Alright! This is John Kohler with growingyourgreens.com
! Today we have another exciting episode for you. And this is going to be a quick style episode
because I know a lot of you guys like things quick! Even in the bedroom! Sorry guys. Got a quick video here for you. So we're going to really quickly get into
the top 6 worst fertilizers that you shouldn't use in your garden, and then we're going to
get into the top 6 fertilizers that, in my opinion, you should use in your garden. So without further ado, let's just go ahead
and get in the list. Number one fertilizer that you should not
use in your garden are synthetic fertilizers. You know, if you go to the local store and
you see something like, you know, miracle crap or it's something else, miracle something. Or like you go down to a feed store and they
have 10-10-10 , 15-15-15, you know, and it has all these ingredients that look like chemical
names, right, we don't want to be using those synthetic fertilizers. I mean there's many reasons for it, so I'll
just get in to a few of my top reasons. Number one, they reduce the water holding
capacity of the soil. So literally it makes the soil poor and not
good, right, it's not good, you know. Another thing is that when you're buying this
big bag of fertilizer you're paying some money, and what you don't realize is that it is water
soluble. So while some of the fertilizer will, maybe
like 10% will reach the root zone and reach the plant and go in to the plants allowing
them to grow, you know, up to 90% could just be washed away into the ground water, you
know run down rivers, go through creeks, you know, dead zones and in the gulf, all this
kind of stuff. So most of it runs away. So it's not a good deal in my opinion. Another reason why you don't want to buy synthetic
fertilizers is because in 2002 the EPA started allowing companies to basically put in toxic
heavy metals into fertilizers without telling you guys and without any kind of labelling,
you know. So we don't want to access heavy metals and
you know, in fertilizers, you know, in amounts that would not be normally found in nature. So when they add heavy metals and things into
fertilizers because they have a waste stream that companies need to get rid of. So one of the ways they could do this is by
distributing it over large areas of land in small quantities. But, I don't know about you, but I don't want
any kind of heavy metals from industry in my fertilizers. That's just yet another reason why you shouldn't
buy synthetic fertilizers. So the last two reasons to not get synthetic
fertilizers are because it lowers your plant's immunity. So it actually makes your plants, you know,
weak and sick and diseased. It's like if you eat a really poor diet and
you're like a flabby weakling and you're not nice and strong, right, that's what you're
doing to your plants when you're feeding them inappropriate food. That's what many Americans do on a daily basis
by not eating the proper foods either. So don't do that to your plants and don't
do that to yourselves. The final reason why I don't believe anybody
should use synthetic fertilizers is because you can burn your plants with synthetic fertilizers. If you put too much synthetic fertilizers
on your plants, it will kill your plants. That's definitely not a good thing. So I don't want you guys to you know do things
that will burn your plants because that means you're not going to be gardening and you're
not going to be growing your foods. So it's harder to mess up with compost. I mean, there's virtually no amount of compost
you could put on that would be too much, that would negatively affect your plants in any
major way. The second fertilizer that I believe you guys
should not be using in your garden are animal manures. Now if you get a trusted source of an animal
manure that's different, you know, but the majority of the animal manures that are being
sold in bags at your feed shops, and you go and get animal manure at a local place, right,
it’s from the animal agriculture industry. And you know the manures in this day and age
can have several problems and this is why I don't like manures. Number one, contamination. So they can be contaminated with heavy metals
because the food that's being grown for them are using what I talked about in the first
part- synthetic fertilizers which has heavy metals. So now the animals are eating heavy metal,
you know, foods that have heavy metals in them because they're grown with the fertilizers. And then the animals get them with them and
guess what? The animal’s bile accumulates. That means, you know, whatever the animal
eats it starts storing up in its body right, in its tissues. So now when you eat the animals or when you
use it's poo it's going to also have the contamination in there. Which is really not good, you know, and I
don't want the heavy metals or other contaminants such as, you know, drugs and antibiotics and
