Best Simple and Common Fertilizer?

[tuk50]

Good thread......... b54red, I use cottonseed meal and alfalfa like you as my main fertilizer along with composted horse manure and straw bedding. My garden is about 2000sq ft and was an old driveway and cactus patch .... we have absolutely no organic matter here or worms, and like texas gardeners the heat and irrigation depletes it in a hurry. I'm just now getting the soil usable.. I plant cotton, vetch, alfalfa and buckwheat between 5ft rows each year to turn in ... one organic material that is available here is pecan hulls... you might find some where you live... most nut hulls will hold up in the soil here for a few years when applied at the rate of 3 or 4 inches. I also applied soft rock phosphate the first year only... this past summer revealed worms well distributed over the entire garden.. a victory here LOL.

[hornstrider]

Great thread.....I am getting my spring tomato beds ready (raised beds). I spent the weekend pulling out my frozen plants, and working the beds w/ my garden fork. My soil is like butter, and the worms are jumpin'. I don't have to use the tiller anymore. I am afraid I will kill all of the worms in my beds. I pulled the old plants, and forked the dirt, and added alfalfa pellets, coffee grounds (from Starbucks), and green sand. My bed levels are down approx 4 inches. I plan to add turkey compost to fill the bed back up to "full". My broccoli plants are on their last leg. The hard freeze we had a few weeks ago really set them back. I am still getting a few florets of broccoli, but they are pretty much done. I am picking the dead leaves, breaking them up, and putting them in my forked beds. Question: Should I put the turkey compost in now, or wait until a few weeks before planting time?

[hornstrider]

Suze......I use leaves topped w/ pine straw to mulch my beds. The pine straw helps keep the leaves from blowing away. I purchase the pine straw from the Natural Gardener in Austin. It is quite expensive. Can someone (like myself) come down to Bastrop, and harvest pine straw from areas like the State Park? or did the fire destroy the park? Are there other areas around Bastrop that I could harvest pine straw .

[amideutch]

I just put 3 bags of horse manure in my raised bed at work to winter over. Also used this product
for the first time this year with excellent results. Just drop 2-3 bags in your planting hole and plant your seedling after inoculating it with myco's. Ami

http://www.extremepumpkinstore.com/e...feederpak.html

[ScottinAtlanta]

Originally Posted by dhrtx

I put goat manure on top of the soil and try to put some type of hay to keep the weeds down. They will get no more fertilizer, nor have I seen the need. Last year much less manure with alfalfa hay for mulch also worked very well. Could not be simpler, and all has been free for the taking.

I was interested in your comment, since I just found some folks with goats who will let me take what I want. How thick is the manure you use, and do you put it just around the plants, or over the entire garden? Do you think the surface layering of manure provides Nitrogen to the soil?

We have alot of blight in the soil here, so I am looking for the right mulch to protect the plants.

[Suze]

Originally Posted by hornstrider

Suze......I use leaves topped w/ pine straw to mulch my beds. The pine straw helps keep the leaves from blowing away. I purchase the pine straw from the Natural Gardener in Austin. It is quite expensive. Can someone (like myself) come down to Bastrop, and harvest pine straw from areas like the State Park? or did the fire destroy the park? Are there other areas around Bastrop that I could harvest pine straw .

Yes, purchasing it is rather expensive.

I don't think gathering of pine straw or other materials is permitted in the parks.

As for other ways to get some free or cheap pine straw, I would take a look at Craigslist and see what's out there. I don't know of any place off-hand.

[Bladefan]

urine diluted 9 or 10 to 1...mix in some ash...

also look at this...

http://backtoedenfilm.com/

[Tracydr]

If the bare ingredients aren't there, how do the microbes feed the plants? It seems like the raw ingredients would still have to come from somewhere?

