How to get P and K into the soil

[Joey Wahoo]

Please pardon a dumb question.

I need to increase the phosphorous and potassium in my soil, organically. I've got a good handle on how to deal with nitrogen, but no clue what to do to supplement the P and K.

Would love some advice.

thanks

[palani]

I could be wrong but I don't think the organic movement objects to applicaton of dry P and K. A fertilizer company locally should be able to supply a wagon with the gate set. All you need to do is spread it.

[Callieslamb]

P - bone meal
K - rock powders like green sand, green manure crops like rye grass and buck wheat, wood ash ( don't use a lot of this one)

From "Straight Ahead Organic" by Ogden Shephard

[TNHermit]

K- Wood ashes

Milorganite is an organic fertilizer

[Thoughthound]

The above are all good suggestions.

Just so you know, there really is no quick change organically. I practice organic growing so I am not promoting chemicals, I just want you to be mentally ready when your crop comes in and it doesn't seem like your efforts made much difference.

It will make a difference in time.

[longshot38]

fish by products and seaweed will put P and k into the soil. so i heard from my grandfather.

dean

[Forerunner]

Soil is like wine.

There are hard and fast absolutes.
There are variables.

But, to get a really high quality end product takes time.

Compost is to the gardener what aging is to the wine maker.
Compost doesn't simply add nutrient to the soil.
The enzymes and microbes in the compost actually go so far as to greatly
enhance the availability of the nutrients that are already existing in the dead soil. Clay especially tends to lock up whatever it possesses, be it moisture or nutrients. It takes a surprisingly little amount of compost to add tremendous tilth to soil, and to begin the process of freeing clay-bound nutrients.
The main issue I have against chemical fertilizers is the damage they can do to the very microbes and soil organisms, such as worms, that we are trying
to propagate in our organic medium. The right fertilizer, used in reasonable portions, can accomplish the p and k boost, even nitrogen, without damaging the soil life.
If you have a plot of land to improve, and you are in no hurry, I still stand by my own experience in using sawdust. I applied six inches of old but not completely rotted sawdust to an acre of ground. Sawdust will rob the nitrogen from the soil as it decomposes, but some of that nitrogen would have been lost to the atmosphere if sawdust hadn't been applied.....
The first season after sawdust is applied, the soil will be useless for agriculture. After the sawdust breaks down, even in the heaviest clay soils, the improvement in tilth, moisture absorption and retention, nutrient availability and beneficial biological activity will astound you.
The plot I experimented with has since been treated the same as all of my other heavily composted soils, and still has the best tilth, germination rates,
color, heaviest and greenest growth, (evidence of excess nitrogen....) and productivity of them all.
Sawdust is cheap. Patience is a virtue.
If you need a boost in the now, use the fertilizers, but have an eye for the future and embrace organics as soon as possible.
It won't be long before that's all we'll have, anyway.
More's the pity.

[Windy in Kansas]

Originally Posted by Thoughthound

Just so you know, there really is no quick change organically. It will make a difference in time.

For immediate needs plants can gain from from micronutrients applied with foliar feeding.

Spray N Grow offers all organic products. http://www.spray-n-growgardening.com/

I have had some excellent results with its use.