Soil Amendments and Fertilizers

Application rates figured for beds

Material	Rate	Rate/Qt	Analysis	Release Time	Notes
Harmony or chicken pellets		~15 cup per 100 sq ft (~4 containers = 3.25#) or 1.5 cups per 10sf
Kelp	1 lb/100 sq	1 heaping yogart container.	negligible	4+ months	Adds micronutrients
Alfalfa meal or pellets	2-5 pounds per 100 square feet	2-5	2-1-2	1-4 months
Blood meal	5–10 pounds per 100 square feet		12-0-0	1–4 months	Can burn.
Bone meal	10 pounds per 100 square feet	5 containers	3-15-0	1–4 months
Lime	5# per 100 sq ft.	2.5 containers
Rock Dust	5-15#/100 sq ft	3-4 containers
Rabbit manure	20-40#/100 sq ft		1.10-1.50-.47	slow	.
Ida-gro rock phosphate	400-500 lbs/acre = 1 lb/100 sq ft		(0-3-0) - 20% total phosphate, 3% available phosphate and 20% calcium.	rate per year. Biological activity speeds release in compost or in soil.
Liguid humic acid	Dilute 1 to 20 =~ 1 cup/gal				Apply on weekly basis to all beds
Calcium from Epson salt	1 tbsp per gallon & spray on plants. every few weeks.

• For longer beds on lt (~32 ft), increase 20%. For shorter beds, decrease ~20%

General Resources

• Soil Amendments and Fertilizers - definitions of every kind of amendment you can imagine and then some. Saved locally from this site.
• Organic_Fertilizers.pdf: Organic Fertilizers - descriptions, pros/cons, and application rates. Provided by Colorado State University Extension. Saved locally from this url.
• New Methods For Growing Tastier, More Nutritious Food - presents a specific program of soil inoculates and liguid fertilizers. He sells them also but it looks like good products. Has nice widget to calf application rates.

Notes on specific amendments

Compost Application

• HOW MUCH COMPOST SHOULD WE USE? by EHRENFRIED E. PFEIFFER
  • ~½ to 1 lb. per square foot
  • Table I. Average Compost Application As A Guide to Practice (Archived here as pdf )
• Apply 2-3 inches before working in for first 3 years; 1-2 inches fourth year and beyond. source - CO state
• See also: Composting

Greensand

Application rate: 5 to 15 lbs. per 100 square fee

Lime

• Lime FAQ - All your answers about lime.
• Application rate: limestone (calcium carbonate) - 50# per 1000 sq ft or 5# per 100 sq ft.

Kelp

Application rate: 1 lb/100 square (source)

Resources:

• http://www.biconet.com/soil/kelpmeal.html

Rock Dust

• Application rate not that exact. 2 - 5 tons/acre = 5-15#/100 sq ft.
• Some references:
  • http://prorev.com/dust.htm
  • http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/727/#b
  • On a Fad Diet of Rock Dust, How the Garden Does Grow

Compost Tea Recipes

Some other references for recipes:

• The Essential Guide to Making Compost Tea (and 4 Recipes to Try)
• How to Make Aerated Compost Tea – Mother Earth News Also saved locally

Richard McDonald's compost tea recipe & notes

We had to activate the natural NPK complex by spraying it with this tea recipe, and we put about 1-2 pounds of Jay’s grease in a tea bag and we could make 40-50 gallons at a time, bubble overnight protected from sun with a big aquarium bubbler….by morning (12-18 hours) the should smell like your are next to a stream full of leaves in the fall.

We also added a certain amount of clay dust to our soil as an amendment, as that becomes one of the empty buildings or ‘structures’ for bacteria and fungi.

