Organic Plant Food For Your Home Garden

Just like people, plants need a proper diet of nutrients and minerals to grow properly and ward off disease. For organic gardens, soil quality is built through sustainable principles and practices to build hearty flowers and vegetables. Your all natural garden can also benefit from organic plant food that brings plants the compounds they need without chemicals.

Types of Organic Plant Food

Rockdust is a type of organic plant food that’s made from crushed basalt. Basalt is a volcanic rock rich in minerals and trace elements. It provides calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus and potassium – minerals that often leach from soil. Rockdust boosts soil fertility, can increase the soil’s moisture capacity and can improve the soil’s ability to transfer minerals.

Like volcanic rock, seaweed is also rich in minerals and nutrients making it an excellent source of plant food. Seaweed is high in the nutrients that plants need in order to grow - nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

Seaweed can be used in the soil as a short-lived mulch, thrown into the compost pile or applied as a foliar feed directly to leaves and roots. Foliar feeding - spraying plants with liquid fertilizer – with a dilute seaweed spray is a good way to provide nitrogen in a quick, usable form.

Another organic plant food that is high in nutrients is fish emulsion. Fish emulsion is made by baking catch and then pressing out the oils and liquids. The oils and liquids are separated, the oil skimmed off and what’s left is called fish emulsion - a nutrient rich plant food. In addition to being high in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, fish emulsion contains micronutrients including some of the trace elements that can be hard to balance in soil.

During the manufacturing process, a small amount of phosphoric acid (less than 0.1% y weight) is added to fish emulsion to prevent decay. Even with this additive, certain fish emulsion is considered 100% natural organic.

Benefits of Organic Plant Food

Organic plant foods have some significant benefits over inorganic plant foods. Because they are derived from living organisms, they break down slower. This means they provide nutrients to the soil and plants over longer periods than inorganic fertilizers.

Conventional plant foods can boost plant growth but the affects are short-lived. They require frequent application and plants can overdose on synthetic feeds. The other significant drawback is that the compounds in inorganic plant foods can be carried off in storm or rainwater runoff polluting soils and water bodies.

Organic plant foods give your garden the boost of elements without detracting from natural processes. All the essential nutrients, minerals and elements can be obtained from natural sources making your organic garden a truly green endeavor.

*Note: The information in this article is general advice and not meant as a substitute for personal guidance from a financial advisor, real estate professional or legal counsel. Although the author is a licensed realtor, the advice given in this article does not constitute any client contract or agreement between the author and the user. The author is not responsible for any losses, damages or claims that may result from your decisions.