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Bone meal...better options?

Roguejim

Roguejim

PMD thinks bone meal is worthless, and that he prefers kelp meal for calcium, but I forgot to ask why bone meal would be worthless. Any other opinions on it? How long before plant out would you have to work it into the soil for it to be bioavailable to the plants? Will it supply adequate calcium to the plants for an entire season?
 
I am using bone meal. it also doubles as a source of potassium or phosphorus, one of the two. Not heard of kelp meal for calcium, but could work. My soil this year was crab meal, bone meal, kelp meal, neem meal, aged cow poopoo and compost. everything is peachy.

I say give any amendment about 3+ weeks to start working.
 
3-D Organics made a organic liquid bone meal concentrate that was much faster acting than the dry. I really liked it, and went through a couple gallons. Sadly I heard they discontinued it. Probably from low sales cause they were trying to sell it in the hydro shop seen, where everyone just buys cal-mag for the most part. I think there is other brands available. Worth looking into, if you want a new form of calcium.
 
making your own bone meal instead of buying pelleted.
 
Step one: collect unwanted bones from deer hunting
Step two: gather a bucket, an angle grinder, safety glasses, and a dust mask
Step three:  grind bones carefully and throw the dust into the bucket
 
It breaks down much faster than the pelleted kind you buy at the store
 
another good alternative would be meals made out of shellfish shells
 
Oyster shell is really cheap. I stay away from blood and bone meal in my garden. But till in my own crushed lobster,crab,clam,oyster,etc shells along with 100lbs of kelp meal every fall/spring. Helps to live 100 ft from the ocean, but like said oyster shell is cheap.
 
Organic snobs have a strange barometer. Refuse from animal processing is bad, refuse from seafood processing is good. Most rely heavily on kelp products, but choose to ignore the clear cutting of kelp fields as an issue. Processing some rocks into soil supplements is bad, but some rocks are good? Malarkey. Finding a use for any refuse product to produce something new trumps fickle ideology, at least in this ass hats opinion.
 
Roguejim said:
PMD thinks bone meal is worthless, and that he prefers kelp meal for calcium, but I forgot to ask why bone meal would be worthless. Any other opinions on it? How long before plant out would you have to work it into the soil for it to be bioavailable to the plants? Will it supply adequate calcium to the plants for an entire season?
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It's not worthless but it's composition is not always good if you want to grow organically.
If you want calcium with the added benefit of chitin go with crab meal. I used it alone last season and there were no deficiency problems at all. Better you be diverse and put some crab meal and oyster shell flour.
FreeportBum said:
Oyster shell is really cheap. I stay away from blood and bone meal in my garden. But till in my own crushed lobster,crab,clam,oyster,etc shells along with 100lbs of kelp meal every fall/spring. Helps to live 100 ft from the ocean, but like said oyster shell is cheap.
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I believe most oyster shell flour comes from right here in the San Francisco bay.
Blister said:
Look up PMD's organic glog and judge his opinion for yourself.

Bone meal isn't the be all end all, and it isn't worthless either. It has its place.

Neil
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Yeah bone meal would have been the magic elixir last summer had I used it. Haha
Soil amendments don't mean a thing when the weather is cool all summer. Many growers in this area had bad crops of tomatoes and peppers last year. You are free to come and show us how much better you can do. lol
 
romy6 said:
 I use the shit out of some bone meal
 
 It takes a while to breakdown but is an essential part of my grow and really cuts the BER out of my equation .  :fireball:
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Jamie, about how long before plant out would you mix it into your soil?
Proud Marine Dad said:
It's not worthless but it's composition is not always good if you want to grow organically.
If you want calcium with the added benefit of chitin go with crab meal. I used it alone last season and there were no deficiency problems at all. Better you be diverse and put some crab meal and oyster shell flour.
I believe most oyster shell flour comes from right here in the San Francisco bay.
Yeah bone meal would have been the magic elixir last summer had I used it. Haha
Soil amendments don't mean a thing when the weather is cool all summer. Many growers in this area had bad crops of tomatoes and peppers last year. You are free to come and show us how much better you can do. lol
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Fair enough, but I didn't misquote you, either.  Just sayin'. 
 