Bacterial	100 gal	4 gal
Soluble acadian kelp	2 oz	1.28 gm
Soluble humic acid	2oz	1.28 gm
Dry molasses	16 oz	10.24 gm
Ground corn gluten	8 oz	5.12 gm
Ground insoluble humic acid	8 oz	5.12 gm
Summa Minerals (or Azomite)	2 oz	1.28 gm
Fungal	100 gal	4 gal
Soluble acadian kelp	6 oz	3.84 gm
Soluble humic acid	8oz	5.12 gm
Dry molasses	8 oz	5.12 gm
Ground corn gluten	8 oz	5.12 gm
Ground insoluble humic acid	24 oz	1 oz
Summa Minerals	4 oz	2.56 gm

Notes:

1. Original recipe for 100 gal. Extrapolated for 4 gal.
2. Soluble humic acid specifically mentioned: Humisolve- 74% humic acid, 20% fulvic acid

Spring Garden Soil Elixir

Found on the Underwood Gardens site. This recipe is based on a 20′ x 50′ garden, or 1000 sq. ft. Make the adjustments for garden size.

Mix together in a 5 gallon bucket:

• 20-24 oz liquid fish fertilizer
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 1 16 oz bottle of cola – NOT DIET!
• 2 12 oz cans of beer (!)
• 1/2 cup of Borax powder
• 1 qt cranberry juice – make sure to get 100% cranberry juice, not a dilution

Usage notes:

• Mix well with a stirrer and thin with enough water to enable mixture to be sprayed with a tank type or hose-end sprayer.
• It must be noted that the sprayer cannot have been used to spray any chemical treatments like herbicides, pesticides, etc. as this will put those chemicals onto your soil, killing the microbial life in the soil and feeding the chemicals to the plants, where you wind up eating them!
• Apply the mix evenly over lime and compost base with sprayer. If needed, go back over with second application to use up all of the batch, just make sure to apply evenly.

Broad-fork or lightly rototill garden soil. If using a rototiller, don’t go more than 4 inches deep at the maximum. Most of the biological growth happens at the 2-3 inch mark and the soil is turned over an inch or so beyond what the tines reach. Tilling deeper only destroys microbial life in the soil, setting you back in your efforts to create and build biologically active soil.

• 2 to 4 weeks before your local planting date, apply the lime to the soil evenly with a spreader. Then spread the compost evenly on top of the lime.

Another very simple recipe from Facebook: I make a compost tea from dead leaves, coffee grounds pulverized egg shells tea bags, and horse and chicken poop. We also clean out our small fish pond and use the mud. You can use fish emulsion instead. Put in a trash can. Add water. Let set for about a week and then put in sprayer 2 cups to a gallon of water. This is cheap and a great fertilizer zer. I also for tomatoes when they start blooming make a boric acid or boron tea. I gallon wWARM Water to 4 tablespoons boron. Amazon pharmacy grade $14. Lasts a long time. Cucumbers add 1 cup milk to a gallon WARM water and pour around the roots.. And if th hey start showing mildew I cup milk and 4 tablespoons baking soda to a gallon Warm water and spray Leaves. Very reasonable solutions and no chemical s.

How to Calculate the Amount of Nitrogen in a Fertilizer Bag

Do not be misled by a large nitrogen number on the fertilizer bag (the first number in the N-P-K analysis). To find the amount of nitrogen in a bag of fertilizer, you must calculate the pounds of nitrogen per 1,000 sq. ft.

To calculate the pounds of nitrogen in a bag of fertilizer, multiply the weight of the bag by the percent nitrogen (this is the first number in the N-P-K designation on the front of the bag). This will tell you the pounds of nitrogen in the bag.

Then divide the pounds of nitrogen by the area the bag states it will cover to get the pounds of nitrogen per 1,000 sq. ft. Note: Fertilizer bags usually come in 5,000 or 10,000 sq. ft.

For example: A 19 lb. bag of fertilizer with an analysis of 26-4-12 (N-P-K) covering 5,000 sq. ft.:

• 19 lbs. × (26 ⁄ 100) = 4.94 lbs Total nitrogen in the bag
• 4.94 lbs nitrogen in the bag ÷ 5,000 ft² bag
• = 0.98 lbs. of nitrogen ⁄ 1,000 ft²