DIY Complete Organic Fertilizer

Yesterday the girls and I and several missionaries from our church spent a few hours working in our backyard.  We made great progress, served the missionaries a respectable-ish lunch and sent them on their way, and Becky and I returned to the yard where our goal is to turn the very blah backyard into a beautiful edible landscape. 

I don’t know how competent the weather forecasters are where you live, but in our area they leave a bit to be desired.  To further complicate the already poor record they have, there is a day shift and a night shift.  Generally the day shift is very conservative in the forecast, especially where snow is concerned.  The night shift predicts copious amounts of snow, and is usually wrong.  Well, chalk one up for the night shift today.  That less than ½” of snow that the day shift prophesied has about 2” on top of it, and more coming.  Yes, folks, I am now entering Fourth Winter.  I would like to note that we are only supposed to have three winters here.  It was clearly beyond stupid of me yesterday to put the sleds away until next winter.  And yes, I know most of you are snickering at me as you continue to plant your gardens and are probably harvesting some greens already.

Anyway, last week I posted about the usage of different manures and compost in the garden.  I do really like our rabbit manure and composting the straw and waste from the sheep.  I think they work quite well for us and I’m generally pretty happy with our harvests each year.

However, not everyone has animals to produce manure and compost in sufficient quantities.  Even I don’t get enough from the animals at times.  Enter Complete Organic Fertilizer (COF).

This DIY fertilizer formula comes from Steve Solomon, author of Gardening When It Counts:  Growing Food in Hard Times and founder of Territorial Seed Company.  His book is a superb reference.  While he uses animal manure in his gardens, it is primarily to add organic matter to the soil, not nutrients.  The reasoning behind this is that the nutrients in animal manures aren’t necessarily balanced, and you can never be sure how beneficial they will actually be.  COF, on the other hand, is perfectly balanced.  It also takes much less space and doesn’t smell.  You could actually store quite a bit of it in a garden shed or corner of the garage for the future.

Here’s the simplest formula:

Complete Organic Fertilizer

16 parts seedmeal (I always use soybean meal)

4 parts bonemeal (or finely ground rock phosphate)

2 parts dolomite lime

1 part regular agricultural lime

1 part gypsum (if you don’t use or can’t get gypsum, double the amount of agricultural lime)

These are all measured by volume, not by weight, and measurements aren’t precise.  Use a scoop, jar, pot, whatever you have on hand.  I usually mix my fertilizer in a 4-5 gallon bucket. 

The best bet for getting the ingredients for this complete organic fertilizer (COF) is to make a trip to the ranch and feed store.  If you live in a city, taking a drive out of town may be worthwhile.  Buying these ingredients in small bags at the nursery is an expensive proposition.

Seedmeal is a by-product of the production of cooking oil (soybean, sunflower, canola, cottonseed, etc.) and is used as animal feed.  Seedmeals are quite stable and will store for years if kept dry and protected from mice. 

Using the three types of lime recommended will yield the best results.  Agricultural lime is calcium carbonate.  Dolomite lime contains about equal amounts of calcium and magnesium, while gypsum is calcium sulfate.  All of these minerals contribute to producing the healthiest plants and produce.  Do not substitute quicklime, burnt lime, or hydrated lime.  Like seedmeal, these limes are rather expensive if purchased in the pretty packages at nurseries and the big box stores, but relatively inexpensive in large bags at the ranch and feed stores. 

Steve Solomon advises sprinkling 4-6 quarts of COF per 100 square feet of soil and then working it in before planting.  That may be a little late for some of you.  (I’ve gotten another inch of snow in the past hour.  And it’s blowing hard from the east.  That’s usually a bad sign that a lot more is coming.  Well, bad in April.  Good in December or January if you want more sledding.  Please note that it is not December or January.)  Sorry for squirrel there.

Anyway, in an ideal world the COF gets spread on top of the soil and worked in before planting.  However, it also works well as a side dressing, particularly for medium- and high-demand vegetables.  Add it at about the same rate after the seedlings have been up for a few weeks.  Continue to side dress every 3-4 weeks.  Soil organisms break it down and release the nutrients to the plants slowly, just the way they want them.

One of the great advantages of using COF is that it is a slow-release fertilizer.  There’s no danger of overdoing the application and burning—and killing—the plants.  COF provides all the nutrients vegetable plants need to abundantly produce the most healthful vegetables for you.  Because it is concentrated, however, it is also easy to store the blended COF or the individual ingredients, even when space is limited.  And, unlike animal manures, COF is relatively odorless.  It just needs to be protected from moisture and mice. 

Enjoy your gardens today, people.  I have a driveway to shovel.

Links to related posts:

Dirty Thoughts:  Manure and Compost Management in Doomsday

Black Gold (AKA Rabbit Manure) 

13 july 2023