all this stuff you know going into you're guys' garden. So the second reason why I don't like the
animal manure is because you're really not getting what you paid for, right. Once you get fresh animal manure that's steaming
right out of a cat's ass or haith, it has good nutrition in there, absolutely, I'm not
going to debate that. But the problem is as it's sitting there,
as it's put in a bag, as it's transported, as it's you know set in open air, you know
, the nutrient’s bulk dies. So you could lose 50% of the 75% of nitrogen
from the original manure or what was in there based on how long it's been sitting around. You could also lose some of the other major
elements in there you know to 50% or more. So it's really not a good way to feed your
garden. So the major reason why I don't like the animal
manures is because of the possible E. Coli or other negative bacterial contamination
that could be deadly for us, right. And some of the outbreaks in industry when
there's like E. Coli on the spinach or on the cantaloupes and all this stuff, it's not
because the cantaloupes have the E. Colis because there's raw manure either used on
the crops or raw manure that got water leaked over and the water got washed off onto the
crops. And it basically contaminated the crops. So I don't want anybody near family to lose
their life due to E. Coli. So that's why I do not advocate using any
kind of manure, you know, product. So, the third product that shouldn’t be
used as a fertilizer is bone meal. Now this is something that’s very common
in organic gardening. You go to the local garden shop, you pick
up a bag of organic fertilizer and most likely it has a few things in there- bone meal, blood
meal, animal manure, predominantly. Why? Because these things are super cheap. There’s industries that basically create
these things, it’s a waste product and they want to get rid of them, so they sell them
super cheap. And now other companies take it for really
cheap, put it in a bag, put a nice fancy label on it, label it organic and they charge you
a ton of money for it. And it's a waste product. So the bone meal, you know, there can be many
problems with it. Number one, it can be toxic to your pets. So I have a cat and a dog and I don't want
them getting hurt by eating too much bone meal and losing their life or something happening
to them. Number two, just like with the manures, there
can be problems with it. Like there could be contamination of heavy
metals or other diseases in there, you know. Also if you do choose to use the bone meal,
please use the dust mats minimally. Any kind of fine particulate is not good to
breathe, specially bone meal that may have certain diseases inside of it. The last two reasons why I don't like the
bone meal is that it's not water soluble and immediately available to your plants. So I mean if you put it down and expect immediate
results, that's not going to happen. It needs to break down over time. So be aware of that. And the final reason is because if used in
excess it can inhibit mycorrhizal fungi in your soil. Now to me, mycorrhizal fungi are very important. They colonize on the root zone and they help
bring in nutrients in to your plants. And by using too much bone meal this will
inhibit their growth and inhibit them from taking up nutrients and giving them into your
plants so you can have a luscious growth. So the fourth fertilizer that I would not
use in my garden is blood meal. Much like the animal manure and the bone meal,
predominantly that is sourced from the animal agriculture industry and it's a waste product
of that industry. So it's a very cheap product secured, produced
and then resold. And much like anything from the conventional
animal agriculture industry in this day and age, things can be contaminated. So the blood could be contaminated. I mean, we know as humans that we don't want
to get blood transfusion from a person with a disease because that could spread the disease
to us. And much like the, you know, when you're using
blood meal that can have disease contamination in there and that may make people sick. So I'm not a big fan of that, you know. It is known as a high nitrogen fertilizer
which is a good thing, but we, you know, we want to remember we don't really need that
much nitrogen. Everybody just shoves it down your face 'we
need nitrogen nitrogen nitrogen!'. It's not about nitrogen nitrogen nitrogen. While nitrogen is an important nutrient, it's
not everything. And you don't want to have too much nitrogen
because whether that's a synthetic nitrogen that could burn your plants, even you know,
blood meal can also burn your plants. So I want you guys to be safe when gardening. It could also have other contaminants of heavy
metals and the disease as I mentioned. So the final reason why I am not a big fan
of the blood meal is because it can attract unwanted animals into your garden. Now you guys know that if you're swimming
