Bone meal and rock phosphate are typical sources. If you can find them, fish bone meal and soy husks are other good sources. And then there is compost :-) Composted yard waste and manures generally provide all the phosphorus normally required by most plants in most soils and if applied in excess, can create an oversupply.

Some food sources have pretty high levels of phosphorus naturally - banana peels, crab shells, shrimp peelings, most grains and nuts - and these should all be added to compost when available. Meats, poultry, eggs and dairy products are also phosphorus-rich, but you'd want to avoid adding those to your compost.

Bat guano is high in P. I use Archipelago Bat Guano (type it in google)

Do you need phosphorus? Does a good, relaible soil test show a need for phosphorus? Many of the counties in my area of the world have banned the sale and application of fertilizers with phosphorus because of water pollution, and some of the fertilzier manufacturers are starting to recognize that problem and are cutting back on that nutrient.

I don't exactly need it, but I was hoping I can use something to stimulate the roots of a young crepe myrtle tree I recently planted.

Also, I thought that most organics eliminate the concern of nutrient leaching?

"I thought that most organics eliminate the concern of nutrient leaching"
Not always. One organic source of Phosphorus is manure and that is also a major source of Phosphorus pollution of our water. Too much Phosphorus in the soil can inhibit a plants ability to uptake Zinc, Iron, or Cobalt, all necessary micro nutrients.

Rock Phospate is a slow acting phosphorus source, and one application lasts a few years. It doen dot break down fast enough to be a pollution issue. Bone meal is another good source, and becomes available much quicker.

Root crops need a lot more phosphorus that most other plants, and a good supply will insure a good crop of potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnips, rutabagers, beets, etc.

Ron
The Garden Guy
http://www.TheGardenGuy.org
"New Article & Journam Entry for Feb."

I like using crushed coral, its a high P rock that also breaks down slowly ( like rock phos) but is a healthy/more balanced source, it also provides natural salts and other trace minerals that serve as micro nutrients. Also depending on how fine its crushed, it aids in creating a well draining soil consistency.

takadi: Use rock phosphate while it's available and not prohibitively expensive. The price spike that happened in 2008 will happen again and worse. This is a mineral that's reaching peak production, just like oil. As it becomes scarcer, more expensive sources will be mined and the price will skyrocket. In the long run there's an answer for small-scale growers: urine, and I'm serious and sober. Regards, Peter.

Phosphate fertilizers ,used judiciously, are much safer for the garden and the environment than coca cola.
Organic sources are hard to find because pound for pound, plants use much less P than N or K.
Personally, I also think that the 'organic' aspect of bone meal is debatable, given the environmental impacts of factory farming. Then again, it's just a byproduct so perhaps it doesn't make a difference.
Just wanted to point out that as far as the environment is concerned, 'organic' is not a silver bullet.

Hi, I have a small herd of sheep/goats and horses on one particular pasture that is in need of a rest and possibly some nutrients. It gets lots of manure and I was told I should put phosphorus on it. I have been told that the plants will absorb the phosphorus so there won't be any residue. Then I looked up organic ways to get phosphorous and found that bone meal may do it. Does anyone know how bone meal works. Do you put it on, let it rain and then animals can go back on it? Does bone meal also have a high nitrogen content that may not allow animals to graze on it straight away? How much does one put on - I would be spreading by hand over 3-4 acres. Any other side affects of bone meal? Anyone have experience with tired fields and chemical phosphorus? thanks, take care, mary

takadi: Mixing some bone meal around your newly planted myrtle tree should help it develop strong roots.

As usual, I forgot there is no edit function here. My mistake.

Egg shells have some phosphorus in them. And, as stated, rock phosphate has alot.

Why don't you want to buy some bone meal?

I operate a wastewater treatment plant and have receive slug loads of Total Phosphorus up to 164 mg/l with 158 mg/l being organic phosphorus - typically influent wastewater is 0.05 mg/l organic phosphorus - need help finding the source

thanks

Do your slug loads coincide with rains or any flooding?

@rdak

I'll tell you why I don't want to use bone meal: It can attract pests, animals and stuff (or so I've read).

They just added edit functionality (at long last). :)

Phosphorous doesn't leach readily in most soils (coarse sands and gravels would be exceptions). Soil erosion is the way soil phosphorous typically gets into streams and lakes.

I found another solution besides adding phosphorus to the soil. Just use the right kind of mycorrhizae: Glomus Intraradices. At least that one helps to make phosphorus more available to plants: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glomus_intraradices#Relevance

I imagine worm castings have microbes that do the same or similar stuff, and they do have humic acid, which can also help: http://www.saosis.com/gardening/how-does-humic-acid-improve-plant-growth/ So, buying worm castings, or else humic acid, is also an option.

Read the Amazon reviews for worm castings:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00062KQ42/

The following is Glomus intraradices:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003STB5N6/

The problem with urine is that it also contains nitrogen. Worm castings do, too, though, to be fair. Urine is 11-1-2.5 or so: http://www.goveganic.net/article217.html

Worm castings are like 1-0-0. I imagine most of the resulting phosphorus and other fertilizer nutrients (including nitrogen, perhaps) from worm castings come through microbes, humic acid and stuff, and won't be mentioned in the NPK values, since they're not in the worm castings themselves at the time you buy them. Worm castings are still worth it, probably especially if you add extra potassium, as they can still burn your plants without the extra potassium, if you add too many worm castings (you only need a couple spoonfuls per plant). However, I guess with urine you could let it sit and let the nitrogen go into the air. Then you may have a 0-1-2.5 fertilizer.

