Miracle-Gro Organic Bone Meal

[FILMNET]

I bought this, anyone like this for tomatoes

[roper2008]

I don't know about tomatoes, but peppers love it.

[Farmer Matt]

going to use when I transplant my tomato seedlyings.

[BlackestKrim]

my advise for this stuff is, keep it away from animals!

Both my sister's and my cats got in to ours and ate some. If they eat too much, they can get phosphorous toxicity. They will try to get in to it tho- it smells delicious to them. I presume dogs will try too.

(Our cats didn't seem to eat too much, so they should be ok.)

[mensplace]

When I read the term "organic", and view the extreme markups on products bearing that seemingly magic term on their label, all marked up to exhorbitant prices, sometimes I just can't help but wonder how much extra value or even safety is added versus how much is yet another marketing ploy, especially by the huge manufactring terms. For example, blood meal, bone meal, rock dusts, manure and the likes of similar "organic" products. Now much real value and safety is added. Has any who swears by organics ever been into one of the meat processing and rendering plants and seen the conditions under which they are produced. I have. The whole process of fattening up the animals while they are upt to their knees in feces, the chutes and killing processes, the sick and infirmed animals being pushed into the rooms by front end loaders, being jerked up by chains to be held upside down still kicking, cleaning floors inches deep into their blood that goes into festering drains, the great vats into which the bones, blood and organs sit and fester, and then being trucked to the rendering plants, where conditions are even worse somehow dispels the pretty little pictures on the packages. But, hey, they can sell what once used to be sold in bulk for nine dollars per tidy little bag.
Over the weekend I met with my sister in law who was bemoning the fact that here garden was covered with wood chips nine inches deep. After all, last year she spent a small fortune on bag after bag of "organic" manure, top soil, compost and other amendments. I took here to here stack of bags where for the first time she read the labels. Every single one first listed forest product, pine bark mulch, and shreed wood shavings, sand, and finally at the end some of what was supposed to be in the bags. Any wonder all of her plants were all sickly yellow and spindly last year?
Don't get me started on rock dusts, which around here come form vast reserves, virtually mountains, of granite and marble that used to be a waste product. Went to a special seminar of aq marketing group pitching seeling that organic dust as a miracle cure and seeking folks to distribute the stuff as a virtual miracle cure. One can get all they want at the quarry for free as its a nuisance by product, but collected and bagged into tiny little bags and it's sold for a premium "organic".
This is not to say that the original organic idea or intent was bad, but it has now become a license for one of the greatest frauds in our country.
Like many areas in need of some course setting in our country, some personal responsibility in knowing what you are buying and demanding some meaningful change would work wonders. Now to open a Pandora's Box, Just because a soil amendment is made by a chemical or "synthetic" (whatever that means) process does not in and of itself make it bad. There are good chemical fertilizers, just as there are bad ones, but most consumers haven't a clue, for instance, as to which nitrogens are made of what, much less the effects of their usage. Even all limestones ar not the same.
Compost is among the worst as these little bags can and do contain virtually anything...all perfectly legally.

[amideutch]

When were talking about fertilizers we are talking about organic or inorganic. The process does not determine whether it is organic or inorganic but what it is made of. In the past 10 years we have found out what chemical fertilizers can do to the soil and the ecosystem. The bacteria and fungi that exist in the soil is whats being harmed or eliminated by chemicals whether they be fertilizers or pesticides. And the funny thing is these organisms in the soil are what facilitate the transfer of nutrients from the soil to the plant roots and also protect the plants from the diseases that are in the soil. So what we have come to is growing plants in the soil hydroponically because there are no nutrients left and we have to use inorganic chemicals to feed the plants. I can show you a study where the sugar content of tomatoes was 15% less when grown with chemical fertilizers versus organic (chicken manure) and it don't get any more organic than that. Ami

[Train]

Ya
I won't talk virtues or the purity of process or thought but I will say that I do use bone meal, blood meal and green sand in my soil mix as well as Stringy Sphagnum moss and perlite , manure and compost.
All go into the mix in proportion and every month most growing veggies get an additional shot of bone meal.
I look for everything not made by Miracle Gro first but if not available then I use what is available.
Train

[mensplace]