in the ocean and there's sharks , I guess there was a shark attack in Hawaii recently,
you know. If you go into the ocean and you have a cut
and you're bleeding, right, the blood in the ocean will attract sharks and you might get
eaten, right? And just like that, you know, the blood meal
in your garden may attract unwanted animals and bring them in to your garden. And usually those are the ones that are carnivorous. And you know, those are probably not ones
you want in your garden. So I'm not a big fan of the blood meal. Now, the next fertilizer that you guys shouldn't
be using in my opinion is the biosolids also known as sewer sludge. Now this is not the same as using human manure. Say like, you know, I use my poop and compost
that and compost and make my own human manure out of my poop where I trust its source, you
know that's one thing. But the biosolids is different. Because it’s basically, the biosolids are
what everybody flushes down the toilet, whatever goes down a drain, you know, in cities and
this could be really bad. People could be flushing drugs down the drain,
they could be flushing, you know, paints and thinners and all these automotive wastes and
all kinds of chemicals. And all this stuff goes down the drain and
then they create a fertilizer out of that. So I'm not a big fan of that stuff, and be
sure to stay tuned to an upcoming episode where I'm going to film with JD specifically
going in to why biosolids are really probably not the best thing you can be putting in your
garden. So, you know, they could be contaminated with,
you know, bad bacteria, and once again they are a problem with the heavy metals. So the last fertilizer that I'm not a big
fan of and I don't believe you guys should be using are basically GMO derived fertilizers. So what I mean by that well, you know, corn
meal, alfalfa meal, soy meal are very common even organic inputs you could use to add to
your soil to create more fertility. But the problem in this day and age is that
now they are genetically modified. So now you have the remnants of genetically
modified meals going into your soil. Or another one is Canova meal. They also put this is animal foods, dog foods,
and even human foods. So I want to encourage you guys to get away
from the GMO foods. I believe they are not healthy for us and
the meals are not good, you know, for our gardens. Because I don't want to have anything to do
with supporting an industry that is doing that kind of stuff. And by you buying genetically modified meal
to put in your organic garden, you know, you're supporting once again their waste streams. The waste product that comes from that industry
that somebody is getting paid for, that then encourage them to continue, you know, make
those products and get them out to people. So if you do want to use one of those meals,
which I think are fine meals if they're organic but not the GMO version, go for it and do
it. So while I did mention the top 6 fertilizers
that I believe are the worst, right, I want to always encourage you guys to do your best,
right. I try to not use any of these things to the
best of my ability. Sometimes they sneak in in small amounts but
the majority of what I use are what I'm going to cover next in the top 6 fertilizers that
you should be using in my opinion. And if I do use some of the other ones by
mistake, by accident, or they’re in some very small amounts, you know, I'm not going
to shoot myself for it, right. It's not about things are about right and
wrong, good and bad, you know. We want to do the best we can. It's like a gradient. It's like, you know, like a rainbow, like
the colors of the rainbow, you know. Try to get to the end of the rainbow and find
that pot of gold. But even if you're not all the way there,
you know, that's better than being at the beginning of the rainbow. So I want you to move your way along, you
know. Like, John the only fertilizer that you get
at my local store is that bone and blood meal stuff that's organic. Well, I'd much rather have you guys using
organic products such as the bone or blood meal than the synthetic fertilizer. But I'd also rather encourage you guys to
make your own compost, which is even better than either of the other four mentioned materials. So anyway, without further ado, let's go ahead
and get into my top 6 fertilizers that you guys should use. Alright, number one, of course, I can't neglect
the compost. So now I'm talking about the biologically
active compost that's made thermally with heat. That's the kind of compost that you normally
find in bags in stores and it's really widely available. You could make it at home yourself. So that's the top one because this is truly
how plants feed other plants, you know. The leaves fall off my plants, off my trees,
they go on the ground, they break down, they turn back into soil and basically the plants
feed themselves, I mean, in nature's system. And we've gotten so far away from that. So take all your scraps from your garden and
