture holding capacity of the soil.

"Earthworm castings are the worlds best fertilizer," Jay claims. Castings contain all the nutrients plants need for a terrific start, and the additional Epsom salts in his formula provide magnesium for sweet, juicy tomatoes and melons.

Ingredients and Supplies

12 cups earthworm castings

1/4 cup Epsom salts

Plastic measuring cup or empty 8-ounce yogurt container

Directions

1. Put earthworm castings in a bucket or other container and add the Epsom salts. Mix well.

2. Put 1 cup of the mixture in the bottom ol each transplant hole as you plant tomatoes and melons.

Yield: 1214 cups of organic fertilizer mix

Your own Earthworm Farm

You can buy earthworm castings from a garden supply catalog. But it's more fun to build a worm composter to produce a free supply of castings. Earthworms make composting easy - even indoors! )ust use a small box to hold earthworms, soil, and kitchen waste. These polite houseguests will consume your kitchen food wastes and shredded newspapers and give you earthworm castings, the world's greatest fertilizer. All they ask for is a nice warm, dark bed and steady meals. To learn more about earthworms and worm bins, see pages 20-21.

Swiss Chard Cocktail

Did you go overboard on sowing Swiss chard? Or maybe you're looking for a fast-growing fertilizer source to fill in some empty garden space? You can solve your problems and satisfy your plants' hunger by serving them Swiss chard tea for a quick pick-me-up. Fantastic in salads, stir-fries or just steamed, Swiss chard is great for plants, too. "A happy hour for sad-looking plants" is how Dominique Inge, a self-described "passionate gardener," characterizes her recipe. She uses it regularly on the plants in her organic gardens in Granbury, Texas.

Ingredients and Supplies
2 cups red or green Swiss chard leaves,
coarsely chopped Blender
Cheesecloth or colander

Directions
1. Place the chopped leaves in the blender.
2. Add enough hot water to fill the blender jar and blend thoroughly.
3. Strain the mixture through cheesecloth or a colander and apply the cooked leaves around the base of plants.
4. After the liquid cools, use it as a soil drench around plants.

Yield: About 8 cups of Swiss chard tea
Note: Swiss chard leaves that are longer than 10 inches are best added to the compost pile or used in this tonic tea. You can also use the liquid that's left after cooking Swiss chard in the same way.

Variation: If all of your chard winds up on the dinner table, you can substitute comfrey in this recipe. Its leaves are high in calcium, phosphorus, potassium, trace minerals, and vitamins А, В-12, and C.

Give your Plants a Weed Feed

If you can't beat 'em, feed with 'em. That could be the motto of Neil Strickland of Raymond, Mississippi. Neil fertilizes his entire vegetable garden and 3-acre orchard exclusively with a homemade weed tea. Just like cover crops, weeds contain traces of the "big three" nutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. "And fast-growing weeds have many growth hormones and trace minerals," Neil says. He uses whatever is on hand for his brew, including horsetail (Ecjuisetum arvense), chickweed, comfrey, nettles, and even willow branches and grass clippings. "If you can use only one plant, make it willow branches," he says, "because they contain many growth hormones that are especially beneficial for transplants."

Ingredients and Supplies

55-gallon drum or several 5-gallon buckets

Silica-rich plants, like s t i n g i n g or false

nettles, or horsetail

Any type of will o w branch (watersprouts are especially good)

Green matter, such as fresh lawn c l i p pings, chickweed , and comfrey

Rainwater or chlorine-free water

Directions

1. C o a r s e l y c h o p some silica-rich plants, w i l l o w , and green matter, and fill the drum or buckets % to 'Л full of plant material.

2. Fill the d r um or buckets w i t h rainwater or chlorine-free water. It's important to use water that hasn't been c h l o r i n a t e d , because chlorine may kill the microbes that break down the plant matter.

3. Let the mixture stand in the sun for several days (preferably not too close to the house—this is a pretty fragrant fertilizer!).

4. Pour or drain the liquid off the top into a separate container.

5. To use, mix 1 quart of the fertilizer liquid in 5 gallons of water. Spray on plant leaves as a foliar fertilizer, or use as a soil drench

for vegetables, fruit trees, and ornamentals. (Neil often uses the liquid full strength on established plants and has not experienced any burning.)

Yield: About 30 gallons of nutrient tea

Note: Add more water and new weed material to the drum or buckets as you use the fertilizer and you'll have a continuous source of plant food. "It's like sourdough starter," explains Neil's friend, Kathleen Chapman, also of Raymond, Mississippi. "You have to keep it going by continuing to add fresh plants and more water. The sludge that remains in the bottom of the container contains microbes that keep the fertilizer cooking." Kathleen says that this weed tea keeps her flower and herb gardens lush and green all season long.

