If you want to improve the soil structure then something like Nature's Helper (fine, aged bark chips) or another 'soil improver' would be better than vermiculite. The vermiculite is a permanent solution, so in one way, it's good, but it will NEVER break down and will be there for years to come. The benefit from adding OM, which will eventually be broken down by the microherd in the soil, is that it will all eventually improve your soil, making it more permeable and more fertile. The vermiculite will most likely do nothing, long term, for the improvement of your fulvic and humic acids. I would check to see if there is a municipal source of compost, and see if they will deliver - if they won't, then borrow a pick-up truck, if you don't own one, and get a few loads. It should be free, or nearly so, esp. if you pick up. I know there is a commercial operation near here where a freind got a pick-up load of mushroom compost and top soil for about $30 (about 2 cu. yards). Have you been adding the manure and compost to your garden beds for the past few years? I repeat what I wrote earlier - if you have been adding 4" or more of OM each year for a number of years, then you probably should have pretty good soil by now. If, however, this is only the second year or so you have been adding, then, yes, you could probably add more. One source of free or nearly so, OM is the local tree services, and the companies that trim the powerlines - they end up with truckloads of chippings, and are usually happy to dump one or more loads if you ask. The main draw-back is that the chippings are fresh and pretty coarse, so you have to be able to let them sit for at least a year - 2 is better - before using them. They do make a decent mulch, 'though you have to pick out the bigger pieces. If nothing else, it's a good "brown" additive to your new compost pile. You might also see if you can get the "spoiled" hay or straw. If nothing else, and for the future, see if you can get the bales people have used for fall/Halloween/Thanksgiving decorations. By the time that they have sat out in the rain for a few weeks, they aren't really usable for either feed or bedding. Most people would probably give them to you, rather than have the garbage collecter take them, if their garbage service will even do so. I kinow nothing about the cotton by-products, they aren't locally available, so will let someone else comment on that.

I have used blood meal for years. I tried to follow this thread in its entirety and thought I had a few things I could add. I noticed that using it to replace manure was mentioned. It is not a replacement for manure, but it sure does help when there is not enough manure. Manure and compost have the wonderful qualities of making the soil moisture just right. There is nothing to replace compost or manure except other compost or manure. I also live in a rural area and never had a buzzard show up for dinner just because I threw out a little blood meal. I do have pets though, and they all prefer fish emulsion over blood meal any day. Gee, anybody got any thoughts on why? If you can keep the pets out of the fish emulsion,it is the most perfect replacement supplement that I have found for manure and compost, but it is not a perfect replacement either. I have used blood meal in small quantities, large quantities and everything in between. I have never burned a plant root with it, and I am not sure why. I cannot burn plants with rabbit manure either. That is called a cold manure. Goats and sheep, I am told, also produce cold manures. It means that although they produce nitrogen in abundance, the jillions of creepy crawly things that break down the soil do it somehow differently that other livestock manures. I have certainly burned roots with chicken manure. Rabbit manure has more nitrogen than all of the common live stock manures found in North America, and I do not know any animal that produces more nitrogen in its manure than rabbits. I love the stuff, but we are not talking about rabbit manure. We are talking about blood meal which I also love. Also liquid blood meal was mentioned. Really? Couldn't you just do your own slaughtering? I do not know anybody that sells it that way and don't think I would buy it if I did. If you want to pour a store bought nitrogen rich liquid over a spot, use the fish emulsion that I just mentioned in a paragraph above. Just develop a good plan for keeping pets out of it. I don't have any because I do not wish to spend the money on other products that repel them. Those also exist. Just ask for them wherever you buy garden supplies. Let me add this about nitrogen's side effects. Nitrogen does indeed promote lush green foliage that may not be desirable if one really wants bigger fruit than plant, but I have to add that bigger plants produce bigger fruit. I grow watermelons on land that I inherited from my father. When I told my mother that I planned to do that, she was quick to remind me that my father never could grow watermelons on that land. (He would not listen to good advice because he thought he knew everything.) There were several reasons for that, but we are just talking about fruit size. His watermelons and at first mine were far too small, baseball or softball size, and part of the reason was because I did not know how to time watering or fertilization and such. Watermelons need the most nitrogen while the vines are forming and before the fruit forms. Then while fruit is forming, they need to receive the most phosphorus and potassium. However, this is not advisable if nitrogen has not been applied aggressively enough. Even as I write this I have watermelon flowers, but still have to apply nitrogen to get all of my melons on the same page. They are growing at different rates because they popped out of the ground on different days, and I replanted about a week after the first planting, and the second planting also popped out of the ground on different days. I also plan to sell them. So I have them in many stages. Some only have their dicotyledon leaves while others have long vines, but I am not satisfied with any of their growth rates because I know from experience that at present they are only long enough to produce baseball and softball sized watermelons. Therefore I am making amendments with Organic Miracle Gro Liquid plant food that has 8-0-0 and is made from sugar beets. If the smallest plants I have right now started making fruit at their present size, they probably wouldn't have anything bigger than marbles. I am sure that all of this applies to all fruit and vegetables. Bigger plants make bigger produce, but more phosphorus and potassium applied at the right times make more fruits and vegetables. I hope this has been informative. Grow something really grand.

