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Yes, I grow 100% organic.

13 (65%)

Yes, but I use artificial nutrients too.

3 (15%)

No, I do not grow using organic nutrients.

1 (5%)

No, but I know people who do.

2 (10%)

I don't grow organic, but I plan to start soon.

1 (5%)

Total Members Voted: 20

Voting closed: April 08, 2016, 07:05:55 AM

[Auxin]

I almost exclusively follow organic growing in its non-dogmatic common sense form (ie. I dont import rare minerals strip-mined from peru or mongolia because its 'natural' despite being the same as a 'synthetic', etc. the way organic farms do).
My exception is Pereskiopsis grafts. I plant those in an organic mix and dump a continuous flow of miracle grow on them to get a year of phenomenal growth. I got gifted kilos of the stuff years back.
I have 2/3rds of an acre and everything produced here is recycled on-site. Except waste from the walnut tree, its strongly allelopathic (a herbicide). Beyond the walnut my yard and 1800 sq ft garden produces no waste. None. My garbage can is virtually empty every week, even in spring and fall I collect all other tree leaves, etc. and guard them jealously.
My lawn tractor has mulching blades on, so it doesnt even produce any grass clippings except what accumulates on top of the blade deck and I layer that into manure that needs more aging.
I have a few tracts where I let the weeds grow until flowering to produce that much more compost, also weeds get lacto-fermented in a bucket to make concentrated organic fertilizer to mix with pee. Weeds usually have deep roots, they harvest the minerals in the subsoil where many vegetables cant effectively feed, those minerals end up in the leaves. (This also makes edible weeds very nutritious as food).
Pee is great ferts, but I live in a hot region and thus need to eat salt in the summer so in the summer I dont collect any pee from dinner time until the next morning. The rest of the year I use my pee ferts as a good excuse to follow a very low salt diet. (Become familiar with the symptoms of hyponatremia if you attempt to go low salt in summer)

Composting grass alone was mentioned above. Grass has lots of protein. Mix some high carbon stuff in there to keep it from stinking. A bit of garden soil added will give it the capacity to convert ammonia gas to nitrates, as well.

You want steak and green beans with butter, etc.!! haha!

Too much of a lopsided nutrient feed can hurt plants just like that diet causes heart disease and impotence in people
Keep both diets a bit more balanced

[Sunshine]

If you go out in the woods away from all your plants and pour walnut husk laced water onto the soil worms will come out of the ground like crazy. I seen a youtube video where a guy did it. Worked like a charm. That would make a quick easy way to get worms for a worm bin.

Thanks for your outstanding addition to the thread. It is much appreciated. +1

I recently broke my "no synthetic nutes" streak and bought some sphagnum moss/peat mix that contained artificial nutrients. I was desperate for some fluffy sphagnum moss and that was all I could find.

[Shpongle Lover]

I'm on board with all aspects of organic growing - except the blood.  No can do.  I have literally BOXES and boxes of horse poo (there are more horses than people in my neighborhood) and my wife and I compost our spent flowers, veggies, banana and other fruit peels, avocado skins, etc., etc. The notion of animal blood though, is not very tasteful to me personally.  You would laugh out loud if you knew what I used to do for a living!

S.L.

[Sunshine]

I think throwing the blood away and not using it is more distasteful than putting it to good use. Know what I mean?

If you kill an animal, you should use all the parts. Most hunters just let it drain onto the ground.

[Shpongle Lover]

I'm a long-time, actively practicing Buddhist.  I don't kill anything (intentionally).

S.L.

[Sunshine]

What do you eat then?

[Auxin]

 
I'm also buddhist, and a vegetarian one.
Vegetarians eat plants... lots of plants

If someone avoids refined sugars and refined fats, and gets enough calories, adequate protein and essential amino acids is basically guaranteed (exceptions being truly obscure, like basing a diet entirely on african yams or tapioca roots). Plants are also better sources of most vitamins than animals are. B12 is the only thing whole food vegetarians with a diverse diet need to be concerned with.

[Shpongle Lover]

Pizza, pasta, veggies, egg whites, peanut butter, fruit, mac and cheese...you name it.  Just no meat.  Occasionally when it is unavoidable, I will eat chicken, shrimp or fish so as to not insult a host.

S.L.

[Sunshine]

I presume you do not eat meat because of the deplorable conditions livestock is kept?

[nobody]

A bit off topic but; not all Buddhists are vegetarians. Once or twice a month we make a pork soup for the monks at the local temple and they love it. Tried without the pork but they complained a bit, not vocally but in the silent way that monks do.
Bacon is the very reason why i could never be a vegetarian, unless im in India.

