Wonder if my roommates would notice? :) I've been doing some thinking on this, as well as reading up on various soils/soilless mixes, since first posting. It isn't my intention to deliberately add microorganisms to the pots, which is why I'm unsure of how to go about this -- my understanding of organic gardening involves all of the natural processes involved in decomposition and elemental interactions. This makes transitioning to an indoor, more "sterile" environment difficult to fathom. At this point, I intend to re-pot the herbs in a soilless mix, for drainage, and see how some of David's less odiferous amendments work for them. Thanks for all your suggestions. I'm getting a better idea of how to go about this.

(I don't mean to single out anyone on this thread.) On this forum, people always say, "I try to garden as organically as possible" and then give an example of when they don't think that is possible, which is often the teensiest obstacle. I always want to say, "No, you don't. I try to garden as organically as possible, which I've learned, is very, very possible." I would prefer it if people would just frankly say, "I'm not wholly committed to organic gardening, although I admire the concept, in theory." This isn't actually a completely true post, though, I admit. I use amendments that are not organic. I use newspaper, I use manures from animals whose habits I know nothing about, and I buy inorganic seedlings from nurseries. I don't call myself an organic gardener, but I have never encountered---as a person who believes that gardens (or at least my garden) should be managed organically---a situation in a garden that cannot be ignored or a plant substituted or a crop not grown or leaf damage regarded as the minor problem it usually is. And what people forget about organic gardening is that one of the theories is that the main reason that it doesn't always go well, is that you've got your next door neighbor killing off all the beneficials, all the natural predators, that organic gardeners need to depend on for their methods to truly succeed. I admit (with shame) to using peat-based Pro-mix to start seedlings. I fertilize with fish/seaweed based products and---my favorite---worm castings from my worm bin.

Instead of waiting for your response and then perhaps having to ask more questions I will just ask them now. What are you growing the seedlings in and what are you using to fertilize them once true leaves grow? Well I never used the flouresent light, which I will try this year. But the fertilizer was my original question? what do i use ( that is organic) to help the little guys? I am planting them this year in styrofoam(spelling ) cups. Last two years I used those peat moss cups. The soil I used a mix of topsoil and compost equal amounts. The funny thing is I throw bad tomatoes over the hill from my garden in the woods. Last year I had tomatoes growing in the woods. So it cant be that hard to grow them , I must just be doing something wrong. But this year I am going to try the light. thanks for your help and any other suggestions

Marlene, ideally I fertilize my roses organically with an organic rose fertilizer (three times a year) and alfalfa meal (2 times a year), since my soil seems to be very poor in terms of nutrients and I have the impression that they leach out quickly, too. I have read, that it is recommended to remove the mulch and put it back after you have applied the fertilizer and scratched it into the soil, but I have never done that. It is just too much of an effort for me. I just scatter the fertilizer around the rose on top of the mulch, scratch it into the mulch, and water it in very well. It seems to work just fine for me. I definitively know what you are talking about regarding that it is sometimes a pain to scratch the fertilizer into the soil and crawl around underneath the rose, to get it close to the center of the root ball, even though I only scratch it into the mulch :-). For that reason I have fertilized some of my roses just once this year! After reading about other people experiences here, I may try to only water the fertilizer in and that's it. I assume, that it might take the fertilizer a little bit longer to act, but that is better than to fertilize my roses not often enough, because it's just too exhausting.