Another issue with urine is the potential for parasite eggs, protozoa and other pathogens getting on your food. I wouldn't use it for low-growing plants. It's probably fine for trees. There's a myth going around that human urine is sterile, but that's not true. WebMD only goes so far as to say it may be a myth: http://www.webmd.com/news/20140519/sterile-urine-may-be-a-myth but they're only talking about bacteria. We do know for sure already that parasite eggs (such as Schistosoma-type parasite eggs in humans) and perhaps protozoa (such as Toxoplasma gondii) can be in urine. The risk of parasites is much greater in feces, though. The following links give more information about urine and some of its potential pathogens:

http://aem.asm.org/content/75/3/662.full

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schistosomiasis

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8914751

http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/diseases/toxoplasmosis.html

http://www.manateeindianriverlagoon.com/s/IRL-urine-nitrogen-use.pdf

Another consideration for human urine is that it may not be able to be certified organic unless the urine donor is only eating certified organic stuff (and has been for a long time). If the urine donor takes medication, that makes it more problematic, since the medication may get in the soil, too.

Used with caution, bone meal is fine. I have dogs raccoons, crows, etc prowling around and I don't have a problem. When I first used it I didn't "broadcast" around plants, I put a heap around the base of the plant and maggots destroyed my pumpkins. Lesson learned.

Urine is a nitrogen source. Manure can be quite high in phosphorous and has brought my high P to even higher numbers- all the while thinking manure mostly had N. http://www.plantea.com/manure.htm

About bat guano, although it probably works great, it should be noted that the harvesting of it may be bad for bats and contribute to their decline. I've heard seabird guano might be a good, more ethical alternative. I'm not sure how much phosphorus is in it, though.

Organic matter, compost, shredded leaves, etc., are good sources of most all nutrients needed. Things such as Rock Phosphate can take quite some time to become available to plants because they must be worked on by the Soil Food Web to be converted into something plants can use.

Excess nutrients can also create problems with plants ability to use other necessary nutrients too much P (for example) can cause a plant to not properly use Cobalt, Iron, or Zinc, micro but essential nutrients, that can affect many things about plant growth.

Both bat and bird guano, excrement, are relatively high in P, but the harvesting of these products is done by people working for very low wages and no real personal protection and often suffer serious lung diseases as a result.

kimmq is kimmsr

Going back to the urine topic, It is possible to transmit some diseases through urine, but the transmission routes simply don't exist for trees or above ground crops (so long as you don't accidentally drink it on the way to watering!).

For above ground crops, you can flush them by watering without urine for a week before harvest to be sure, as no viral/bacterial disease can survive outside it's host that long. Also water at the base without splashing the fruit/veg. If you refrigerate, wash, peel and cook root/ground sitting veg you'll remove any transmission routes too. I don't know of any worm infection common to the UK with oocysts transmitted in urine. Your highest risk is from toxo, but if you're growing veg in your back garden the neighbours cat has probably given it to you already! Schisto is not a threat in the UK, as we don't have the snails needed to support their extremely complicated and interesting (to me anyway!) lifecycle.

Your main concern will still be with an additional source of Phosphorus, when time comes to move your crop from vegetative growth to flowering.

Seriously, this is all overkill for domestic gardening. If you're doing this commercially you should consult your National Government's regs, which are likely based on those of the WHO (World Health Org). I'm quite familiar with these (I'm an Engineer in Water and Sanitation including wastewater reuse). Here's a good place to start:

http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/wastewater/urineguidelines.pdf

On phosphorus, it should be noted that you may not even need to add extra phosphorus to get more phosphorus in your plants. Phosphorus has different levels of availability depending on your soil PH (acidity/alkalinity). If the PH is too high or too low, phosphorus won't be very available comparatively. So, if it's too alkaline, add some peat moss (which has a PH of about 4.0) or something. If it's too acidic, add some basalt rockdust, wood ash, lime or something (basalt rockdust is high in calcium, which makes the soil more alkaline; wood ash is high in calcium and potassium). To get the most phosphorus, make sure the soil PH is between about 5.5 and 7.0. If you still lack phosphorus, you'll probably need to add composted manure or something. See this link for a chart and lots of information about phosphorus: http://www.extension.umn.edu/agriculture/nutrient-management/phosphorus/the-nature-of-phosphorus/#fate

For my phosphorus needs, when I need it, I know it's probably not organic, but I like monopotassium phosphate (phosphorus and potassium) and monoammonium phosphate (phosphorus and a little nitrogen), from greenwaybiotech.com, which seems to have pretty pure stuff, and super fast, free shipping. I'm not sure if they use the wet or thermal phosphoric acid to create these fertilizers, but thermal would be purer (the wet method may or may not leave more contaminants like fluorine in the phosphoric acid).

If you're worried about phosphorus getting in the water supply, do foliar sprays for increased efficiency, or use a non-water soluble form.

The triple super phosphate such as is on Amazon is definitely not organic, and probably has harmful components like fluoride and/or such in it (triple super phosphate also has calcium in it, which depending on the situation may or may not be desired).

Rock phosphate, although organic, can have heavy metals in it, which may not be so nice.

Bone meal and urine are what our predecessors used for NPK, crop leftover, and compost might also good if you're looking for organic phosphorus.

I saw a video by Paul Zimmerman who teaches for Jackson Perkins roses and you can find him on youtube, I love his videos, he uses Super Phosphate in the hole before he plants a bareroot rose. I don't know about using it on plants already established. But he answers your questions under comments, so I would ask him. I don't have any other true rose sources I would trust. He's been in the biz a long time and his results speak for themselves. I remember last year a friend brought a fish over she had in the freezer and I put it in the blender and turned it into powder and sprinkled it out in the roses. I can't tell if it worked or not, but probably did. I can't just put the fish out, the dogs would dig it up.

Superphosphate is not acceptable to any organic grower.