[Shpongle Lover]

I presume you do not eat meat because of the deplorable conditions livestock is kept?

Again, OT...but I'll give a quick answer so we can move back on-topic.  That factors in, but is only part of the reason.  Buddhists voluntarily pledge to avoid intentional killing and seek to minimize suffering.  I can survive and be well-nourished without the need for killing any animal, which is considered a non-virtuous action with negative karmic implications.

S.L.

[MadPlanter]

Another off topic but...I must kill snails and stink bugs to ensure they don't ruin my plants. I walk around and smash snails unfortunately almost every day. I love snails as they are cool creatures but they eat way too many seedlings and other plants. I feel I'm hurting my karma by doing this but it is the easiest most effective way to lower numbers of them right off. The population of them in my yard is immense. I hate killing them and I consciously say sorry before killing most of them. I have bad karma as is because I was a bad kid lol and I feel its extra weighing on me due to me knowing in the moment I was either doing or encouraging bad things and that I shouldn't do this...I want this to change though. I make conscious effort to avoid bad things and thoughts now 
but I still kill snails needlessly other than for my plants protection. Any thoughts?

[Mandrake]

Another off topic but...I must kill snails and stink bugs to ensure they don't ruin my plants. I walk around and smash snails unfortunately almost every day. I love snails as they are cool creatures but they eat way too many seedlings and other plants. I feel I'm hurting my karma by doing this but it is the easiest most effective way to lower numbers of them right off. The population of them in my yard is immense. I hate killing them and I consciously say sorry before killing most of them. I have bad karma as is because I was a bad kid lol and I feel its extra weighing on me due to me knowing in the moment I was either doing or encouraging bad things and that I shouldn't do this...I want this to change though. I make conscious effort to avoid bad things and thoughts now 
but I still kill snails needlessly other than for my plants protection. Any thoughts?

If our subconscious accepts metaphors (and it seems it does) karma should accept small balancing acts. Or at least, your own perception of karma as you understand it. If tossing snails away instead of killing them is not an option, I would start a little terrarium for snails, to make up for the other side of your relationship with them. Feed them, take care of them, eventually release them somewhere else.

Something similar happened to me after feeding little mice to my corn snake. I often felt horrible, and one day I decided to keep one of them alive. I bought him a little house with a wheel and everything, food and comfy wood shavings. But he died before a week, for unknown reasons. I took it as a reassuring pat in the back from karma, and kept feeding mice to my corn snake.

Still feels bad, though.

[/offtopic]

Mandrake

[PermieGing]

Another off topic but...I must kill snails and stink bugs to ensure they don't ruin my plants. I walk around and smash snails unfortunately almost every day. I love snails as they are cool creatures but they eat way too many seedlings and other plants. I feel I'm hurting my karma by doing this but it is the easiest most effective way to lower numbers of them right off. The population of them in my yard is immense. I hate killing them and I consciously say sorry before killing most of them. I have bad karma as is because I was a bad kid lol and I feel its extra weighing on me due to me knowing in the moment I was either doing or encouraging bad things and that I shouldn't do this...I want this to change though. I make conscious effort to avoid bad things and thoughts now 
but I still kill snails needlessly other than for my plants protection. Any thoughts?

If our subconscious accepts metaphors (and it seems it does) karma should accept small balancing acts. Or at least, your own perception of karma as you understand it. If tossing snails away instead of killing them is not an option, I would start a little terrarium for snails, to make up for the other side of your relationship with them. Feed them, take care of them, eventually release them somewhere else.

Something similar happened to me after feeding little mice to my corn snake. I often felt horrible, and one day I decided to keep one of them alive. I bought him a little house with a wheel and everything, food and comfy wood shavings. But he died before a week, for unknown reasons. I took it as a reassuring pat in the back from karma, and kept feeding mice to my corn snake.

Still feels bad, though.

[/offtopic]

Mandrake

Wow,  great idea! Ive never thought of that, and often feel bad for injuring any being, including garden pests

However, i think i can share an effective way to avoid directly killing garden pests.
Encourage a natural predator-prey relationship and food chain.
 By this, i mean plant specific flowers/ plants that attract insects such as wasps, ladybugs, etc to your place of gardening, acting as a predator to the pests. This goes a long way, as it inevitably (although it may take time) attracts many different stages of the food chain, as most everything has a natural predator.

Hope this helps

[Sunshine]

Chickens and ducks eat snails iirc.