Creating Your Own Organic Fertilizers

As an avid gardener you may be quite convinced by the arguments for using organic fertilizers. However, you may find that you will feel a special sense of pride when you can produce a unique mix of organic fertilizer for your gardening purposes.

One of the biggest advantages that making your own organic fertilizer, gives you is that it is much cheaper than chemical fertilizers and cheaper than even most commercially available organic fertilizers. Of course, as you are aware, the raw materials that go into making organic fertilizers are not expensive and by understanding how to produce organic fertilizer at home, you save on the costs and make sure that your plants get all the nutrients they need.

Before you start working on your blend of organic fertilizer, you need to understand the basics how organic fertilizers work – what mix of ingredients produces what type of nutrients and in what concentrations. This will help you in deciding the kind of organic fertilizer you need for your plants and what ingredients you should choose in making one.

Organic fertilizers have many advantages over chemical fertilizers in that they release nutrients very slowly to the soil and from there to the plants. As a result, not too many nutrients are available to the plant at any point of time and there is no danger of the plant burning on an overdose of nutrients. Further, chemical fertilizers may also release other bio-degradable elements that may not only harm helpful microorganisms living in the soil but also go on to pollute our lands and waters.

You have to remember that if your fertilizer is to be organic, then the ingredients must also be organic. When in doubt, double check with the supplier that the materials he is supplying is absolutely organic. Some of the ingredients that you may use in making organic fertilizers are:

• Blood Meal – This provides all the three major nutrients that plants need including nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.
• Seed Meal – This also provides the three essential nutrients though seed meal is a little slower acting than blood meal. Some of the seed meals that are available are alfalfa, canola and cottonseed. Seed meals are very stable and if you can keep them in a safe and dry place, you can preserve them for years.
• Blood Meals or Seed Meals with Lime is in itself considered a fairly potent mixture and can be very effective in providing most of the nutrients to the soil in adequate amounts. In fact, if you have alkaline soil, you may not even need any lime in the mixture.
• Bone Meal and Phosphate rock can help increase the levels of phosphorus and potassium in the fertilizer.
• Dried Seaweed is another good addition since it not only contains trace elements but also many natural hormones that aid in the healthier growth of the plant.

Consult a local horticulturist or agriculturalist to help you understand the nature of the soil so that you can mix the perfect blend of organic fertilizer for it.