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