I'm developing a pretty large new garden area, as well as several smaller ones from a weedy, pasture-like area. This is the first time trying it, but I'm using Steve Soloman's Complete Organic Fertilizer recipe. This is it, copied from a webpage:
3 quarts oil seed meal such as soybean meal, cottonseed meal or canola seed meal or 1 1/2 quarts feather meal or fish meal (smelly)
or, the very best combination is probably 2 quarts oil seed meal, 1 pint feather meal and 1 pint fish meal
Add:
1 quart soft or colloidal rock phosphate (the best choice by far) or bone meal
1 quart kelp meal and/or 1 pint Azomite (for trace minerals) (And/or apply liquid kelp every 2 weeks as a foliar throughout the season.)
Add lime: choose one of these two options:
If you garden where the
land originally grew a forest, add these two:
1 pint agricultural limestone, 100# (fine grind) and
1 pint agricultural gypsum;
or if you garden where the land originally grew prairie grass or is a desert add:
1 quart agricultural gypsum
If you do not live in Cascadia, add 1/3 cup potassium sulfate.
The following last four items are optional:
1 teaspoon laundry borax or a smaller quantity of Solubor (1/2 gm actual boron)
1 1/2 teaspoons zinc sulfate
2 teaspoons manganese sulfate
1 teaspoon copper sulfate
Mix all ingredients are very thoroughly before spreading.
I'm using alfalfa meal in place of the seed meal, and this summer I am going to dry a bunch of comfrey from my plants for use in the mix next year in it's place. I also have Sea-90 that I will use alternately with the Azomite.
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