Can you help me understand organic foods? Organic means that the foods were grown with out pesticides or fertilizers, right? does that mean all fertilizers, or just chemical fertilizers? I’m going to be using my compost to fertilize my garden and am not using chemicals (we have well water). Will that mean that the food I grow is organic because there’s no chemical fertilizer, or isn’t organic because I’m using fertilizer?
Organic means it’s grown without Synthetic/Man-made fertilizers and chemicals/pesticides.
There are organic fertiliers made from natural sources – alfalfa meal, bone meal, kelp… etc.
For commercially grown crops, I believe there is a buffer period where a farm has to be free from using chemical products before the crops can even be labeled organic. I guess that allows time for the synthetic stuff to work it’s way out of the soil.
Organic means it’s grown without Synthetic/Man-made fertilizers and chemicals/pesticides.
There are organic fertiliers made from natural sources – alfalfa meal, bone meal, kelp… etc.
For commercially grown crops, I believe there is a buffer period where a farm has to be free from using chemical products before the crops can even be labeled organic. I guess that allows time for the synthetic stuff to work it’s way out of the soil.
References :
You generally fall within the understood definition of "organic" with the way you are doing it. You can put manure on your plants as fertilizer (which enriches the soil) and still say you have organic produce. There are lots of organic options for both fertilizers and pesticides.
References :
http://www.extremelygreen.com/fertilizerguide.cfm
Be mindful that in some cases you cannot market your produce as organic unless you have been certified as organic by the government body which has jurisdiction over this, for example in the US that would be the Department of Agriculture (USDA).
References :
It will be organic unless you put something in the compost pile that had a chemical spray on it or was grown with a chemical spray or fertilizer.
Organic is not what it is cracked up to be!! It is a very wasteful way to grow your food. You cannot use any insecticides on the garden!! If the grasshoppers are enjoying your hard work, too bad!!
I suggest you do not put the coffee grounds, coffee filters, tea bags, other stuff you buy from the store and want to toss in the compost. These probably have some chemicals in them you don’t want. This limits your ability to make a good compost!!! I know, I buy the organic or recycled coffee filters too, but I don’t trust the companies not to leave a bunch of chemicals in it.
If you use "steer manure" watch that the steer wasn’t fed feed stuffs that weren’t grown organicly. This is the usual fertilizer people use for gardening when they don’t want to use chemical stuff.
Now you know why "organic" foods cost so much?? Everything that goes into or onto them must be certified organic for generations back.
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