You can find most of your organic supplies at "feed stores". If you need help finding a feed store near you click on the directory below. It lists feed stores by state then by city. I found three feed stores within 7 miles of my house with that link:

Feed Store Directory

The feed stores I go to are still in Dallas County so I'm sure the further away from Dallas I shopped the cheaper prices I'd see. But here are a sampling of prices at the feed stores near me:

Prices are for 50lb bags:

Cornmeal/Ground Corn: $8.95
Cottonseed Meal: $9.10
Alfalfa Pellets: $7.90
Dried Molasses: $11.95
Corn Gluten Meal (CGM): $17.95
Soybean Meal: $10.95

I hope this helps.

-Todd

Here is a link that might be useful: Feed Store Directory

I;m not sure how close they are to you, but they have bulk options on some ferts. I used to use their stuff until I found a local company.

Here is a link that might be useful: groworganic

I second the feed store. If there are horses around, there's a feed store. DH and I just went to Sebastopol for a few days and came home with a 50lb bag of alfalfa pellets (1/4 inch not the great big chunks) and 10lb of cottonseed meal for about $12. Check the yellow pages.

Sorry Woodrose, but I used RosePharm on my roses about a month ago. Followed all the instructions to a 't', i.e., spray lightly in the evening, and it fried my roses to a crisp. I am so p'd off I could scream! They are only now beginning to recuperate. Losing all your foliage is one way to cure PM and rust I suppose, but it's not quite what I had in mind. Plus for large scale farming it's a little expensive at $10 a bottle.

Is there a web site I can go to to learn about all these
ferts and what they are used for?

Thanks Jan

Jan
I don't have a website handy but can tell you that, with these products, you're feeding the microbes and living things in your soil which inturn fertilize your lawn/garden. A basic rule is the more protein in these organic ferts the more nitrogen is made for your lawn/garden.

Molasses is a powerful carbon source that really kicks up the overall number of microorganisms in your soil. The microbes in soil feed on hydrocarbon chains, of which sugar is one. This increase in microbial activity and competition upsets the fireants somehow and they move out to more sterile locations.

Cornmeal feeds the soil microbes including a beneficial fungus called Trichoderma which will kill off the disease and bad fungus.

Here's some of the stuff I use and what I use them for as my memberpage shows as well:

* Corn Gluten Meal (preemergent & fertilizer)
* Cornmeal (fungicide & fertilizer)
* Cottenseed Meal (fertilizer)
* Cracked Corn (fungicide & fertilizer)
* Alfalfa Pellets (fertilizer)
* Dried Molasses (instant microbe food source and fireant deterrent)
* Greensand (iron, potassium & trace minerals)
* Soybean Meal (fertilizer)

Hope this helps a little.

-Todd

Sequoia851, A lot of good info above. Remember that for organic you need to be careful of corn, cottonseed and soybean products (the same as you would in the food you eat). As an example:
*For use in organic systems, the corn gluten meal must not be derived from genetically modified corn. PMRA has granted the temporary registration of a corn gluten meal product for use as a pre-emergence weed seed germination inhibitor for dandelion and smooth crabgrass on established residential laws. The organic status of the product is not determined. This is the only corn gluten meal product registered as a herbicide. Most commercially available products are intended for use as soil fertilizers. http://www.acornorganic.org/cgi-bin/organopedia/itemdisplay?152

I'm constantly amazed at the American public's acceptance of GMOs in spite of the lack of evidence of their health and environmental safety and emerging evidence that they're not all that safe after all. If people are going to be organic garderers, I think they need to become aware of GMO issues. GMOs are so pervasive that they'll sneak in everywhere. And now even alfalfa is likely to a become GMO plant.

Todd_In_Texas, so CGM has no fungicide properties? Only CM does?

Also, isn't another benefit of (Dried) Molasses is that of a source for potassium?

goo0h
Corn gluten meal is a corn milling by-product and as far as I know it has no fungicidal properties.

I don't believe dried molasses you get at the feed store is a source of potassium. Below is an image of the label of one of my bags:

{{gwi:152707}}

I understand liquid molasses has other benefits than the dried feed stuff I get.
-Todd

mikkle:

Well, you gotta remember that when X-rays were first discovered, they were using it for all sorts of stupid things. Like seeing how well a new pair of shoes fit.

When mankind discovers some new trick, we convince ourselves of our superiority over Nature. That is until Nature decides to slap us in the face. To this day I don't know if there have ever been detailed statistics of the cancer clusters around 3 Mile Island. (I certainly know of plenty that have died, or have fought cancer, at least more so than those I know in other parts of the country.)

So maybe or maybe not will be the way with GMO's. We won't know until 20, 50, or even 100 years from now, and by that time it'll probably be too late because the original gene pools will all be impacted. What did Number Six on Battlestar Galactica say? Something about the only certainty with humanity was its self-destructiveness?

But, I digress....

Todd:

Regarding the molasses/potassium bit, looks like I was thinking of the liquid blackstrap molasses. Interesting. I didn't realize that blackstrap molasses was so healthy.

Anyway, thanks for clearing that up for me.