If "organic fertilizer" does not get washed out of soil why is there high levels of phosphorus found in streams and rivers of farm country traceable to manure spread on the fields? That is a good question. First I would question the source of the information (that manure is responsible). If the manure source is confirmed then I would question how the phosphate got into the livestock. Amkeer might be right about overuse of phosphate in pasture fertilizer. The ranchers I know best don't use any fertilizer at all besides what falls out of the animals. In fact they target their manure deposits by strategically placing the water trough and mineral lick so as to concentrate the fertilizer in one spot. I'm not questioning you or your statement, kimmsr, but I have seen well-meaning researchers improperly draw conclusions on cause and effect before. Livestock seem to be a ready "cause" for many environmental ills when I believe them to be the solution to many environmental ills.

Hello Isabell, Yes, it would be possible to have a phosphorus deficiency and BER (Blossom End Rot) at the same time. Your nitrogen may also be locked up from the wood chips. Do a Google search for "wood mulch and nitrogen" and you will find a slew of articles about wood chips tieing up the nitrogen in soil while they are decomposing. What is below your raised bed? If it is decent soil, it should be able to support your tomatoes as their roots should go much deeper than the depth of many raised beds. I think the wood fines or "splinters" are contributing to your excess drainage. Unfortunately by watering so often for short periods of time, you are training your plants to grow shallow roots. If your soil won't hold moisture, you might want to get some of the water absorbing crystals and work them into the topsoil. (The further down the better, not easy with plants in place I know.) Because of the excess drainage issue, you probably need to treat your raised beds like they are big containers. With containers, plants have to be fed often because the water draining out of them leaches away the nutrients. Carolyn137 wrote an excellent response to a question about Blossom End Rot (BER) and I am quoting it here: With BER there is NO problem with absorption of Ca++ though the roots. The problem is maldistribution within the plant that can be induced by a number of stresses which include uneven delivery of water, too much N, growing in too rich soil, too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry you name it. As the plants mature they can better handle the streses that can induce BER so usually it goes away. The two exceptions are first, if the soil has NO Ca++ as confirmed with a soil test, and that's a rare condition, and second, if the soil is too acidic in which Case Ca++ is bound in the soil. Again, adding lime, egg shells and on and on can not and will not prevent BER b'c absorption of Ca++ thru the roots is OK. Paste tomatoes are especially susceptible to BER and I think someone in a post above mentioned that. If you go to the top of this first page and click on the FAQ link and scroll down you'll also find an article about BER in case some of you have never looked at the FAQ's And there';s some darn good articles there as well, but I wouldn't pay any attention to the variety list b'c it's way out of date. The old information about BER being caused solely by lack of soil Ca++ has been shown to be wrong with research that's been done in the last 20 years or so, but it's going to take another generation before the real story gets into books, websites, magazines, etc. Most of the better websites already have the correct information. BER affects not only tomatoes, but peppers, squash, cabbage, cauliflower, etc., and it's a huge multimillion dollar problem for the industry, which is WHY all that reasearch was done. For instance, when tissues were taken from a plant that has BER fruits and was assayed for Ca++, the normal level of Ca++ was found, it just wasn't getting to the blossom end of fruits. And there's also a condition called internal BER where the fruits look fine, no evidence of BER externally, but when you cut open the fruit the inside is black Hope that helps Bone meal is slow release, I am not sure that it would help with a phosphorus deficiency this season. The bottom line is that before you try to amend the soil with supplements, you should have a soil test done. You have enough issues going on that you need a good read on what is happening with your soil rather than guessing what to add to it. At this late a date in the season, any feeding you do, may need to be liquid. Betsy