compost it to make further nutrition for your garden that came from the soil, right, okay. So number two fertilizer you should use, very
important and most gardeners miss this, is the fungal dominated compost. You know, I did talk about the bacterial compost
made with heat. The fungal dominated compost is basically
a pile of wood chips that just sits out for a couple of years, you know, one and half
to three years. You inoculate it with some mushrooms. King Stropharia mushrooms are the mushrooms
that you should inoculate it with. And the mushrooms will slowly basically break
down the wood chips and turn it into this really rich black gold that's rich in fungal
activity. Most composts are rich in bacterial activity
and I want to encourage you guys to get some fungal activity from this black compost in
there. One brand is California humus, we'll throw
a picture right there for you guys. And this is super important, you know. While there should be a balance of bacterial
and fungal in your garden, I find too many gardens have too much bacterial activity and
not enough fungal. And when you add the fungal your plants will
respond. So I made a video, I'll put a link down below,
you know, where it says "Super size your vegetables with wood chips and rock dust". And my friends, they are just using basically
fungal dominated compost to grow huge vegetables that I've never even grown. Dinosaur Kale that big. So I'm still striving to get some more fungal
activity into my garden. Of course the third fertilizer that you should
be using in my opinion is something like the rock dust. Now this is just not a rock powder or rock
phosphate and all this stuff. What I mean by when I say rock dust is I mean
a broad spectrum ground up rock that has, you know, a wide variety of trace minerals. You know, something like greensand might have
a couple dozen minerals in there, something like that. And then there's soil humage which might contain,
you know, even more minerals. But what I really like is a wide spectrum
rock dust, you know, such as some of them called the Azomite , the Gaia green, Glacial
rock dust, you know, there's C.B.D. Mineral rock dust, there's the Excelerite,
you know. There's all these different brands of horticultural
great rock dust that you can use to put trace minerals in to your garden, you know, super
important, up to 70 different trace minerals in your garden in nature's amounts. So we're not trying to play God like synthetic
fertilizers and just giving your plants maybe three main minerals with a handful of other
ones. We're going to give the plants basically ground
up rocks, which is what would have given them nutrition a long time ago before we've destroyed
the earth, right. So that's really another very important nutrient
to add and be sure to check my other videos on the rock dust. The fourth fertilizer you guys should be using
are worm castings. So think about it. If nature was healthy and you had a raised
bed and you had a garden, you'd have tons of worms in there. Worms go in there and they aerate the soil
which is really good. But more importantly they take organic matter,
they run it through their little bodies that, they have bodies, and they poop out worm castings. Which are basically super charged plant foods. Now not all worm castings are treated equal
because much like us you are what you eat. The worm castings are no better than what
the worm is eating. And they are feeding worms a lot of things
that make the castings that I mean are not so good. So you want to feed the worms a varied diet
and make sure to feed them things, you know, like crab shells and shrimp shells, kind of
rich materials, things like insect frass and things like cardboard along with other organic
matter, fruit and vegetables scraps. And you can even feed them, you know, bacterial
dominated compost and run that through the worms to get even a richer product. So you know, worm castings are really rich
in not just nutrients, you know, which they have some nutrients, but they're really rich
in the biology. And we really want to get that biology back
into the soil. And you know, compost and fungal dominated
compost have this biology as the worm castings, and it's super important. So the fifth fertilizer you guys should be
using in your garden in my opinion is the compost tea. The compost tea is a really good way to super
charge your garden and get more biology in there. Because it's this biology that is missing,
you know. When a soil is not alive, it's missing the
biology, you know. In living soil like the raised bed soil here
and a little teaspoon of this soil, this black rich soil that I got right, there's more creatures
in it than people on earth, right. So that's very important and most soils, if
they're using synthetic fertilizers right, they're killing off all of this biology because
the biology cannot thrive in that condition using those mineral salts basically. So we want to really encourage the diversity