[Tracydr]

Originally Posted by tuk50

Good thread......... b54red, I use cottonseed meal and alfalfa like you as my main fertilizer along with composted horse manure and straw bedding. My garden is about 2000sq ft and was an old driveway and cactus patch .... we have absolutely no organic matter here or worms, and like texas gardeners the heat and irrigation depletes it in a hurry. I'm just now getting the soil usable.. I plant cotton, vetch, alfalfa and buckwheat between 5ft rows each year to turn in ... one organic material that is available here is pecan hulls... you might find some where you live... most nut hulls will hold up in the soil here for a few years when applied at the rate of 3 or 4 inches. I also applied soft rock phosphate the first year only... this past summer revealed worms well distributed over the entire garden.. a victory here LOL.

Where do find the pecan hulls? I'd love to get some of those!
I use a lot of pine needles as I have them free for the raking in my yard. In fact, my problem is too many trees, not enough sun. I have a lot of mature pine trees.
I've been trying to find cotton seed hulls and pecan hulls as they make good bedding and good mulch,plus cotton seed meal but no luck, here in the Phoenix area.

[Tracydr]

Originally Posted by amideutch

I just put 3 bags of horse manure in my raised bed at work to winter over. Also used this product
for the first time this year with excellent results. Just drop 2-3 bags in your planting hole and plant your seedling after inoculating it with myco's. Ami

http://www.extremepumpkinstore.com/e...feederpak.html

Last year, I grew my tomatoes and squash in pure horse manure, aged for a few months. They did quite well. This winter, I needed to fill my boxes and made the mistake if purchasing "topsoil". I should have mixed it with manure as my winter garden is barely growing. I'm about ready to pull out the topsoil and start hauling more manure.

[travis]

Best simple, cheap, and most widely available fertilizer I use regularly is 10-10-10. I prefer 9-12-12 or 10-15-15 if available. I amend applications of this cheap broadcast fertilizer with bone meal and gypsum. Of course my garden soil is built up with huge annual applications of cheap source organic matter like horse manure, leaf mulch, and straw mulch.

[Tracydr]

I often just take a scoop of pulverized chicken poo from the coop, put it in a bushel container, fill with water, steep and water the garden.
I don't know what a great idea this is but seems to work well. Things that look like they need something or are growing slowly perk up very quickly.
I also clean the coop out monthly ( bedding is alfalfa and pine straw), put it in a pile, water, compost until cool and use as a side dressing.

[barryla61]

TomatoDon,
When all else fails remember these 4 letters...K-I-S-S...Keep It Simple Stupid - not implying that you are stupid by any means but you get the jist.
I too have tried those "Magic Fertilizers" only to come back to tried and true, as well as much cheaper, methods of fertilizing my maters.
In a large tub I mix 3 parts old manure (preferably horse, if not then cow) and 1 part sand. For each shovel of this add 3/4 cup of lime and 1/2 cup of 5-10-10 and mix well - I use my Mantis tiller.
In my garden I dig a hole about a foot deep and place 2 shovels of the mix in the bottom and then put a plant in on top of that. I space plants plenty far apart 3-4 ft so they won't be competing for nutrients or sun. I'll come back in mid season and topdress with some fert from from my local co-op, 10-10-10 or 5-10-10.
Keep plants mulched good and let nature do the rest.
Merry Christmas everyone!

[Tracydr]

Is there a simple way to get the pine cones out when gathering pine straw? Those things are so annoying and take forever to break down.

[tuk50]

Tracydr, I get pecan hulls from my son in New Mexico.. he has a neighbor that has a small orchard and lets him bag them up and he brings them to me when he comes over to Tucson to visit. ... I'm just guessing, but there are probably similar places in Phoenix.... The cottonseed meal is getting harder to find, but still available at a couple of feed stores here. Soy bean meal is not talked much about, but works well also, as well as alfalfa pellets. I got some cotton seeds a couple of years ago and plant a row or two each year and use as a green manure crop.. the cotton gins around here won't let you use their trailings anymore.