Many organic garden fertilizers are not particularly good (or are potentially even harmful), so I thought I'd browse through and make a list of those that are worthwhile for you to purchase while you're there looking for books anyway.
This involved going back to the fertilizer manufacturers' websites and reading through their MSDS sheets and labels to see what the products are really made of. Lots of work, so I hope it's useful to you.
Canadians can find many high quality organic fertilizers at a business I used to run called The Organic Gardener's Pantry, but most of my readers live in other countries, and Amazon is all over the world, so I thought this would be helpful.
Amazon sells a lot of fertilizers that I got smothered trying to research them all, but I found some good ones for you, along with a number of "not-so-good" ones to stay away from.
By the way, there are a number of companies who appear to have their hearts in the right place, but I just can't suggest them because I don't like a few of the organic fertilizer ingredients they're mixing together. I'm not trying to pick on them, however.
Good Organic Fertilizers:
Maxicrop Seaweed Soluble Powder
This is a nice seaweed product from a company that's been around for awhile. I don't love all of their products, but this is a good buy. Their liquid seaweed is also good and perhaps a little easier to use. Seaweed is full of natural plant growth hormones and over 70 minerals that improve plant health. Kelp is one of the best organic fertilizers.
Plant Success Mycorrhizae Inoculant
Mycorrhizal fungi are very important to have in the garden. This is not an organic fertilizer - it's a microbial inoculant. They form a relationship with the roots of your plants, bringing water and nutrients to the roots in exchange for food. Not all inoculants are created equal, but I know this is probably a decent product because I've determined who manufactured the mycorrhizal spores.
SCD Bio Ag - EM
This is basically effective microorganisms, another microbial inoculant. This is the number 1 product I use in my garden, even before organic fertilizers. Actually, I buy a mother culture, which I can activate to make my own, whereas this seems to be more of an already-activated product that would just be used straight from the bottle.
Organic Neptune's Harvest Fish & Seaweed Fertilizer
An excellent price for a nice mixture of fish and seaweed. I tend to pay for fish and seaweed products individually to give myself more control about when I use them, but a combo is fine, too.
44 Lbs of Azomite Rock Dust
This is a really nice rock dust fertilizer, one of the best organic fertilizers on Amazon, providing a broad spectrum of minerals for your soil instead of just N-P-K. The only problem is it's pricey at over $50, and the additional $27 shipping would stop me from buying it. But if you can find it locally, go for it.
Dr. Earth Organic 5 Tomato Vegetable Herb Fertilizer
This organic fertilizer for vegetables contains fish bone meal, kelp meal, feather meal, alfalfa meal (alfalfa will be genetically modified soon), fish meal, soft rock phosphate, mined potassium sulfate (not always warranted), seaweed extract, humic acid, and 7 strains of soil microbes plus endo and ectomycorrhizae. I usually stay away from blends, but these ingredients should be okay. I like that it doesn't contain bone meal, GM seed meals, and too many mineral fertilizers like dolomite.
These Might Be Okay:
Bioform Liquid Organic Fertilizer
A liquid organic fertilizer that contains some good ingredients like molasses, seaweed and fish hydrolysate - but it also contains bone meal, which I don't recommend any more due to the transmission of prions connected with mad cow disease. I'm always kind of on the fence concerning bone meal, not wanting to totally discount it, but not promoting it either because of the potential troubles and because there are better alternatives.
Mastergardening Liquid Fish Emulsion
This can be okay, but I can't locate any information on it, which makes me walk away all the time. Is it really organic? Is it poor quality? An emulsion is usually not as excellent as a hydrolysate, but can indeed be useful - still, there's no way to say what is in here because they don't cover any info on it.
Dynamite Organic Fertilizer
Seems like it might be okay, but I can't find the ingredients on their website. If they don't list the ingredients, I don't buy.
Jobe's Organic All Purpose Granular Fertilizer
The company looks cool, but I'm not really fond of the ingredients in their products. This product and the others from this same brand contains ingredients that I no longer recommend - bone meal (mad cow disease), feather meal (which may or may not be all right, depending on source), composted poultry manure (may be acceptable if it was from organic birds, but is it?), and sulfate of potash (only if you require for both potassium and sulfur, which you very well might not).