and amount of microbes in there. In my opinion, the compost tea is an excellent
way to do that. So I like to use the Boogie Brew compost tea
is my favorite compost tea to feed this soil, and also the leaves of my plants to give them
the biology that are the workhorses that break down their organic matter into the soil to
make it bio available for my plants so they could thrive. So the final fertilizer that I believe is
one of the best fertilizers out there in my opinion, are the seaweed based fertilizers. So whether that's a kelp meal or a soluble
kelp, you know, there's many other different seaweed based fertilizers on the market as
well. And they are amazing. I mean, not only for the trace minerals contained
within them. Because once again, you know, the rocks were
on the land and they got ground down into dust and then the rains came and washed all
this dust into the ocean and washed all the minerals into the ocean. So the ocean has a lot of minerals. And so the plants, the seaweeds that live
in the ocean absorb these minerals. But not only do they have the minerals in
there, they also have different kinds of plant hormones that can do amazing things in your
garden to, you know, increase your plant growth and all this kind of stuff. So that probably would be my final recommendation
for you guys on one of the best fertilizers you could use in your garden are the seaweeds
including the kelp and other kind of seaweeds that are available. So that's pretty much it! Those are the worst fertilizers in my opinion
as well as the best fertilizers. Of course there's a lot of other fertilizers
that I could not use in this top 6 and worst 6 thing, you know. I like things like the Biochar, I like soil
zeolites and I like really organic things that you could just add to soil to build fertility
so that you guys could have the best plant growth, you know. You want to try to get away from things that
are going to hurt our plants and that are going to hurt us, that are going to hurt the
earth, and that's basically what the worst ones do. And that's my criteria, you know- if they're
not good for us , if they're not good for the planet, if they're not good for animals
on the planet, you know, they're probably not a good thing to use. So if you do choose to use those, you know,
I'm not the garden police and going to say, "oh you used that, you're a bad person!' I never really care what you guys use. I'm just sharing with you guys my opinions
, and if you guys want to model what I do , model the growth that I’m getting on these
amazing Malabar spinach that's like vining up and it's just taken over and I have more
Malabar spinach than I could eat in a lifetime. You know you won't want to follow what I do
because I do some things for certain reasons. And you know the thing that I want you guys
to realize that in nature you know, there's no such thing as, like, concentrated bone
meal or blood meal going into gardens, right. You know I really want to get back to kind
of thinking how nature would think and all these manmade products that are either waste
stream or you know synthetic fertilizers. It's not how nature would work. Of course yes, a cow or animal would lose
its life in the Savannah or in the forest and it would bleed out and the animals that
killed it would eat that stuff and there'd be some blood , but it wouldn’t be like
a whole like forest full of dead animals with blood everywhere. And that's basically what you're doing when
you putting concentrated blood or bone meals or using concentrated manures. Because forests don't grow in piles of shit. They might have some shit scattered around,
but what they would grow in are the plant materials and some of the fertilizers that
I recommended. So I always encourage you guys to go towards
these things and move away from the things that I am not a big fan of. And do the best you can, because that's what
it's all about. And, you know, once again I make these videos
so that you guys could grow the healthiest food possible. Because I've done a lot of research on these
topics and I've been growing food for a long time and visited a lot of places where I see
the results based on what they are using. And, in my opinion, what I'm doing works the
best for me and is the best for the planet and that's just simply the way I recommend
to you guys. So if you guys enjoyed this video, hey please
give me a thumbs up to let me know. Also be sure to check my past episodes. I have over eleven hundred episodes now, to
teach you guys all aspects of gardening. And also make sure to click the Subscribe
button down below. I have new episodes coming out all the time
sharing my top tips, garden tours and all kinds of other stuff that you're probably
not going to see on any other gardening channel online. So once again my name is John Kohler with
growingyourgreens.com . We'll see you next time and until then remember- keep on growing!