Plant Help from Kelp

Looking for the perfect all-purpose food for your perennials, herbs, shrubs, roses, and fruit trees? Phil Boise of Goleta, California, has concocted an organic mix that keeps his plants healthy and productive all year. Phil and his wife, Ellen McLaughlin, sell organically grown plants, organic pest controls, fertilizers, and seeds at Island Seed and Feed in Goleta. "Don't skimp on the kelp," Phil says. He uses only coldwater harvested kelp. "It has a lower salt content and a better nutrient, hormone, and mineral percentage." He's found that kelp also helps to improve the pest and disease resistance of his plants.

Ingredients and Supplies
1 part kelpmeal
2 parts alfalfa meal
4 parts any combination cottonseed meal, fish meal, and/or soybean mea
1 part rock phosphate
Dust mask
Gloves
Safety goggles

Directions
1. Mix all ingredients thoroughlywhile wearing a dust mask, gloves, and safety goggles.
2. Use up to 3 cups for each mature rosebush, perennial, or shrub. For annuals and herbs, use only up to I|A cups. For midsize fruit trees, you can apply up to 6 cups.
3. Apply 2 or 3 times a year.

Recycled plastic containers like yogurt cups make perfect scoops for measuring fertilizer ingredients in "parts." When mixing ertilizers, wear gloves and a dust mask to protect your skin and to avoid inhaling fine dust particles.

Seedling Starter Solution

It's tough being a transplant. If you've ever moved to a new house or a new town, you know how stressful relocation can be. Moving is just as tough for your plants as it is for you. So give your transplants a break on moving day by serving them a sip of weak "starter solution." Your young plants will recover quickly from the shock of transplanting with this nutrient boost.

Ingredients and Supplies
1/2 cup fish emulsion 1/2 cup seaweed extract Small disposable container,
like a coffee can 8-ounce jar or bottle with lid

Directions

1. Mix the fish emulsion and seaweed extract together in the container.
2. Pour the mix into a jar or bottle. Seal it tightly, label it, and store it in a cool, dark place, like a basement storage cabinet.
3. To use, add 3 tablespoons of starter solution to 1 gallon of water. Use as a soil drench at transplanting time or as a spray for foliar (leaf) feeding.
Yield: 1 cup of fertilizer concentrate


Keep seedlings growing
strong by misting them with starter solution
every 2 weeks. The light mist from the spray bottle won't disturb
roots or leaves like thi heavy stream from a watering can would.


More starter solutions

If you don't have the ingredients to make a fish emulsion-seaweed extract starter solution, you can substitute compost or manure. Don't use manure tea or manure-based compost tea to provide a nutrient boost for your fruit or vegetable crops, since there's a chance manure can carry E. coli bacteria.
To make compost or manure tea, fill a large trash can or other waterproof container one-eighth full of compost or manure. Then fill the container to the top with water. Allow the mixture to steep for a day or two, stirring several times during this period. Dip off the liquid and dilute it with water to a light amber color.
Water each transplant with clear water, then pour about a cup of this solution around the base of each plant. Repeat at 10- to 14-day intervals.

Fantastic foliar feeding formula

"Foliar (or leaf) feeding is the most efficient way to fertilize," says John Dromgoole, owner of Garden-Ville nursery in Austin, Texas, and host of the "Gardening Naturally" radio program. "When you apply fertilizer to the soil, the roots may take up as little as 10 percent of the nutrients," he explains, "but when fertilizer is applied to the leaves, 90 percent of the material is absorbed." John regularly foliar-feeds all of the nursery stock at Garden-Ville, as well as the plants in his home landscape. His formula includes fish emulsion for nitrogen and seaweed for trace minerals, growth stimulants, and plant hormones. One of John's secret ingredients is blackstrap molasses, which contains iron and sulfur as well as simple sugars that nourish the plants.

Ingredients and Supplies

2 tablespoons fish emulsion

1 tablespoon liquid seaweed

1 teaspoon blackstrap or horticultural grade molasses

1 tablespoon Medina or other biostimu-

lant (if available)

1 gallon water (rainwater, if possible)

Pump spray bottle

Directions

1. Mix all ingredients well.

2. Pour the mixture into a pump sprayer and spray on plants, especially the undersides of the leaves, until the liquid drips off.

Yield: About 1 gallon of liquid fertilizer Note: You can use this solution on annuals, perennials, roses, vegetables, and fruit trees. Start weekly applications as seedlings develop their first set of true leaves and continue until blooming begins. For vegetables, make one final application when your plants set fruit. Apply to fruit trees as blossoms drop and leaves begin developing. To use as a transplant starter, mix the solution at half strength and apply as a soil drench.

Money saving tip

Instead of using liquid seaweed, buy seaweed powder and mix it with water at home to make your own concentrate. Not only can you mix small amounts as needed, you'll also save up to 30 percent of the cost.

