organic vegetarian fertilizer?

January 26, 2005

I had to do a double-take at the subject of your message because I thought

it was a message I had written!

I was going to circulate a message just like yours a few days ago because I

too, in vain, had looked everywhere - at every local nursery, home depot,

health food store, and internet mail order company -for the " perfect "

fertilizer (one without blood, fish, manure, bones, etc.). I went to my

local health food store today and found what I was looking for, apparently a

new arrival - Spring Earth Organic Compost distributed by UFG Products which

is located in Richmond, VA. The website is www.spring-earth.com.

I was terrified during my search for an organic fertilizer to learn what is

used in organic fertilizers - the blood and the bones - basically everything

that is left over from the slaughterhouse and the manure. All of these

ingredients could come from diseased animals and therefore, I wonder what

are we ingesting when we buy organic foods that were grown using these

fertilizers! I was tempted to use a man-made fertilizer and no pesticides

until I read that organic gardeners use only organic fertilizers!!

I felt inspired to try container gardening on my deck for the first time a

few weeks ago. I've never grown anything other than houseplants and flowers

(not from seeds). I know nothing about gardening other than what I've

learned so far from searching the net, getting books on organic gardening

from the library, calling companies that package organic seeds, and talking

to other amateur gardeners!!! I would love some land to grow food in the

ground, but since we don't, I'm taking advantage of my deck and am growing

indeterminate early girl tomatoes (from seedling), straight 8 cucumbers

(from seeds), sweet peppers (from seedling), basil and parsley (both from

seeds). Everything's growing accept the parsley. I learned that the

germination period for parsley could be up to 42 days. I hope that explains

why I don't see any fruit from my labor!!!

I don't know if my containers are deep enough for the vegetables. I don't

know how to stake my plants. I don't know if I need to add more compost to

the soil later, etc. I have heard from 2 amateur organic gardeners that the

only " fertilizer " that is needed to grow food is plant compost! We'll soon

see! I would love to make my own compost. I don't know about worm compost ,

but I plan to attend a free demo on making plant compost in a couple of

weeks.