Fertilizers & Plant Food
What to Look For
One of the primary focuses of organic lawn care and gardening is to create healthy soils that will in turn foster healthy plants. Commercial synthetic fertilizers, on the other hand, usually nurture your plants while doing nothing to help the soil, often killing off beneficial microorganisms, such as bacteria, fungi, protozoa and earthworms, that build soil structure and fertilize plants naturally. Furthermore, many of these fertilizers are fortified with added nitrogen and phosphorus, which can run off into waterways where they promote algal blooms that kill aquatic life.
The best fertilizer for your lawn and garden is homemade compost, made from food scraps, lawn clippings and fall leaves, which adds to the health of the soil. For tips on making your own compost, click here. You can also bolster your soil's health by caring for it properly, reducing and probably eliminating your need for store-bought fertilizer.
In the event that you do need additional help, below are a few things to look for in a good fertilizer. But before you shop, have your soil tested by your local USDA extension to determine pH and what nutrients, if any, your soil is missing, or test it yourself with the Soil Testing Kit listed in our Product Comparisons. To find your local extension office, see Resources. Gardeners Get Ready also offers tips on preparing your soil sample.
Ingredients
Fertilizers and plant foods, even those labeled "organic," may contain ingredients that you don't want on your lawn. For instance, fertilizers with manure or guano (chicken, bird or bat droppings) have high levels of ammonia, which can burn crops, and other animal byproducts, such as bone meal or fish meal, may have come from industrial farming operations and could be contaminated with diseases or heavy metals (read more in The Backstory).
You can boost the health of your soil and your plants by adding amendments such as humates (decomposed organic matter), worm castings (a fancy way to say worm poop) and mychorrizae (naturally occurring fungi that protect roots from diseases while also adding phosphorus to the soil).
Third-Party Approval: "NOFA Approved" and "OMRI Listed":
The Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI), a nonprofit organization, and the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA), an accredited certifying agency for the USDA National Organic Program, approve compost products that have been composted according to USDA Organic standards. The standards include specific turning schedules, temperatures and timing to minimize pathogenic organisms, require the documentation of all ingredients and guarantee that the product is finished compost. Only synthetic materials that are allowed in organic crop production can be added to NOFA approved compost.