These Are Not As Good:
Alaska Fish Fertilizer
This organic gardening fertilizer is not as high-quality as some other fish products, and I'm not fond of the track record of the mother company Lilly Miller. I like better the Neptune's Harvest fish and seaweed up above.
Espoma Organic Garden Lime
Lime is often used as an organic fertilizer, but I can't find out if this product is calcitic lime or dolomite lime. I can't get any other facts, plus its way too pricey for 5 pounds.
Monterey Fish & Poop
It's liquid fish and bat guano. Can't find much info on it, and it just doesn't look very good.
Miracle-Gro Organic Choice Liquid Plant Food
I don't recommend Miracle-Gro (made by Scotts - see below). Other than that, this product - fermented sugar beet molasses - could in fact be helpful organic fertilizer and biostimulant in the garden, but my major concern is that sugar beets at the present are being genetically modified.
These Are Not Recommended:
Milorganite "Organic Fertilizer"
It's sewage sludge. It's poisonous stuff, despite what they do to clean it up. Please make sure not to fall for their promotions. It's correct that we have to find ways to deal with our sewage - and more importantly, we need to stop putting chemical fertilizers, heavy metals, pesticides and other industrial pollutants into our soil and water systems - but composting it and putting it on our gardens is not the proper way.
Scotts Organic Lawn Fertilizer
I don't get anything from Scotts, not even organic garden fertilizers. Their aim is to gain more profit, not quality. Their chemicals are destroying the earth. In my observation, they are an unethical company. Just my opinion.
Hasta Gro Lawn Organic Fertilizer
I'm not sure how this can be labeled organic when it contains urea, phosphoric acid, and potassium nitrate. Actually, phosphoric acid is allowed in organics in small amounts as a stabilizer, but not the other two. It contains 12% nitrogen - too rich for my liking - and a bunch of cheap EDTA trace minerals.
Bradfield Luscious Organic Lawn Fertilizer
Corn gluten can be valuable, but this (like most) will have genetically-modified corn gluten, which we don't need in our gardens because we just aren't quite certain what can happen to it when it gets into the ground and is consumed by microbes.
This involved going back to the fertilizer manufacturers' websites and reading through their MSDS sheets and labels to see what the products are really made of. Lots of work, so I hope it's useful to you.
Canadians can find many high quality organic fertilizers at a business I used to run called The Organic Gardener's Pantry, but most of my readers live in other countries, and Amazon is all over the world, so I thought this would be helpful.
Amazon sells a lot of fertilizers that I got smothered trying to research them all, but I found some good ones for you, along with a number of "not-so-good" ones to stay away from.
By the way, there are a number of companies who appear to have their hearts in the right place, but I just can't suggest them because I don't like a few of the organic fertilizer ingredients they're mixing together. I'm not trying to pick on them, however.
Good Organic Fertilizers:
Maxicrop Seaweed Soluble Powder
This is a nice seaweed product from a company that's been around for awhile. I don't love all of their products, but this is a good buy. Their liquid seaweed is also good and perhaps a little easier to use. Seaweed is full of natural plant growth hormones and over 70 minerals that improve plant health. Kelp is one of the best organic fertilizers.
Plant Success Mycorrhizae Inoculant
Mycorrhizal fungi are very important to have in the garden. This is not an organic fertilizer - it's a microbial inoculant. They form a relationship with the roots of your plants, bringing water and nutrients to the roots in exchange for food. Not all inoculants are created equal, but I know this is probably a decent product because I've determined who manufactured the mycorrhizal spores.
SCD Bio Ag - EM
This is basically effective microorganisms, another microbial inoculant. This is the number 1 product I use in my garden, even before organic fertilizers. Actually, I buy a mother culture, which I can activate to make my own, whereas this seems to be more of an already-activated product that would just be used straight from the bottle.
Organic Neptune's Harvest Fish & Seaweed Fertilizer
An excellent price for a nice mixture of fish and seaweed. I tend to pay for fish and seaweed products individually to give myself more control about when I use them, but a combo is fine, too.
44 Lbs of Azomite Rock Dust
This is a really nice rock dust fertilizer, one of the best organic fertilizers on Amazon, providing a broad spectrum of minerals for your soil instead of just N-P-K. The only problem is it's pricey at over $50, and the additional $27 shipping would stop me from buying it. But if you can find it locally, go for it.