Roguejim, on 13 May 2015 - 11:18 PM, said:
Roguejim said:
In terms of just calcium, is it preferable to bone meal?
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Absolutely! I think bonemeal is worthless personally and so do all the organic canna growers I talk to.
I used kelp, and crab meal in  my plants last year and they looked great. Oyster shell flour is another great addition and I wanted to use it last season but they were out at the garden supply store so I used crab meal alone as my calcium source not to mention it's chitin content which is great to have in the soil. 

Edited by Proud Marine Dad, 15 May 2015 - 03:21 PM.
 
Roguejim said:
Jamie, about how long before plant out would you mix it into your soil?

 
Fair enough, but I didn't misquote you, either.  Just sayin'. 
 
Roguejim, on 13 May 2015 - 11:18 PM, said:
Absolutely! I think bonemeal is worthless personally and so do all the organic canna growers I talk to.
I used kelp, and crab meal in  my plants last year and they looked great. Oyster shell flour is another great addition and I wanted to use it last season but they were out at the garden supply store so I used crab meal alone as my calcium source not to mention it's chitin content which is great to have in the soil. 

Edited by Proud Marine Dad, 15 May 2015 - 03:21 PM.
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I never implied you misquoted me.
To me it is worthless because there are far better choices. If that's all you can get then use it but it takes a long time to become available in the form that plants can use through cation exchange.
 
Black and White: Of course bone meal is not useless, and yes it takes a long time to break down. If it was useless than it would offer zero nutrition/minerals that the plant uses. Is it a good choice? Yes, I think so... in addition to other choices. Variety and moderation are the basic backbones to health.
 
It really only equates to adding about 10-20 bucks per year for one more amendment to the many we are already buying, making it a very small percentage of the overall cost to grow.
 
For reused/recycled soil, I would definitely use bone meal (in the first place so it is constantly breaking down).
 
Proud Marine Dad said:
I never implied you misquoted me.
To me it is worthless because there are far better choices. If that's all you can get then use it but it takes a long time to become available in the form that plants can use through cation exchange.
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Ah, so then it's exactly the same as other meal amendments used in organic mixes ? Re: nutrient availability. I thought the whole point of organics was to step away from highly soluble fertilizers. What's Coot got to say about this? Ah right, he threw a hissy fit and quit GC. Where are you going to get your opinion from now...
 
 It takes about 4 to 6 weeks so I add some every month . About a tablespoon per month . Sometimes more depending on the size of the container . I mix it in my soil before I even transplant so I would say add it now . When it comes time to produce pods the plant should have the calcium it needs . 
 
Proud Marine Dad said:
Yeah bone meal would have been the magic elixir last summer had I used it. Haha
Soil amendments don't mean a thing when the weather is cool all summer. Many growers in this area had bad crops of tomatoes and peppers last year. You are free to come and show us how much better you can do. lol
Click to expand...
 
I never said or implied that bone meal would have been a magic elixir to fix your problems. After seeing all of your "IT'S ORGAAAAANIC!" posts, then following your glog I was implying that people should take your advice with a few pounds of salt.
 
I'm in the Pacific Northwest. I didn't have a problem last year. I'll also add that I'm approximately 1,050 miles north of you. I have a growing season with about 90 days in total. If you would like to check on my abilities please feel free to review the glog I ran last year and or the one I'm running this year. I've documented my trials and tribulations fairly well.
 
They can be found at:
 
Last years glog - http://thehotpepper.com/topic/43839-blisters-led-coco-grow-has-reached-its-inevitable-end/?hl=%2Bblisters+%2Bled+%2Bcoco+%2Bgrow
 
This years glog - http://thehotpepper.com/topic/52585-blisters-2015-coco-grow-difficult-start/
 
To be clear, I'm not proclaiming myself to be a guru, a mystic or some sort of gardening wizard that knows it all. I have had SOME success growing in the north. This is one of my Bhut Jolokia's that I grew in a Hempy bucket last year.
 
20140730_201744_zpsf8salvvk.jpg
 
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