organic based fertilizer

[Seascape]

Stone !!! When did you get out !!! ????

[Kerry]

While organics go a long way towards making the tree humpers feel safe, they too can be misused by Joe homeowner.
I believe the only way to go is to remove all fert. and pesticide products from the market and make them available only to registered and licensed applicators. lol Like that will happen.

Edger I am from your area and I feel that having an organic lawn care business is a big expense right now. You have a very small target market. It will be very difficult to generate enough business to be profitable.

I do like the newer polymer coated ferts though. While being more expensive they may offer you an alternative to organics for these few customers. They are slow release and have a consistant release properties. Chemistry, temp, and moisture determine the release not just moisture, and you dont have to worry about the break down of the coating like with sulfer coated Urea.
Now what I am offering this year is a new IPM system. I will be using a written set of rules for dealing with pests. I will use a combination of cultural, biological and chemical controls, with chemical being a last resort.
I am starting with all my current customers . The statement will list a set of rules for testing, mapping and monitoring my customers property.
If I find a pest during the monitoring stage I will give a wriiten statement as to what type of pest, how large the infestation is and at what point action and what action is to be taken.
Yes this takes more time. However, it also makes you more money. By being environmentally sound this method will treat pests while not harming beneficial insects. And some of the cures are often cheaper for the homeowner as well.
While more and more pesticides are being taken off the market we will need a better way of controlling pests. And as many of you know some of the new pesticides are very expensive.

[GRASSISGREENER]

I believe organics have a niche in the lawn care industry but it's highly unliking it will totally take over the inorganic use, especially in our near future. If you look at research, the large companies out there are still dedicated to making and keeping their inorganic approach as environmentally safe as possible and probably not invest much R&D to making organics the choice of homeowners. For those like ourselves in the lawn care business,not just price, but amount of materials needed, efficacy, and customer expectations will continue to hamper the organic alternatives, and we all know the latter writes our paychecks.

[bobkessler]

Organic Ferts

Organics were popular in the early 70s. Milorganite which is activated sewer sludge is manufactured, and shipped from Milwaukee, which doesn't say much for the City of Schlitz and the Milwaukee Tool Company.
In Florida I'm going to say we never had that much luck with Milorganite. The point is so many factors affect the product efficacy, including soil composition, pH, etc. I really think it's impossible to make a blanket statement on which is best. If I remember the Milorganite label correctly, it also had some warnings on it to avoid gardens and any edible crops due to some metal contents, probably cadium. So much for "organic" being synonomous with "safety".
I did learn some of the premium brands such as Fertilome, Hector's, Rainbow, and Scott's were better brands, down here anyway. They were synthetics available mostly at nurserys, and more expensive of course.
Experiment yourself and benchmark the products. It's a great learning tool.
Good Luck

[Ric]

Re: Organic Ferts

Originally posted by bobkessler
If I remember the Milorganite label correctly, it also had some warnings on it to avoid gardens and any edible crops due to some metal contents, probably cadium. So much for "organic" being synonomous with "safety".

Experiment yourself and benchmark the products. It's a great learning tool.
Good Luck

Bob

Sometime in the early 1990s maybe earlier Milwaukee changed there treatment plants to separate Industrial waste and residential waste. Today Milorganite does not have as much chance of Heavy Metal Contamination. Now That fact does not mean Milorganite still does not have Heavy Metal or any other harmful chemicals. After all it come from waste products of homes. God only knows what people pour down theie drains. It now is not made from waste from industrial areas. It no longer carries Heavy metal warning on the label.

Now it has long been recognized that nature is not perfect or pure. With out mans intervention, there are no pure products in nature. Therefore Organic Fertilizer, compost, Etc are not pure and can in fact contain many harmful chemicals. However Synthetic Fertilizer are manufactured by man in pure chemical form. Synthetic fertilizers do not contain anything that would harm a herbivore that would eat the plants grown by synthetic fertilizer.

The advantage of any fertilizer depends on the medium which it is applied. (a good reason for soil testing) pH normal to slightly above normal will increase microbial population. While lower pH will increase CEC. Therefore organic materials which depend on microbial activity for release should do better in Alkaline soils. Since the soil on Gulf Coast Florida is in Fact Calcareous Sand, Milorganite should do well. However it does not last but 6 weeks. It does offer a nice dark green for that time, but at a high price.

SOM is in fact one of the points on the soil triangle. It has great value in amending any soil. However it would take a lot of milorganite to amend any soil. I personally feel organics have a place in modern Horticulture. However an all organic program is caveman era.

[Woody]

Ric:

"I personally feel organics have a place in modern Horticulture. However an all organic program is caveman era."

You hit the nail on the head! I love to use organics, where applicable, but to attempt to have a "pure organic" program is an excercise in futility.

One must remember that synthetic fertilizers are not "pure", but are "purer". The cost for chemicals rises with their purity, and as a rule, the chemicals used in fertilizers are far from pure. But, the contaminants are either GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe), or are at levels far below what is considered a hazard.

As an example...... The metal silver is easily obtainable in .999 fine (99.9% silver), and .9999 fine (99.99% silver). There is not a refiner on the planet that makes silver in .999999 fine (99.9999% silver), but if there were, it would cost far more than 99.99% pure gold. The cost to manufacture rises considerably as the purity rises. This goes for any chemical.

As always, you informative post was a pleasure to read.

Woody