Why I'm not organic

I know there are some people who get into gardening because they want to take an organic approach to their food production. Great. I'm not one of them.

Don't get me wrong, everyone has the right to pick and choose how they garden. I'm just one of those who thinks the requirements to be truly organic is more than I want to deal with. And, I really like my Miracle Grow fertilizer.

The greatest gardening advance ever. OK, maybe I'm exaggerating a little.

Growing up we hardly ever used fertilizer on our garden. A good amount of rotted cow manure worked into the soil before spring planting was all we needed. Soil here is a different story. If I don't fertilize, sometimes as frequently as once a week, garden productivity is next to nothing. 

Alabama has notoriously poor quality soils. They don't contain much organic matter, which means the soil's ability to retain certain nutrients like nitrogen is not good. On top of that, the soil is usually quite acidic, which also messes with plants' ability to effectively utilize soil nutrients.

The basic fertilizer is a 28-8-16 formulation. The tomato and veggie version is an 18-18-21. Compare that to one of the organic products on the market that has an 8-8-8 formulation - I'd need to apply 2-3 times the amount of the organic product as I would need to meet what the synthetic version can do.


And then there is pest control. Now, I will admit that most of the products I use for bugs and disease are labeled for use in organic gardening, but I use them because they work so well.

What?!? You can use pesticides in organic gardening?? Yes, yes you can, if they are labeled for it. Case in point, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) products use a bacterium normally found in soil that is very effective against leaf-eating caterpillars.

Don't get me wrong, I have a good supply of Sevin dust in the tool room too, but what I like about the Bt product is that I can apply it with a sprayer wand - really helpful for tall and hard to reach areas. Sevin dust works great, but when your tomatoes are five feet tall I don't feel like breaking out a step ladder to get ahead of the hornworms using a powder. Bt does have it's limitations though. It's most effective when the worms are little, so you need to watch the garden closely to get the stuff on at a time when it will work.

Bt will get this itty bitty armyworm, but not his big brother

So, if you are into gardening because you want to try your hand at organic, go for it. It doesn't work for my situation, and I really enjoy the advances of modern agriculture. Just remember to read the label regardless.

Great stuff for controlling aphids and mildew, but need to wait two days before harvesting veggies