Let Those Grass Clippings Lie

Grass clippings make great fertilizer, according to Cyane Gresham, compost specialist at the Rodale Institute Experimental Farm in Kutztown, Pennsylvania. Cyane says that it's a crime to waste grass clippings by bagging them up for disposal with household trash because they're such a terrific organic source of nitrogen and other nutrients. "Grass clippings should never leave your property. They are too valuable as a mulch and fertilizer for the lawn, gardens, and landscape," Cyane explains.

Ingredients and Supplies

Lawn mower

Rake

Wheelbarrow or 5-gallon bucket

Directions

1. Mow your lawn.

2. To fertilize the lawn, leave the grass clippings in place. They will break down and add organic matter and nutrients to the soil. To fertilize other areas, rake up some of the clippings (especially in areas where the clippings are dense and might choke out the grass growing underneath them).

3. Put the clippings in a wheelbarrow or bucket and transport them to your garden.

4. Apply the clippings lightly around garden plants. Avoid dense mats of clippings—these can keep water from penetrating the soil. If necessary, mix some fallen leaves into the clippings to create a looser mulch.

Now it Right

Some gardeners like to give the lawn a buzz cut when they mow so they won't have to mow as often. But cutting your lawn short is tough on the grass, and it also makes it easier for weeds to grow in your lawn. Ideally, you should remove only one-third of the height of your grass when you mow. For example, if your lawn is 3 inches long at mowing time, you should cut off 1 inch of grass, at most. Mowing high means you can leave your grass clippings in place, which is good for your lawn and less work for you.

If you've missed a mowing or two and have to remove more than one-third of the grass, don't panic. Just rake up the clippings and use them as mulch around your perennials, herbs, or roses.

Haw Gives Plants Horsepower

Want great performance from your perennials? "Fuel them with high-octane alfalfa hay tea," says John Dromgoole, owner of Garden-Ville nursery in Austin, Texas, and host of the "Gardening Naturally" radio program. Alfalfa has been used for centuries as livestock feed. But John says that everything that makes it a valuable feed— high nitrogen, vitamin A, folic acid, potassium, calcium, and trace minerals—also makes it a great foliar plant food. John says alfalfa tea is especially good for roses and long-blooming ornamentals. You can also substitute bagged alfalfa meal for the hay.

Ingredients and Supplies

5-gallon bucket

1 bale organically grown alfalfa hay,

coarsely chopped, or 1 bag alfalfa meal Panty hose or cheesecloth

Directions

1. Fill the bucket V, full with alfalfa hay or alfalfa meal.

2. Add water (preferably rainwater) to fill the bucket.

3. Allow the tea to brew for I week to 10 days. (This tea smells pretty strong, so don't mix it too near the house!)

4. To make a foliar (leaf) spray or a soil drench, strain the mixture through cheesecloth or a piece of old panty hose. Dilute with water at a ratio of I cup of mixture per gallon of water. The final result should look like light transparent tea.

Yield: About 4 gallons of concentrated nutrient tea

Bale barn

One bale of hay should feed your garden for an entire gardening year. (Or you may be able to collect loose hay from the floor of a local feed store—for free!) Chop and mix the alfalfa as needed. Store the remaining hay under cover to prevent leaching and loss of nutrients. You can . keep the hay in a garage or garden shed, or cover it with a tarp in a shady spot.

Note: To replenish the mix, just add more hay and more water to the bucket as needed. When the bucket is full of "used" alfalfa, you can use the dregs to sidedress established plants in the garden.

Spring-Planting Special Organic fertilizer

If you really want to know what kind of organic fertilizer you're putting on your flower and vegetable gardens, quit buying prebagged mixes. Make your own homemade fertilizer and you won't have to wonder about those "extra" ingredients that tend to show up in commercial fertilizers. This mix will give you the "grow power" of a 25-pound bag of 5-10—10 fertilizer—that's 5 percent nitrogen, 10 percent phosphorus, and 10 percent potassium—with no unnecessary additives.

Ingredients and Supplies

17 pounds cottonseed meal

8 pounds colloidal phosphate

45 pounds granite dust Respirator Gloves Safety goggles

Large wheelbarrow or plastic drop cloth Shovel

Directions

1. Find out what your garden needs before you apply fertil izer. Send a soil sample to a testing lab and ask them for organic recommendations. (See "Organic Soil Testing" on page 57 for labs that offer this service.)

2. Put on the respirator (a more effective form of dust mask), gloves, and goggles, then place all the ingredients in the wheelbarrow or on the drop cloth and mix with the shovel.

3. Before planting in spring, spread the fertilizer over the garden area—the amount you'll need to use depends on your soil test. (Wear gloves, goggles, and a respirator when you work.) Hoe or rake the fertilizer into the top 4 to 6 inches of soil.

Yield: The equivalent of 25 pounds of 5-10-10 commercial organic fertilizer