It's not always so easy to separate out the legitimacy of organic ingredients even in chicken manure, anymore than it is accurate to assert that ALL chemical/"synthetic" fertilizers are bad, much less separate the ethics or components, much less the processes and big money involved in organics. PLENTY that is organic is not necessarily good, just as many "natural" plants are injurious. Simply buying a label, organic or otherwise does not guarantee good products or ingredients, even if we blindly turn an eye to all that is behind the huge agro-industry. Very few chicken manures sold commercially are PURE chicken manure, and that doesn't even begin to trace the lengthy trail or players behind that chicken manure any more than it does compost. The same could and should be said for blood meal, bone meal and rock dusts..never mind the newest craze of "beneficial organisms". I could go on at great length about the history and agicultural impact of chemicals such as ammonium nitrate, but the big business behind ALL of the above is no less a concern, never money the money trail, the abominations of of the flesh trade, the corruptions of business and government making policies, and the linkages of products in the pipeline in America and foreign nation that produce those products. Just how far back and how all encompassing a study is ever really made of land, water, amendments here and abroad even if one elects to turn a blind eye to where all of that blood and bone is produced and how. I, for one, have real trouble paying almost 10.00 for "organic" little bags when I know that I can load my truck with the stuff for almost nothing...so "organic" is costly to the extreme and WE willingly support the corruption while the manufacturers are making a fortune...and the consumer ends up paying a HUGE premium more for the label than real added value. MANY grow "inorganic" simply because the program itself has become such a HUGE nightmare that is costly to enter and continue, while there products are every bit as safe and nutritious. In fact, the great scare of some instances in the past years has come sometimes from the eColi and other organisms produced when using manures..not the dreaded synthetics.

[amideutch]

I think the point is nobody is shoving anything down the consumers throat. If you have a problem with organic produce don't buy it! But when people who grow their own and want to do it organically more power to them. Do I buy only organic food stuffs, no because I won't pay the price they are asking. Is inorganically grown produce bad for you, of course not. Will it satisfy the nutritional needs of the human body, of course it will.
I think most wholesalers and retailers that deal with the organic growers can verify their products whether it be blood meal, green sand and even chicken manure for that matter. And a lot commercial growers that are going organic are not doing it for the money as it cost them more to meet the stringent guidelines hence the higher prices for their products. They are doing it because the consumer is demanding these products and nobody is holding a gun to their head to buy organic.
Do yourself a favor and get a few of these books I have in my library. They cover the whole gambit of growing food crops. Ami

Food For Everyone by Jacob MIttleider
Getting the Most from Your Garden by the Rodale Press
Hydroponic Food Production by Howard Resh
Handbook of Microbial Biofertilizers by M. K. Rai
Nature Farming and Microbial Applications by Xu PhD, Parr PhD, Umemura PhD

[mensplace]

"I think the point is nobody is shoving anything down the consumers throat. " Not wanting a wholesale debate, but having spent a lifetime in marketing I am all too aware of the power of illusions built upon false impressions in order to make millions..and more. Too, I could match your list of books with a lengthy list of those more based upon development of balance and life in the soil from the earliest days through the more current studies of the components of healthy soils. I actually believe in balance and consumer education as there are lies in deceptions in all camps. Not all "chemical" fertilizers are good for the soil, but neither are all organic or other systems. What I do firmly believe is that consumers should know what they are buying whether in terms of food or soil amendments, WHILE realizing that everything that bears a label may be more than meets the eye...or considerably less. That said, I think that those who rip off the public..be the "public" buyers or consumers of food..are considerably less noble and honest than many might hope. Everything that is organic must ultimately be chemical in order to be used by the soil and not all organic life forms are healthy. SO, what are you buying and at what cost?

[Train]

Ya
I think the real point is if you are adding enough
compost and manures your need for fertilizers is
going to shrink dramatically and ultimately go away.
Train

[Penny]

Hmmm, I've never seen that here before, going to have to have a look for it.

[FILMNET]

I bought it in Walmart in November all the summer garden stuff was on sale, i have a new garden 15ft by 20ft with old nice dirt.

[jackdaniel]

Look closely, there's no "organic" emblem anywhere. The name of the line of products just has "organic" in the title. That's clearly a marketing ploy and some sort of loophole to get by labeling regulation.

[David Marek]

Originally Posted by mensplace

What I do firmly believe is that consumers should know what they are buying whether in terms of food or soil amendments, WHILE realizing that everything that bears a label may be more than meets the eye...or considerably less.

If nothing else, things should be labeled in order of concentration.

I bought a 3# bag of blood meal for $7 or $9 with that exact same design last year, then realized I could get a 50# bag at the feed store for $35. I smile when I walk by that display now, knowing they "got" me. If they can run ads on TV, they don't need my money.

40# bags of "topsoil"? Yep, I've bought them, too. At a dollar or so per bag, it helps river and lake dredging projects pay for themselves (well, reduces the cost quite a bit). Particle board is made from waste and people are using it to build houses now.

It is a shame people have to re- learn so many things because for one reason or another, generations of knowledge suddenly become lost and then the wrong product was marketed to them. I consider it just as easy for me to screw up when adding leaves and chicken and horse manure (free, from just down the road) as it is with chemical fertilizer.

I suppose knowing how a hot dog is made should be common knowledge, too.

Now I'm going to go quietly finish sowing my tray of open- pollinated tomato seed (and a few hybrids) from various commercial and non- commercial sources.