PREPARING THE SOIL

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Not only are trace elements valuable as direct nutrients, but they also work as catalysts to prompt chemical reactions that dissolve other soilborne minerals, making them available to plants. Many of the ten micronutrients, in fact, work best only when present in proper proportion with others.

Good composting and other soil-building practices should provide a balanced meal of trace elements in the long run. If you want to give your plot a trace-element boost now—or periodically—seaweed (kelp) is an excellent source. Apply a pound of seaweed meal (or 3 pounds of raw seaweed) per 100 square feet of soil area. Another good, commercially available source is FTE (fritted trace elements).

COMPLETE ORGANIC FERTILIZERS

You can buy or make balanced organic fertilizers to help boost your garden's soil quality. At the Eco-Village we've often used Erth-Rite fertilizer on poor soils. (It's available in different blends from Zook & Ranck, Rt. 1, Gap, PA 17527. A 40-pound bag of the basic garden formulation costs $7.98 plus shipping. Write the company for more information.)

John Jeavons has a general fertilizer program for first- and second-year gardens, assuming that the soil is poor and the owner hasn't—for one reason or another—done a soil test. His recipe, which follows, is meant to be applied per 100 square feet at each planting.

For nitrogen:

10 pounds cottonseed meal,
or 5 pounds fish meal, or 5 pounds
blood meal, or 4 pounds hoof and horn meal

For phosphorus:

4-5 pounds bonemeal, or 10 pounds
phosphate rock, or 10 pounds soft phosphate

For potash and trace minerals:

1 pound kelp meal and 2 pounds
wood ashes, or 10 pounds crushed
granite, or 10 pounds greensand

As a texturizer:

2 cubic feet of manure

For microbiotic life and humus:

up to 1 cubic yard of compost

For calcium:

2 pounds eggshells

For humic acid (to release tied-up nutrients):

1 pound Clodbuster (a commercial product)

Lee Fryer also provides some good homemade fertilizer recipes in his book The Bio-Gardener's Bible (available from many bookstores and libraries, or for $9.95 plus $1.50 shipping and handling from Mother's Bookshelf, 105 Stoney Mountain Rd., Hendersonville, NC 28791). Below are three of Lee's formulas. Each makes about 100 pounds of fertilizer and provides at least 3% nitrogen, 6% phosphorus, and 6% potash. Lee recommends applying a total of 4 pounds of these mixtures per 100 square feet of garden per season (applied both throughout the garden and under seed rows prior to planting) if—in his words—"you want to grow a garden that'll impress the neighbors."

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