Nine Reasons To Choose Natural Minerals Over Organic Fertilizers

Reasons to Choose Natural Minerals over Organic Fertilizers

There are SO many reasons for choosing the Mittleider system of growing over Certified Organic!

1  Let’s start with the MACRO “argument”.    There is not enough compost/manure in the world to feed 10% of the population, if even that much.  Before “ground-up rocks” as commercial fertilizers – and especially before man learned to create usable nitrogen the way lightning does it (see Haber/Bosch Method) – there were about 1 billion people on the planet.  Take commercial fertilizers away and 6 out of 7 would die, and the world population would shrink to that size again. 

And during crisis situations, or in the event of a breakdown in the fragile, interconnected and interdependent civilization in which we live (think supply chain disruptions), there will be much LESS organic material available because the animals will die or be eaten. 

The great intelligence that rules the universe would not create a world in which the large majority of people were consigned to ill health and even starvation.  And sure enough, the earth contains inexhaustible supplies of the 13 essential mineral nutrients plants require.  These are mined and then concentrated to remove impurities, heavy metals, etc., and give exact percentages of the nutrients.  This also makes them much less expensive to ship to distant locations.

2  The actual nutritional benefits of organic fertilizers are unknown.

   a. The nutritional composition of the original plants is unknown.

   b. The horse or cow kept some;

   c.  About half of the remaining nutrition is lost in the urine; 

   d. Some was lost to leaching in the compost pile, before it was applied to the garden soil;

   e. Nitrogen is lost into the air due to its volatility, and

   f. Because compost must be applied all at once before planting, much more is lost in the weeks and months before the plant takes it up and uses it.

3  While natural mineral nutrients can be balanced between Macro-nutrients, Secondary nutrients, and Micro-nutrients to give just the right amounts of each, organic fertilizers‘ nutrient composition is unknown, unknowable, and can therefore not be “balanced” and thereby improved.

4  Plants cannot take in and use organic nutrients because of their particle size and structure, and therefore the compost must decompose, break down, and revert to its inorganic water-soluble mineral state before the next generation of plants can use it.  This requires time and soil organisms.

5  Doing this composting is almost never done aerobically (with oxygen), which produces heat of 140 degrees for about 3 weeks, and in the composting process kills the weed seeds, bugs, and diseases. 

Ninety nine percent of the time – at least in the family garden – composting is done anaerobically, or without oxygen, and consequently without heat.  This of course does NOT eliminate the 3 bad elements, and instead encourages bugs, weeds, diseases, bad smells, AND rodents.

6  Harmful diseases such as e-coli, salmonella, and listeria are sometimes carried by organic fertilizers such that people get sick and sometimes even die after ingesting the food grown in them.  This is why Certified organic fertilizers MUST, by the laws administered by the USDA, be applied to the soil 120 days before harvest if the edible part of the plant comes in contact with the soil, and 90 days before harvest if the edible part of the plant does not touch the ground.

7  Because the fertilizer for the entire crop must be applied all at once before planting. large amounts of salts are applied to the soil all at once.  This often causes a condition called salinity – too much salt – and causes reverse osmosis, with the saline moisture in the soil drawing the moisture out of the plants and injuring or even killing the plants.  Also, the excess salts are leached into the ground water, streams and rivers, killing fish, etc., and fouling the water supply.  Meanwhile, by mid-season the nutrition is gone and plants stop producing.

8  Cost of organic fertilizers is often, at least in large population centers, more than that of mineral nutrients.  And storage presents an entirely new set of problems.  Compost takes up a great deal of space, smells, nutrition leaches out if stored outside, and invites problems as described above. Mineral fertilizers are without bad odors, do NOT attract bugs and diseases, take up MUCH less space, and store indefinitely without losing potency.

9  And finally the piece of the equation that has many people calling The Mittleider Method “the best of organic”. The laws established by the USDA, which governs organic growing, specify that a Certified Organic grower must plant using only organic fertilizers. Then, when they observe deficiency symptoms they must get soil tests.  After documenting which nutrients are deficient the organic grower is permitted to use inorganic (mineral) nutrients, including the very same ones we use in the Mittleider Method from the beginning.

The average person never hears about the fact that the big organic growers actually use commercial bagged mineral fertilizers, and the family gardener has neither the time, the money, nor the expertise to go through all those steps that are necessary to grow healthy and productive crops organically, and so they suffer with poor production and much less nutritious garden produce.

Dr. Mittleider chose to feed his crops very small amounts of all of the natural mineral nutrients plants require for fast healthy growth, in the right amounts and as and when they need them, avoiding all of the problems associated with organic fertilizers, including weed seeds, bugs and diseases, salinity, higher cost and availability issues, and time and dependence on soil organisms to change the organic materials into water-soluble minerals that plants can use.

©  Jim Kennard – 9/26/2024

 

Can a Mittleider garden be an Organic Garden?

Many have referred to the Mittleider Method as “better than organic” – – and even “the best of organic” because most of our gardens can qualify as organic, depending on criteria being used.

The reasons gardens may be the best of organic are:
1) Because we leave nothing to chance, but apply small amounts of natural mineral nutrients, all of which are approved by the USDA for use in a Certified Organic garden, to assure fast, healthy growth. This also helps our plants ward off pests and diseases that will often destroy less healthy plants.

2) We encourage growing healthy seedlings in a clean, warm environment, which gives the plants a major head-start and avoids many of the problems encountered upon germination and emergence – with cold soil, hungry bugs, damping-off, etc.

3) We water only the root zones, thus not encouraging pest and disease proliferation, plus we prune any leaf growth touching the ground, also reducing bug and disease access to the plants.

4) We allow no weeds – nor do we encourage putting mulch, etc. on the ground – since both of these harbor pests and diseases.