Here is a link that might be useful: blackstrap molasses

Sequoia,

I'm in Sacramento. Which city are you in or near?

You asked
"Where would one order bulk fertilizers, amendments, sprays, etc? I maintain a number of large gardens, and am making an effort to switch them to organics, but I need or purchase on a larger scale than a couple small boxes here
and there."

You could do all the following if you could find a landscaper who would be willing to deliver their grass clippings to your gardens:
(And since the landscaper probably has to pay to dispose of the clippings now, he should be happy to let you have them for Free!)

1. Never rototill or weed again.

2. Transform your soil, even if it's terrible now, to the best soil in the world.

3. Never spend one more cent for fertilizers or soil conditioners.

4. Conserve water.

5. Encourage an explosion in the populatiosn of beneficial soil microorganisms and earthworms in your soil.

6. And significantly increase the yields from your gardens.

I've been an organic, mulch gardener since 1972. I haven't disturbed my soil in any way, except to plant seeds and seedlings- and ocassionally dig up some worms to give to fellow gardeners. I've spent not one cent for fertilizers, soil conditioners, soil tests (Why waste the money when the "treatment" is always the same, no matter what the findings? Namely Add More Organic Material.) herbicedes, and have so few problems with insects that the only chemical I use is Bt for caterpillars, and not even that some years.
There IS the issue of chemical fertilizers used on lawns often containing herbicides, too. But a few years ago I spoke at length to someone at the Univ. of Oregon, which does consulting work for the EPA. The person agreed that a whole series of events would have to occur before pesticide residues on lawn clippings would be a problem. (The pesticide would have to be very toxic,and most of those have been banned in Calif, a great deal of residue would have to be present, the uncountable trillions of microbes in the soil would have to have NO effect on it, which is highly unlikely, and the plants would have to absorb it in high enough quantities to do harm. You are almost without doubt in much greater danger from the ride to and from your gardens than you ever would be from some chemical in clippings.)

But if you simply object to introducing any kind of chemicals into your garden, which I could completely understand, another way to go would be to grow your own mulch. I've twice seen a special on PBS about a tomato farmer who took over the family farm when his father retired. His dad had used "traditional methods"- plowing, chemical fertilizers, and herbicides. But his son just grew some kind of cover crop- which the show irritatinly didn't identify- which got about ten feet tall. He just crushed it flat with his tractor, and planted his tomatoes right through the residue, with a special device he built himself.
He greatly reduced his fuel costs (does That look good now?) virtually eliminated erosion, eliminated weeding, reduced watering needs, and increased his yield per acre from 15 bushles to 40 !!!

There are much better ways to garden, or farm, than "traditional methods." Maybe when diesel fuel reaches five bucks a gallon, more farmers will try them.
If you'd like to talk more about my suggestion, please e-mail me.

Tyrell in Sacto

Tyrell -

increased his yield per acre from 15 bushles to 40 !!!

Now I read elsewhere that you are getting 500 tomatoes off one plant, and you think 40 bushels PER ACRE is good? Something is amiss here!

Sequoia:
Check out Peaceful Valley Farm Supply. They're in your state.

-O

Organic and Hydroponic supplies, Greenhouses etc
They special order for you and are very on top of their program; CALL first, (they drive from Sac to GV daily)
Hours 10/ 1030 am to 530 or 6pm Mon to Sat

Ag Natural
403 Idaho Maryland Rd
Grass VAlley, CA 95945
530-274-0990 tel
530-274-0980
_______________________________
Peaceful Valley Farm Supply
Grass Valley, CA
www.groworganic.com

Peaceful Valley has a Catalog & lot of stuff but don't depend on the store staff (except Lucy the manager) knowing anything about commercial organic growing or even where to find the info(like soil blocker booklets) in the store. Better to shop online from them.
___________________________________
www.hydrofarm.com

___________________________________
www.growerssupply.com
_________________________________
www.neptunesharvest.com
_________________________________
www.ohioearthfood.com

I second Organica's suggestion. Peaceful Valley has lots of supplies, decent prices, and great customer service.
Mrs H

What a helpful thread this one is! Thank you all for all the info. I use rain damaged hay for mulch then the next spring, plow it under. That's only because DH wants to see the ground.
I am just below Sacramento, east of Lodi.

Well afte many calls to distributors and such, I found out that Lyngso Garden Materials in Redwood City, CA carries quite a nubmer of useful organic supplies:

Bulk Worm Castings: $100/yard
Green sand: $19.95/50# bag
Kelp Meal: $58.00/55# bag
Bat Guano: $54.00/25# bag
Gypsum: 6.29/50# bag
Soft Rock Phosphate: $15.00/50# bag
Alphalpha meal: $15.00/25# bag
Azomite $22.00/44# bag

It's not everything I need but it's a good start. Thanks for all the advice.

Speaking of molasses; I used to take a spoonful every day as a child by a doctor's advice. It was to give me iron. Is molasses also a good source of iron for the garden?

As a landscaper I do not use grass clippings from certain lawns at certain times. It is not so much the chemicals that might be in the grass itself, but that the granules of stuff that get sucked off the ground by the mower.
Just a thought.