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Organic Rose Growing

Old blood meal?

9 years ago

I have some bagged blood meal that I bought a few years ago that has been sitting in my shed outiside. I use it every year with great results. This year, however, it seems like it's not working at all on my garden roses, clems, etc. I wonder if it's just my impatience or can blood meal go "stale" or old? Should I buy fresh? I prefer using organic fertilizers over chemical whenever possible.

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Comments (6)

strawchicago z5
9 years ago
Hi Kentstar: I'm glad to hear from you .... I like ALL of your posts through the past years in rose & other forums. You are always honest, informative, thus help others.

Blood meal doesn't go stale on me ... I have one bag that I used for the past 3 years. Used that this year, and it worked great. Organics need heat and water to break down. If it's too cold, or too dry, then it won't work. This summer it's colder & drier than normal.

I get better luck with organics when I soak in a bucket of water, and leave in hot sun for a few days ... be it banana peels for potassium, blood meal for nitrogen, or cracked corn at $2.99 for 10 lbs. bag from the feed store.

The cracked corn is already broken, so soaking it released nutrients ... I already burnt my powerful flour-grinder by grinding crack-corn, so I don't recommend grinding corn. Soaking is far easier, it's breaking down organics in a form that plants can use: as a liquid.

This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Mon, Jun 9, 14 at 13:21
kentstar
Original Author
9 years ago
Thanks Strawberryhill! I guess I can still use the bloodmeal bags then. I did buy some Neptune's Harvest Kelpmeal for the first time today and I'm going to try that this year on my roses and other plants. I have to make sure not to burn them by placing the kelpmeal too close to the plants though. It should work great though and I can't wait to try it. I finally have a couple of days off work tomorrow and Wednesday so I am going to be outside in my garden yippee! :)
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If you ask a person how they do something they've done successfully for a long while, or even a short while, you're going to get vast and divergent viewpoints on what practices led to their success. So I just read and take into account different climates, soils, and all the variables and just end up doing what works for me. What else can one do? Sift through the available info, trial and error, and do what works for you in your area. PD: Regarding the fertilizer-- the article mentioned 'time- released' which I have used many years and it specifically needs to be in the uppermost layers of soil to be activated by warmer temps. So 'on top of the tuber' makes perfect sense to me. I would say 'on top of the root zone' is more apt, but the writer doesn't know dahlias. Russ, regarding the verbage about 'cutting before the frost' one would have to be Kreskin-esque to pull that off, I agree! I pass that commentary off to creative license by the writer, not the grower. My DH and I often giggle and guffaw when we read newspaper articles written by a layperson about subjects they cover familiar to us but not them, and they just muddle up completely at times. So a grain of salt is advised when reading a casual source such as HGTV or any other topical source including magazines. If you want to get the scoop on doing dahlias, stick with the ADS or dahlia societies' guidelines for your area, and even then you're likely to get many different opinions and ideas. That's the fun of it: what will work best for you in your area?
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strawchicago z5
9 years ago
Hi Kentstar: Neptune is a great company. Another company is: Alaska fish pellets for tomato ... also LIQUID Alaska Kelp plant food NPK 0.13-0-0.60, rich in trace elements, decent potassium at 0.60. See link below for many Alaska fish products.

I'm a firm believer in Kelp Meal for essential trace elements after my experiment yesterday. See picture below of a very yellowish sick tomato plant, taken at 10 am yesterday morning:

Here is a link that might be useful: Alaska fish products: liquid and pellets
strawchicago z5
9 years ago
Then I applied a 3-days-old soaking-solution of Alaska pellets for tomato with NPK 4-6-6, containing: fish bone meal, alfalfa meal, sulfate of potash, and kelp meal. I also dissolved 1/2 cup of soluble gypsum.

Gypsum is used to release calcium-hydroxide bind-up with nutrients in soil. Calcium-hydroxide is used in water-treatment, that chemical raise water-pH, plus unstable and binds with nutrients & trace elements, thus plants can't access, and turn yellowish.

Check out INSTANT green-up of the tomato in previous post, picture taken at 8:15 am this morning, after one day, and one night:

Here is a link that might be useful: Alaska fish products: liquid and pellets

This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Thu, Jun 12, 14 at 17:18
seaweed0212
9 years ago
Recently I put 3 Jobe's organically fertilizer spikes for veggies into one of Heirloom tomato plant. It contained 2% nitrogen, 7% available phosphate and 4% soluble Potash, from 99cent store. Last year tried Kellogg's natural & organic fertilizer for vegetable, tomato, and herb, n-p-k: 4-6-3, good result. Appreciate your knowledgeable instruction. Good to share and help us all with your experiments before we attempt them, yeah! "you go girl"!
kentstar
Original Author
9 years ago
Wow! What a difference one day makes! Hope it does the same to my knockouts!

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