5) Since our plants grow very fast and reach maturity quicker than typical gardens, diseases and pests have less chance to become a problem.

6) Then we harvest and remove a crop immediately at maturity, to avoid the buildup of pests and diseases that occurs when people leave their crop too long in the garden, which is all too common in home gardens.

So you see, with the above preventative cultural practices, plus fast healthy growth, Mittleider Method gardens have much less need to use pesticides or herbicides anyway.

Hydroponic or Organic – What’s the Difference?

HYDROPONIC OR ORGANIC – What’s the difference? by Roger H. Thayer
www.simplyhydro.com/hydvsorg.htm

I’d like to have a dollar for each time I’ve been asked, “Is it organic?”, since I started in the hydroponics business in 1972, I’d be rich!

Is hydroponics organic? Is it chemical? What are the similarities and the differences? These questions have never really been answered to the satisfaction of most people as evidenced by the fact that I am asked the same questions today as often as I was nearly 20 years ago.

Many people are confused by the word “organic” as it means different things to different people.To the farmer, the word organic means no pesticides or herbicides. No potentially toxic or hazardous materials are to be used on crops to control bugs, weeds and diseases.

To the gardener, the word usually means all of these things, plus that no unnatural or man-made chemicals are to be used. Only “organic” fertilizers and natural controls.

They must: be made by nature, not by man.
To the chemist, on the other hand, the word “organic” means something totally different. In chemistry there are two distinct branches: inorganic and organic chemistry. Inorganic chemistry deals with non living materials. Organic chemistry focuses on the carbon and carbon containing compounds, typically associated with life.

Biologists and botanists, and others who deal with the life sciences, are stuck in the middle. When they deal with chemists and other scientists, they have to adhere to the chemical definition of organic. When they talk to the farmer or gardener, they have to talk in different terms. To them, organic means “natural,” not carbon based. They can say one thing, but really mean something else.

There is really no difference between an atom, mineral or the element itself. What matters is whether or not they are in a form that is non harmful and that can be used by plants. If so, they are beneficial whether natural or man-made.

Plants do not take up carbon at the roots, they get all they need from the CO2 in the air, so the term “organic gardening” is confusing. The same minerals are needed in either hydroponic or organic growing.
These minerals are provided to plants in the organic garden as they are released from organic matter by the action of microbes, worms and bacteria. In hydroponics, these same elements are provided by water soluble mineral salts.

In hydroponics, mineral elements are provided by the use of mineral salts. These may be either naturally derived or man-made, but most have been purified and processed so that they are water soluble and in a form that can be used by plants. Many start out as mined minerals or naturally concentrated deposits that are dissolved and processed into compounds with a definite molecular structure and composition.
In the refining process, these mineral salts are usually purified to remove heavy metal contaminants and toxic substances that could harm plants or people.
Since the chemical composition is precisely known, different mineral salts can be combined to form a balanced hydroponic nutrient. When dissolved in the proper proportions with a good quality water, a hydroponic nutrient solution can provide all of the mineral elements needed for plant growth without soil.
By its nature, the hydroponic method eliminates much of the uncertainty and guesswork found in organic growing. Some adjustments are normally made for proper pH, controlling nutrient concentrations (parts per million), and to maintain balance between the nutrients provided. These are usually easy adjustments and within the control of the grower.
In a well built hydroponic installation, all conditions are controllable so optimum plant growth can be achieved, even surpassing nature.
But is it organic? Can a hydroponic plant nutrient be classified as organic? Probably not, unless you go back to the chemical definition of the word, that is a substance that contains carbon. By this definition, many “chemical” nutrient formulas would be considered organic. These include the chelated trace elements as well as urea, which contains carbon in the form (NH2)2CO.
It is also possible to define a hydroponic nutrient solution as organic by drawing on the definition many people use that organic is “natural”. Most of the mineral elements used in hydroponics start out as mined rock or mineral deposits which are as natural as the earth itself. The important point is that it is not the elements that are different in organic and hydroponic growing, it is how these elements are obtained and delivered to the plant.

Pros and cons: There are definite advantages and disadvantages to both organic and hydroponic growing. Land is still available for conventional agriculture. With proper techniques and care, organic growing can yield good, nutritious crops on a large scale with minimal expense, although it can be labor intensive.

Organic growing has an element of uncertainty, as already mentioned, but with care and knowledge, that can be kept to a minimum.

Still, optimal mineral and element composition is going to involve guesswork unless expensive chemical soil analysis is routinely done and soil amendments are used to correct deficiencies.

Most of the amendments used in modern agriculture happen to be the exact same mineral salts that are used in most hydroponic nutrient formulas.
The advantages of hydroponic growing are increased yield through complete nutritional and environmental control, the absence of competing weeds and soil borne diseases, increased crop density and reduced water consumption.

With recycling systems, hydroponics uses one tenth the amount of water used by irrigated agriculture. Growing media are easily sterilized and conditions can be altered quickly to suit specific crops or the growth stage of a particular crop, such as during flowering or fruit production.

The main disadvantage is the initial set up cost. The cost of a good installation is fairly high ($1,000,000+/acre), but if quality materials are used that cost can be spread out over many years.

What about using hydroponic nutrients in an organic or soil garden! There are many advantages to this kind of hybrid application, combining organic compost with hydroponic nutrients similar to Mittleider Gardening.

Care must be taken not to overdose the plants with such a system. If a full strength chicken manure is used with a full strength hydroponic solution the plants can be burned. Handled properly the system could eliminate mineral deficiencies.

Plants grow faster and healthier as long as pH, drainage and water/nutrient retention are adequate. Because the plants are healthier they are able to ward off insects and diseases, further enhancing yield.