Organic Fertilizer
What organic fertilizer is, the NPK numbers on the common ones, and how I actually feed beds with them through the season.
Organic fertilizer is plant food derived from natural sources such as compost, manure, blood meal, bone meal, and fish emulsion, rather than from manufactured salts. It usually carries a lower NPK analysis than synthetic feed but releases slowly and feeds soil life, building long-term fertility instead of giving a quick green flush. The workhorses are blood meal (about 12-0-0) for nitrogen, bone meal (about 4-12-0) for phosphorus, fish emulsion (about 4-4-1) as a fast liquid, and compost (about 1-1-1) as the gentle all-purpose base. Because the nutrients are released by soil microbes, organic fertilizers rarely burn plants when used as directed, but they work on the soil's schedule, not yours.
