This Guide is for gardeners who want to grow delicious, flavourful, and nutrient dense food. Soils are different all over the world. If you live in the Pacific Northwest or Coastal British Columbia, and you want to grow food, this fertilizer mix is appropriate for you.

Complete Organic Fertilizer Recipe:

3 Quarts Seed Meal(Alfalfa)

OR   1 Quart Seed Meal
1 Pint Feather Meal
1 Pint Fish Meal

1 Quart Soft Rock Phosphate or Bone Meal

2 Pint Agricultural Limestone

1 Pint Agricultural Gypsum

1 Quart Kelp Meal

1 TSPN Boron

1 TSPN Copper Sulfate

1 TSPN Zinc Sulfate

Application Rate: 6-8 Quarts per 100 SQ FT.

Food that is nutrient dense has high levels of essential nutrients, vitamins, and minerals. Canadian Adults tend to be deficient in Calcium, and Magnesium1. Trace Minerals are essential for human health and development2. Furthermore, trace minerals of selenium, zinc, iodine, and copper were found to have a high prevalence of insufficiency in older adults3.  In this guide we explore the Complete Organic Fertilizer Recipe provided by Steve Solomon on page 84 of his book “the intelligent gardener.”

If you’d like to run a soil test prior to adding amendments, that’s a great way to learn. Learn how to take a soil sample here. We recommend MB Labs or A&L Labs for Soil Tests. For A&L Labs, use their western Canada Soil Submission Sample practice to learn. All of the soil tests we’ve done on saltspring Island show this mix is appropriate for Coastal British Columbia. If you’re in the Pacific Northwest with a site that was previously forest or a field that has been hayed I’d expect to see low calcium, very low boron, low Phosphorus, and low sulfur.

References:

Works Cited

Ahmed, Mavra, et al. “Nutrient Intakes of Canadian Adults: Results from the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS)–2015 Public Use Microdata File.” The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, vol. 114, no. 3, 21 May 2021, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqab143.

Tako, Elad. “Dietary Trace Minerals.” Nutrients, vol. 11, no. 11, 19 Nov. 2019, p. 2823, https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11112823. Accessed 9 Mar. 2020.

Vural, Zeynep, et al. “Trace Mineral Intake and Deficiencies in Older Adults Living in the Community and Institutions: A Systematic Review.” Nutrients, vol. 12, no. 4, 1 Apr. 2020, p. 1072, www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/12/4/1072, https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12041072. Accessed 17 Apr. 2020.

SOIL , GRASS, AND CANCER: Health of animals and men is linked to the mineral balance of the soil