Replacing Blood and Bone Meal?

Well, neither the kelp or the alfalfa is going to replace the bone, neither has that much P.

Alfalfa for blood, yes, I do this myself.

But I've yet to find a affordable replacement for the bone meal. Notice I said affordable, not better or equal. The only other thing available locally is SRP and that is over $10/5lb bag. I use some in my mix, but not enough to replace the bone meal.

Never had any problems (yet), with critters and the majority of my stuff is outside. Then again, I seldom top dress with bone since it breaks down so slow and whatever I need gets added during the initial mix and is pretty well broken down by the time I use it and I guess not so smelly to critters.

Since you already have the high P guano, perhaps a bit more will work, but isn't it a bit smelly too?

Used to have plenty of phosphate mines in Fl. till people complained of glow in the dark plants. Sheesh! Picky, picky, picky.

Wet

 

I have no doubt switching out the kelp/alfalfa/neem for the bone and blood will work out just fine for you.

I don't use either and do perfectly fine.

I DO have chicken manure in my mix, though, which is another option if you're looking to add phosphorous. Granite Meal can also help.

Inoculating with mycorrhizal fungi will also help.

J

 

I've had good luck using ChickADee chicken manure, other,then that just make sure it's,composted and organic..

 

Chickenshit is the bee kneez after worm castings. Balanced andwontburnwhen composted. I still use blood meal andbone meal outdoors as I like to have that diversity. I got dogs andmy yard is fenced noanimals are gonna dig in my pots and my pups know better.

 

Out here on the west coast I useschutzmann farms chickenmanure its from oregon good stuff.

 

My chicken manure pellets are N:5 P:2.5 K:2.5 duno what else they contain tho.. You can use alfalfa or any of the seed meals or soybean meal are good for N.. P I would think guanos are you best bet but I don't use any in my soil but I may buy some yet.. But I use Kelp, alfalfa, neem, chicken pellets, small amount of crabshell and oyster shell.. I would imagine that it contains everything I need, P isn't needed in the high amounts people think.. one of the biggest scams going the whole P:K 13/14 thing!

 

MjMama25

I've followed a recipe that lumperdawgz uses in his basic mix. Been using it since 2008. Forget the manures/guano's. Seed meals all around bro

"To that I add 1 cup (per 1 cf.) seed meal (equal parts of canola, cottonseed, flaxseed and alfalfa) to replace the bloodmeal ('N') and organic fish bone meal (4-20-0) to replace the bonemeal."

 

Nic i rock fish meal too but i see no reason not to have a littleblood andbone in the mix especially outdoors. Diversity is key to a great mix.

 

Since ITG walked me through my first soil building, and she was not to keen on blood/bone meal, I never even bought either.

Peat, compost, alfalfa, kelp, garden tone, SRP I think was most of mine first mix. Well plus lime and aeration. A couple of my plants got top dressed with EWC, feather meal and Dr. Earth fruit tree mix so at least 1/2 of my plants were "veganic" I think, and since I am very non vegan I'm not sure I'm proud of that lol. Moral of the story, my initial mix did just fine, I only added the things later because it was recommended and not because anything was deficient.

 

i've added fish bone meal & crab shell flour in my mix.

 

Shrimp meal is a good source of P and N and you get chitin along with it. I use bone meal in my mix as well as srp and had no problems with critters. I don't use blood meal cuz from what I understand its pretty much floor scrapings.

As per your concern with the critters its the fishy bloody smell that attracts them and since lactic acid bacteria are a wonderful deodorant that pretty much takes care of it. When I first mix my soil it smells like the back of a seafood shop and after I add the tea and some lacto bac serum to start cooking the smell goes away almost overnight. If you're using fishy ferts to top dress add some lacto to your watering and the critters won't even catch on to ya.

 

Well LD said a tablespoonper gallon is good to get proper benefits. So per cubic foot that is quarter cup but I used halfcup per cubic foot no probbob my whole veg room is running off my soil mix. You can see the healthiness. No doubt its working. Just for you bone meal and blood meal haters the happyfrogdry ammendment I use in my mix for my soil has bone and blood in it. Lol.

 

Anything organic no matter where its from will breakdown to ita base elements in a proper compost pile. Humanure is a bigexampleofthis.

 

Heya MJ,

I meant to answer this the day you posted this question, but I got a little side tracked. I also saw Richard had given you a viable answer, but I thought I might throw my 2 cents in. The method I use is to add the same amount as my other fertilizers and include it in the mix. For example I would combine 4 cups of alphalfa, 4 cups of bone char, 4 cups neem meal, and 8 cups of kelp meal. This would be your fertilizer mix which you would apply at 2-3 cups per cubic ft. This was just an example to give you a better idea of what I was trying to convey. I am not the best at explaining in type.

I do it this way because neem has other great properties besides being a pest deterrent. Here are some examples:

While applied in conjunction with any nitrogenous fertilizers, it slows the conversion of nitrogenous compounds into nitrogen gas , thus making nitrogen available to the plants for a longer duration.(nitrogen fixing) Resulting in increased nitrogen uptake.

It prevents, treats ailments, and disorders of plants due to lack or imbalance of nutritious and trace elements.

It accelerates root development, overall plant growth, and protects the plant from Nematodes.

It has anti-fungal properties.

Lastly it does have an NPK value which will vary from source to source.

So this is why I apply neem at the rate I do.

Also, I believe LD used it as a top dressing. This may have changed as time went on but I know when I first started following LD he used it as a top dressing. My memory is not the best these days, but thought I would include this alternative to go with the 2 Richard and I gave you.

HTH

MGB