Vegetables Gardening - Growing Organic Vegetables

Dear Jim....I spoke to you one time about my fear of synthetic fertilizers
and you reassured me that they were just crushed rock and perfectly
acceptable. But what about the 16-16-16? Is it not synthetic? I'm
including something that Howard Garret (The Dirt Doctor) wrote in one of
his newsletters. I (and probably most of your email list) would
appreciate your comment. I really want to believe that the Mittleider
method is the way to go, but I have all these doubts. Sorry to exasperate
you. Thanks, Elaine

There are all kinds of problems with synthetic, high-nitrogen fertilizers.
For starters, they have unidentified fillers and the nutrients are
basically salts. They are harsh and can burn plants. These salts build up
and damage soil health and plant roots. Because the nutrients in synthetic
fertilizers are basically in the anionic form, they do not bind to the soil
and plants only use a small portion of the nutrients - the rest pollutes.
These fake fertilizers are a significant source of pollution and
environment destruction. They volatize and pollute the air, leach into
thesoil to contaminate aquifers and wash into waterways to contaminate
and
cause weed growth. They are extremely damaging to the beneficial microbes
in the soil - both bacterial and fungal. Some such as ammonium sulfate, are
deadly to earthworms.

The small percentage of high nitrogen fertilizer that gets into plants
forces fast growth that results in weak, watery cell growth and sick
plants. Plants grow and flower in the short run, but the imbalance and
theweak cells that are created bring on insects and diseases. Plant
health is
decreased long term. Nature's job is to take out sick plants and to
encourage the survival of the fittest. Synthetic nitrogen pushers advise
people to buy products where the slow release portion of the product is in
the 60% range. The artificial attempt to slow these fake fertilizers down
is humorous. If they would use organic fertilizers, 100% of the fertilizer
would be in the slow release form. Organic fertilizers contain N-P-K, trace
minerals, organic material, humus and beneficial microbes - and that's all
good.

The worse possible choices? 1) Chemical weed-and-feed fertilizers, and 2)
Nitrogen-only fertilizers such as 24-0-0.

Too much phosphorous has become a topic of concern to those who don't
understand soil health and we will discuss that in next week's newsletter.

If you have any questions about this newsletter or any other topic, join
me this weekend for my *Green Living and Dirt Doctor Radio
shows*<http://www.dirtdoctor.com/organic/garden/content/code/radio/>
. Shop in the *Green Living Store* <http://www.green-living.com/>* *for all
of the products that I recommend in the Organic Program.

Naturally yours,

Howard Garrett

On Sun, Mar 4, 2012 at 8:59 AM, Jim Kennard
<jbkennard@foodforeveryone.org>wrote:

> **
>
>
> Many of you have paid attention and armed yourselves with a small degree
> of preparation this weekend. A great many more have done nothing. Please
> help me understand why!
>
> Perhaps it has something to do with our constantly being bombarded, and
> even inundated with sales messages, and we just become hardened to them.
>
> I hope some background about the Foundation and about me, as well as more
> detail regarding the current world situation as I see it, will be helpful.
>
> The Food For Everyone Foundation is not a for-profit entity, but rather is
> a Public Charitable Foundation, and I do NOT, nor does anyone else receive
> a salary or wages. We volunteer, and are happy to do so because of our
> strong belief in and commitment to family vegetable gardening and The
> Mittleider Method as being the best in the world.
>
> The posts wherein I talk about the Foundation's products ARE NOT about
> making money, but about trying to help YOU get prepared to care for and
> feed yourself and those you love! However, there IS a price tag on most of
> these things for two reasons: 1. Getting the gardening message out requires
> substantial capital, and over the past 13+ years I have given about all of
> it that I can. 2. I've discovered that people value and USE that which they
> have paid for!
>
> About the current situation: I mentioned that I paid about 250% more for
> the micro-nutrients this time than I did previously. What I didn't say was
> that my best supplier for several years now REFUSES to SELL to me, as they
> only have enough product for their shareholders (co-op). And furthermore,
> in my search, other suppliers, including the farmers' fertilizer and feed
> store in our local community, charge prices that are almost 10 times higher
> than I experienced before this year!
>
> After many hours of searching by car, on the internet, and by telephone I
> felt BLESSED to get the materials as inexpensively as I DID!.
>
> And lastly, my core beliefs are what motivate me, and so long as you're in
> this group you're stuck with that, so for any who are offended with what I
> have to say next I can only ask for your forgiveness and tolerance.
>
> My Christian beliefs include numerous Biblical prophecies about great
> hardships and even destructions of many kinds that will be visited upon the
> earth in the days before the Lord Jesus Christ's return.
>
> Precursors to the worst of those events – "signs of the times" – include
> great wickedness, such as was seen in ancient Babylon, and in Sodom and
> Gomorrah before their destruction. As I see it the difficulties that are
> coming upon us today are the result of our collective wickedness, and of
> our forgetting the Lord.
>
> I am confident that the "wicked" label doesn't apply to most people in
> this Group, but even the "righteous" will not be spared if they have not
> taken the necessary steps to prepare and protect themselves. The Lord cites
> the story of the 10 virgins to make the point that general goodness and
> virtue are not going to be enough to save us. It takes having "oil in our
> lamps"! And some of that oil is the preparation to care for yourself and
> those you love by gardening, including knowledge, fertilizers, seeds, and
> an actual productive garden!
>
> I believe that less than 5% of people - even among the members of this
> gardening group - are prepared with sufficient oil in their lamps. What
> about you?
>
> Jim Kennard
>
>
>
>

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

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