Organic Container Gardening

[CarolynPhillips]

How do you grow organic in containers?
I keep reading that you cannot amend potting soil with organic fertilizer because it leaches out quicker than ground surface organic gardening.
BUt so does chemical fertilizers. When using chemical fertilizers, you have to add the fertilizer on a weekly basis.
I am assuming you would have to do the same with homemade organic fertilizer mixture but my problems is .......I can't see that working right.

Here is a homemade organic fertilizer recipe.

Organic Fertilizer Mix= measurements with Quart size container
4 quarts Cotton Seed Meal (or any seed meal)
1 /3 quart Agricultural Lime
1/3 quart Dolomite Lime
1/3 quart Gypsum (or double Ag Lime)
1 quart Bone Meal or Rock Phosphate
1 quart Rock Dust or Kelp Meal
Mix in 5 gallon bucket.
Spread 1/4 inch of compost or manure over grow beds or row for light to medium feeders. Spread 1/2 inch of compost or manure over grow beds or row for heavy feeders.
Use 4 to 6 quarts of Organic Fertilizer Mix per 100 square feet of grow bed or row and mix into soil 4 to 6 inches deep
You only have to apply this once per year. (Spring)
In addition to the Organic Fertilizer Mix,
You can apply 4 to 6 quarts of Cotton Seed Meal ( or other seed meal) per 100 sq. ft of grow bed around medium to heavy feeders every 3 to 4 weeks or as needed after initial organic fertilizer has been applied.. Scratch into surface of soil.
By my calculations per square foot, you would need about 4.5 tablespoons per square foot. This calculation should also work with container gardening. Even a round 12 inch containers would only need 4.5 tablespoons. An Earthbox 1ft x 2ft, for example , would need 9 tablespoons.

Would I be wasting my money and time by adding this to a 5 gallon pot that is watered on a daily basis?
Would it work in SWC such as the earthbox?

I haven't finished searching the net for answers but it just doesn't seem right that we would have to buy pre-mixed organic fertilizers in small quantities at expenses prices.
there has to be a way to do it homemade.

[CarolynPhillips]

I know the other option is compost or manure teas. I could use a hose end sprayer to apply the liquid. That would take some long thinking on which setting to use to dilute concentrated manure tea.
The other issue I have is ....I need to feed and water 200 to 300 5 gallon pots.

And I do everything manually.

[KarenO]

200- 300 pots is a lot of pots! I grow some tomatoes in pots and I use potting mix 2/3 mixed with 1/3 compost and then add about 1/4 cup of a granular slow release fertilizer. Not sure what is available in your area but if rapid washout or uptake of fertilizers is a concern, perhaps investigate a slow release organic product, there are lots available on the market. that with an occasional nitrogen "boost" of a drink of composted manure tea aught to do the trick
Karen O

[CarolynPhillips]

my tomato plants keep having a fungus problem and I was told that the chemical nitrogen was making it worse than it would be if I was growing organically. I live in a very humid region.

[Cole_Robbie]

How do you grow organic in containers?

Earthworm castings, guano, seaweed, fish, greensand are good organic fertilizers...plus there are pre-made organic fertilizers like Earth Juice. It gets expensive very quickly, though. I think organic container growing within the constraints of a small budget is even more challenging.

[CarolynPhillips]

yes...challenging indeed.
I have all kinds of organic fertilizers and I use them mostly on grow beds but I use the chemicals too.
I've never tried just Organic in the containers because I didn't know what I was doing to make it work.
I buy most of the kelp and fish powder and other stuff from a giant pumpkin supplier.
http://www.hollandsgiants.com/
They have the best prices.

I will check out the organic slow release fertilizers too

[RayR]

Carolyn, I don't know what granular organic fertilizers are available in your area, but there is an Alabama manufacturer, MightyGrow that sells their product in larger quantities. It might be cheaper than spending a lot of time sourcing the raw materials yourself for a home made blend and they would be able to recommend application rates for your containers.
I grow mostly peppers in containers and just a few tomato plants usually, nothing on the large scale you do, but I fertilize the media with a granular fertilizer (Espoma in my case) twice a season, in between I will use a liquid organic fertilizer about every other watering to supplement, especially at flowering and fruiting. The kelp and fish powder would excellent for that.