Dr. Earth Organic 5 Tomato Vegetable Herb Fertilizer
This organic fertilizer for vegetables contains fish bone meal, kelp meal, feather meal, alfalfa meal (alfalfa will be genetically modified soon), fish meal, soft rock phosphate, mined potassium sulfate (not always warranted), seaweed extract, humic acid, and 7 strains of soil microbes plus endo and ectomycorrhizae. I usually stay away from blends, but these ingredients should be okay. I like that it doesn't contain bone meal, GM seed meals, and too many mineral fertilizers like dolomite.
These Might Be Okay:
Bioform Liquid Organic Fertilizer
A liquid organic fertilizer that contains some good ingredients like molasses, seaweed and fish hydrolysate - but it also contains bone meal, which I don't recommend any more due to the transmission of prions connected with mad cow disease. I'm always kind of on the fence concerning bone meal, not wanting to totally discount it, but not promoting it either because of the potential troubles and because there are better alternatives.
Mastergardening Liquid Fish Emulsion
This can be okay, but I can't locate any information on it, which makes me walk away all the time. Is it really organic? Is it poor quality? An emulsion is usually not as excellent as a hydrolysate, but can indeed be useful - still, there's no way to say what is in here because they don't cover any info on it.
Dynamite Organic Fertilizer
Seems like it might be okay, but I can't find the ingredients on their website. If they don't list the ingredients, I don't buy.
Jobe's Organic All Purpose Granular Fertilizer
The company looks cool, but I'm not really fond of the ingredients in their products. This product and the others from this same brand contains ingredients that I no longer recommend - bone meal (mad cow disease), feather meal (which may or may not be all right, depending on source), composted poultry manure (may be acceptable if it was from organic birds, but is it?), and sulfate of potash (only if you require for both potassium and sulfur, which you very well might not).
These Are Not As Good:
Alaska Fish Fertilizer
This organic gardening fertilizer is not as high-quality as some other fish products, and I'm not fond of the track record of the mother company Lilly Miller. I like better the Neptune's Harvest fish and seaweed up above.
Espoma Organic Garden Lime
Lime is often used as an organic fertilizer, but I can't find out if this product is calcitic lime or dolomite lime. I can't get any other facts, plus its way too pricey for 5 pounds.
Monterey Fish & Poop
It's liquid fish and bat guano. Can't find much info on it, and it just doesn't look very good.
Miracle-Gro Organic Choice Liquid Plant Food
I don't recommend Miracle-Gro (made by Scotts - see below). Other than that, this product - fermented sugar beet molasses - could in fact be helpful organic fertilizer and biostimulant in the garden, but my major concern is that sugar beets at the present are being genetically modified.
These Are Not Recommended:
Milorganite "Organic Fertilizer"
It's sewage sludge. It's poisonous stuff, despite what they do to clean it up. Please make sure not to fall for their promotions. It's correct that we have to find ways to deal with our sewage - and more importantly, we need to stop putting chemical fertilizers, heavy metals, pesticides and other industrial pollutants into our soil and water systems - but composting it and putting it on our gardens is not the proper way.
Scotts Organic Lawn Fertilizer
I don't get anything from Scotts, not even organic garden fertilizers. Their aim is to gain more profit, not quality. Their chemicals are destroying the earth. In my observation, they are an unethical company. Just my opinion.
Hasta Gro Lawn Organic Fertilizer
I'm not sure how this can be labeled organic when it contains urea, phosphoric acid, and potassium nitrate. Actually, phosphoric acid is allowed in organics in small amounts as a stabilizer, but not the other two. It contains 12% nitrogen - too rich for my liking - and a bunch of cheap EDTA trace minerals.
Bradfield Luscious Organic Lawn Fertilizer
Corn gluten can be valuable, but this (like most) will have genetically-modified corn gluten, which we don't need in our gardens because we just aren't quite certain what can happen to it when it gets into the ground and is consumed by microbes.
About the Author:
If you want to know more about organic fertilizer and would like this new resource for free, "15 Crucial Lessons For Becoming A Better Organic Gardener", check it out here: Smiling Gardener.
