BartJY
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What organic fertilizer for Cantaloupes and Watermelons

Hi Folks,


Plants are growing, but I'd like to give them some food. What Organic fertilizer should I use for both Cantaloupes and Watermelons?

Thanks
Bart

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rainbowgardener
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it always helps to tell us where you are located. There are hardly any garden questions that can be discussed without regard to location/ climate. Pictures always help.

Fertilizing for flowering/fruiting plants depends on the stage of growth they are in. Young plants can use any balanced fertilizer, like a 10-10-10, liquid or granular (there are organic versions of all this, Dr. Earth and many others). Or you can just use a good top dressing of compost. Compost is much less concentrated nutrients (more like 1-1-1), but you can use a lot. If your plants are flowering, you don't want to be giving them so much nitrogen, which encourages big, leafy growth at the expense of flowering and fruiting. So you want something where the first number (the N) is less. Liquid seaweed is a good fertilizer that is rich in potassium and phosphate. Dr Earth and Kellogg (among others) have tomato and vegetable fertilizers.

BartJY
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Oh, sorry. I'm in between Richmond and Charlottesville Virginia

imafan26
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I think if you prepare the soil beforehand and add compost and organic fertilizers early and regularly and feed the soil, it is better than trying to use a fertilizer, especially a slow release fertilizer like the organic ones after the plants are growing. Plants need to have nutrients available at the right time in the right amounts.

It takes about 3 years of constantly adding compost and organic matter to build up the soil community and have enough slow release fertilizer to sustain an organic garden that will be comparable in production to a conventional garden. Some of the organic fertilizers will take a couple of years to release their nutrients. If you are lucky your virgin soil may have enough fertility to start out with, but some soils that are nutrient poor will need a lot of help. If you have a younger garden or are just starting out you will need to supplement weekly with fish emulsion, kelp, compost or manure tea. When the vines are young and actively growing they can use more of a nitrogen boost, but as the plants mature they need less nitrogen.

It is still a good idea to get a soil test especially on a new garden so you know how fertile your soil is and if you ask you can get organic recommendations. Just remember organic fertilizers should ideally be incorporated months before you actually plant to give them time to work. Organic gardens take time to develop and should be planned for at least the season before. They are dependent on the continual incorporation of organic matter to sustain them. Vine crops are heavy feeders and benefit from a second helping or side dressing of a fast release fertilizer when the plants are in a growth spurt.

Organic fertilizers are not created equal. They NPK varies from batch to batch and is dependent on the soil community to make the nutrients available to plants. So, a healthy soil community is key to making it work and that takes time. Some organic fertilizers release faster than others. While organic fertilizers have low numbers and are less likely to burn plants than highly concentrated synthetic fertilizers, organic fertilizers contain a lot of fillers and the fillers are still high in salt and salt is never good for the garden.

https://extension.usu.edu/files/publica ... HG-510.pdf
https://garden.org/ediblelandscaping/?pa ... ertilizers
https://bonnieplants.com/library/the-ba ... rtilizing/

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Gary350
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I use 15-15-15 from farm supply store.

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rainbowgardener
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bart did post this in Organic Gardening Forum. Nothing organic is 15-15-15.

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Lindsaylew82
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My go to is blood meal. It's fairly quick release, and I see greening up within a few days of application. It's higher in nitrogen, which is good for new and growing plants.

Having said that...we've recently gone plant based, and I am looking for better sources of quick release nitrogen that don't weigh so heavily on my conscience.

I agree to feeding the soil. We mulch with grass clippings, leaf mulch, brown paper, garden remnants, wheat straw, and our kitchen scrap compost that we make. We are constantly adding! It's not enough! So we need to supplement..

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Gary350
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All factory made fertilizers are copies of natural fertilizers they are just more concentrated. Chicken poop is very high nitrogen. Pee in a 5 gallon bucket of organic material many times every day for a week or more you get a very high nitrogen fertilizer with lots of minerals. Buy urea fertilizer factory made but it is still nitrogen. Wood ash is high potash and lime factory fertilizer is high potash only. Mix wood ash with organic material pee in it for 2 weeks you get an excellent fertilizer if you have a tiny garden maybe you can make enough fertilizer but if you have a large garden you may need 50 people peeing in buckets. That is why we have factory fertilizer just because it is concentrated more than a bucket of organic material with wood ash and urine does not make it bad. Name a fertilizer product that is not factory made? Even bone meal is factory made. If you make small amounts of fertilizer at home pee in a bucket then do the same thing is very large quantity in a factory does the fact it is factory made in large amounts rather than home made in small amounts make it bad. I burn lots of wood, I save organic material, grass, leaves, etc, I have 7 buckets to pee in, I make lots of fertilizer but it is not enough fertilizer for my garden. My home made fertilizer is excellent for Blossom End Rot for tomatoes, squash, peppers, melons, but I still use 15/15/15 fertilizer.