[CarolynPhillips]

MightyGrow gives a list of companies in AL that carry the product but when you visit those companies, they do not have the product or stopped selling it.
I will keep searching.
From everything I have read about using Homemade organics in containers is : I would just have to add fresh compost to the containers on a regular basis just like I would if I was using granulars of chemical. I will have an abundance of compost and shouldn't need a commercial formulated organic fertilizer.
I also cannot find a cotton seed meal that is not gmo and would have to find something to take it's place.......maybe composted chicken manure placed in the containers more often.
Still searching

[natural]

Fertrell carries 50lb bags of cottonseed meal. I think it would be non-GMO since they carry organic approved products. Not sure where the closest distributor is within Alabama. I know there is one in central Alabama.

Bill

[Smithma]

I have Several raised beds with potting soil with added compost. I feed all season with worm castings, worm tea and liquid kelp mix, foilar spray with worm tea one week and Epsom salt the next week, used no commercial fertilizers at all this season. Had very productive garlic, carrots, G beans, lettuces(did not foliar spray) squash, peas and more. Next spring I will mix in more compost maybe spread 1/4 to 1/2 inch on top then mix to add back nutrients lost during the season.
Mike

[Greatgardens]

I had essentially the same issue with my EarthBoxes, so I posed the question and got some interesting answers. (See below, but it's the links in the replies that have the info that I found very interesting).

http://forum.earthbox.com/index.php?topic=10623.0

I "went organic" in my boxes because I thought that it would last longer, but it turns out that isn't correct in the EB. The EB "fertilizer strip" instructions provide some useful info that I think can be generalized for most containers, although not sure about buckets.

In my own experience, I did NOT have this problem by following the EB instructions using regular 7-7-7 fertilizer. 7-7-7 is a bit hard to find without paying a lot of shipping, so I plan to use 10-10-10 amended with organic fertilizer to effectively give me close to 8-8-8.

There is a lot of good info including videos available at the regular EB site.
www.earthbox.com

-GG

"I keep reading that you cannot amend potting soil with organic fertilizer because it leaches out quicker than ground surface organic gardening.
BUt so does chemical fertilizers. When using chemical fertilizers, you have to add the fertilizer on a weekly basis..."

[RayR]

I don't know where Carolyn read about organic fertilizer leaching out quicker in containers than in the ground. Carolyn?
In order for a fertilizer to leach out it would have to be very water soluble which isn't the case with most organic fertilizers, especially granular forms. A portion of excess organic liquid can leach out the drain holes though.

Unlike synthetic fertilizers which are water soluble salts in plant available form, organic fertilizers are for the most part not in plant available form, they are food for soil life first which convert the organic nutrients into the inorganic forms that the plants need. You need healthy soil biology is a container or in the ground to make organics work...period! If you don't have it, then add it in as many ways as you can.
Compost, compost teas, worm castings and commercial inoculants are all ways to introduce tens of thousands of beneficial species or bacteria and fungi as well as predator species of protozoa and nematodes, even earthworms worms.

[CarolynPhillips]

GG, yes , that is the subject that I am finding while searching info.......

Ray, I read several topics across the internet while searching info and I don't remember where I read that organic leaches out quicker.

With all the search info I have come across, I have decided to use my 25 gallon pots and half barrels for organic gardening containers and see if I can raise the Alabama Jumper worms in those containers and use my own compost and shredded leaves to feed the plants and the worms . See what happens.

[CarolynPhillips]

Container Gardening Worm Farm

[bower]

Carolyn,

I grow organically in containers, but I still have something to learn about fertilizers.

I use a cup of bone meal for each plant and some dolomite lime. Like KarenO, the soil is about 1/3 fresh compost. We do not have cottonseed meal here. I've been using fresh kelp chopped coarsely, at least a pound per plant or 5 gal container mixed into the soil. This improves moisture retention and provides enough nutrients to bring in the main crop without any extra fertilizer. But it is not enough to keep the plants in production - by that time, the kelp has been consumed so the water retention function is over, and I have to top dress with fresh compost and add granular or liquid ferts. I'm thinking to double the amount of kelp and maybe test different combinations and pay more attention to the amount used, so I can find the optimum.

I don't know whether fresh kelp would be chopped nicely with a chipper/shredder? Dried kelp I'm pretty sure would come through it well. It's a great bulk material if you can get it in your area.

Worms are great in containers, couldn't do without em. My garden compost always has the edge over a commercial product in performance, maybe due to the 'unfinished' quality - bits of straw especially, that are enough to keep those worms busy, I think.