alfalfa meal
 

i had good results top dressing my tomatoes with alfalfa meal and then coveringg them with oat straw i buy from a local true value. i believe it creates an excellent enviroment for the micro organisms to build up organic matter quickly..in addition i foliar spray my tomatoes and peppers 3 times during the season with a seaweed spray other times i ferment some weeds and comfrey and foliar spray the plants with it

I do this too, although I use pellets ( for horses, made with molasses but salt free) and just soake them real good, until they expand. I also use kelp spray.
I don't have comfrey but have been looking for some. I might wait until I move, not so sure it would do well here in AZ.

How thickly can you apply alfalfa pellets (animal feed pellets) if you use them as a fertilizer? I am in an unusual situation currently and have access to as much as I want. How much should I use?

I killed my peppers one year with alfalfa pellets because my husband left the water in shortly after I made a huge pile of them all around the bed. Of course, we had a sudden heat wave, well above 110 at the same time. Let's just say that wet alfalfa gets real hot when in a large pile. It's a good composter.
That said, I now use a pound or two per plant and soak it first so that it expands. Also, I prefer to put it on before it starts getting hot. Haven't had any further problems.
The areas that I've applied alfalfa pellets heavily a couple of year's ago-the soil looks like worm compost! And, that's with starting with heavy, pale clay, the worst soil you can possibly imagine!
I use a lot of horse manure too but if I had to choose and had unlimited amounts, I'd take the alfalfa cubes made with molasses. Although, I think manure had its own nutrients that it brings to the table, too.
Anyway, I'd use 1-2 pounds per plant but during fall/winter, if you have that much, pile it on and till the stuff in! As much as you can get, go for it! I put 500 lbs in a 20x12 area and can see a huge difference now. It's an amazing soil conditioner. I think, when I could get it at $7.00/80 lb bag it was well worth it, much more valuable than crappy big box compost.
Now that alfalfa has gone way up in price, I'm much more conservative with it.
I do bed my chickens with alfalfa hay so when I clean the coop and compost it, that's some seriously nice stuff. And, my horses eat only alfalfa so their manure is really nice, plus, mixed with hay scraps.

Seriously jealous of your poop. It's terrible that I want to raise chickens just for their manure. The eggs would just be a bonus.

Good advice to be careful of the amount of pellets you use. I generously added dried alfalfa meal ( I assume that's what pellets are made of eventually) to my collection of potted tomatoes last year, and they started keeling over. Two had such damaged roots I threw them away, the rest I managed to save by repotting them into a less rich mixture. When I dumped the offending soil out, it had the sour smell just like fresh cow manure. This same stuff added to my in-ground garden did not have the same effect. I suppose without the pot wall barriers, it was able to leach further away from the plants, or the roots could grow away from it, or maybe the worms made a beeline for it. If I use it in pots again, I will top dress, not mix it in like I did, and use much less.

[QUOTE=Hastings;270417] Seriously jealous of your poop.[/QUOTE]

:D haha


Ok immature I know :(

I am using alfalfa meal in my garden this year, mixed with rock phosphate, gypsum, and dolomitic lime. Alfalfa meal is $11 per 20 kg bag here in Vancouver area, which is not too bad!

I use about 16 cups / 100 sq. ft., as recommended in [url]http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/2006-06-01/A-Better-Way-to-Fertilize-Your-Garden.aspx[/url]

I also have a bag of alfalfa cubes and I plan to make alfalfa tea later.

Dee, how much did you add to your container mix? I have not tried adding it into my containers, not yet...

Way too much, Tania! I didn't really measure, but I was using a large plastic coffee container as a scoop, and probably dumped [B]at least [/B]two coffee cans per each 10 gallon container :shock: and mixed it in well. If a little is good, more must be better, right? And it's all organic, right? :)) Since I already use old manure in my containers, it was a poor idea. Now that I think about it, my husband did mention he thought I was overdoing it. :panic: The alfalfa meal is powder dry and I did not expect it to still be as active as a raw green grass, but it heated up my pots in the same way. My poor tomatoes were probably sitting in fresh cooking compost! I have no idea what amount might be suitable for a pot, maybe a cup lightly dug in on top? And I do wonder if alfalfa pellets are a bit different, and the binder material and more ground up stemmy material that is not as high in nitrogen as the pure meal?

Alfalfa hay is notorious for getting hot when wet. If baled too wet it can burn your barn down!
The pellets will also get hot when wet.
A little goes a long way, although its inexpensive and if building a new garden in the fall, you could add a ton to increase organic matter. Just till it in and let it sit all winter. The worms go crazy rover it!

[QUOTE=Hastings;270417]Seriously jealous of your poop. It's terrible that I want to raise chickens just for their manure. The eggs would just be a bonus.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, they eat almost every kitchen scrap. They eat all the alfafa leaves. Then, two or three times a year I clean out the coop and make compost. A lot of it goes to tea.
What poop doesn't get in the coop is ontop of the lemon trees, a pine and palm tree so they are also fertilized.
They are also great weed eaters. I feed them wild mustard weeds and they turn it into eggs and fertilizer!

i just bought my alfalfa meal cost $22.00 per 0 lb sack i was sorry to hear that the grain mill where i bought it from will be closing shop on monday due to bad economy.. has anyone ever used alfalfa meal as a foliar spray .. i was thinking of making a tea from it and let it ferment for 3 or 4 days and use it a a foliar spray.. like i do with sea weed was wondering if anyone else from tv has tried this thanks

sorry $22.00 per 50 lb sack

Stony, $22. seems a bit high priced. I bought from TSC and paid $11 and change, maybe $12 . Also try Agway.

EDIT: upon reflection and realization; This price is for pellets, but they work just as good as meal.

I too, thought of a foliar application, possible strained and diluted. maybe even mixed with my next batch of compost tea.
Charlie