Check out this video from YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRAaAkfirRU

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Lindsaylew82
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Hmmmmmmm..... I wonder if all those people, on blood pressure pills, cholesterol meds, pain pills, nerve pills, crazy pills, and God forbid....RADIOACTIVE ISOTOPES or CHEMO..., peeing in that bucket know that those meds are being passed through their urine? In large amounts, I might add.... And you put that on your plants and feed it to soup kitchen recipients?

I wouldn't suggest urine, unless you know it's pathogen, and chemical, and drug free.

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Meatburner
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my best advise is to totally ignor some people that posts in the wrong forums and totally wrong advise. Some people, on all forums, just have to post unworthy advise for some reason. Lindsaylou, rainbowgardener, imafan are worth listening to. Some others are bogus so don't pay attention to them. The OP was asking about an organic solution so the posts should respect that. Just my opinion.

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Gary350
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Lindsaylew82 wrote:Hmmmmmmm..... I wonder if all those people, on blood pressure pills, cholesterol meds, pain pills, nerve pills, crazy pills, and God forbid....RADIOACTIVE ISOTOPES or CHEMO..., peeing in that bucket know that those meds are being passed through their urine? In large amounts, I might add.... And you put that on your plants and feed it to soup kitchen recipients?

I wouldn't suggest urine, unless you know it's pathogen, and chemical, and drug free.
Don't you know if you take pills or not? I am not taking any pills so I don't worry about peeing on my own compost to make nitrogen. I would not want strangers peeing on my garden who knows what pills they take. Common sense. Cows, horses, pigs all pee in the barn and no one has a problem with putting that on their garden. Why is animal pee ok and people pee is not? When farmers clean out the barn it is not 100% manure animals pee there too. Have you ever been to a farm and looked in a barn it is a soup of urine, manure, hay, straw, in the barn and near the door farmer bulldoze it outside into a pile, some times they sell it and sometimes they give it away and sometimes they use it on their own garden. Did you ever see a farmer that never peed in his own barn? I do not always type things with lots of details I expect people to have common sense, naturally you don't go door to door and ask your neighbor, "will you pee in my bucket I need some urine".
Last edited by Gary350 on Sun Jul 03, 2016 8:13 am, edited 1 time in total.

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rainbowgardener
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Urea is manufactured industrially via the Haber process from petrochemicals with very high energy inputs. It is an extremely concentrated N source which is used in the manufacture of explosives and can easily burn your plants.

Urine is clearly organic. Most of us would think it is unbearably gross and nasty to have seven buckets of urine sitting around . And I prefer using compost which is a much more complete and balanced nutrient source and adds tilth and moisture holdin to the soil.

And if what you want is for the melons to fruit , you definitely don't want to add lots of Nitrogen which encourages lots of big leafy growth at the expense of fruiting.
Last edited by rainbowgardener on Sun Jul 03, 2016 1:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Gary350
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rainbowgardener wrote:Urea is manufactured industrially via the Haber process from petrochemicals with very high energy inputs. It is an extremely concentrated N source which is used in the manufacture of explosives and can easily burn your plants.

Urine is clearly organic. Most of us would think it is unbearably gross and nasty to have seven buckets of urine sitting around . And I prefer using compost which is a much more complete and balanced nutrient source and adds tilt and moisture holdin to the soil.

And if what you want is for the melons to fruit , you definitely don't want to add lots of Nitrogen which encourages lots of big leafy growth at the expense of fruiting.
YES you are correct. Not all plants need nitrogen. Potatoes need potash not nitrogen. Many plants only need small amounts of nitrogen. Corn, onions, garlic, are heavy nitrogen feeders. Urea was first made by Friedrich Wöhler's in 1828. Urea is not used in explosive but it can be used to make other produces like urea nitrate that is used in explosive. Charcoal, sulfur, wood pulp, saw dust, clay, flour, corn starch, corn meal, are all used in explosive and can all be used in the garden. Nitrogen made from urine and organic material is all natural, it makes no difference if urine comes from cows, pigs, horses, cats, dogs, etc. it is organic.

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Meatburner
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Gary350 wrote:I use 15-15-15 from farm supply store.
Remember your response to the OP that was asking for advise for organics in the Organic Forum.

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Gary350
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My melons sometimes get Blossom End Rot so I put wood ash on them it contains, lime, potassium, lye, and other minerals. Be careful how much ash you use and don't put it directly on the plants. Wood ash is good for BER in tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers. For me it seems to take 2 weeks to stop BER once my plants have it so I sprinkle a little wood ash near my plants every week all summer so plants never get BER. I think wood ash is organic, right?

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... lizer.html



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