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Was: Osmocote; now Truth about Osmocote

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

I must wade in here and explain that I am the one responsible for Don
Chapman's recommendation of Osmocote and probably the discussion of use on
the OG Listserv.  When I did my initial study of the effect of mycorrhizal
fungi on heirloom tomatoes, Osmocote was part of the study.  Half the
inoculated plants were fed a tablespoon of Osmocote in the planting hole.
The other half were fed organic pelleted fish meal.  Both Osmocote and the
fish meal pellets are time- release or gradual-release sources of nutrients.
The control plants were treated in the same manner--half with fish pellets,
half with Osmocote.  There was no difference in results.  Any plant
inoculated with mycorrhizal fungi, whether fed with Osmocote or fish
pellets, out-performed it's control counterpart.  So, Don often suggests the
use of Osmocote, especially to non-organic gardeners.  It's the small amount
of gradual-release nutrients that is the key to sustaining mycorrhizae, not
any organic component.  Some people of the OG list picked up the Osmocote
from the published version of my study, which resides in a half dozen data
bases on the Web.
Doreen Howard
-----Original Message-----
From: Janet Wintermute <jwintermute@erols.com>
To: sqft@listbot.com <sqft@listbot.com>
Date: Sunday, May 16, 1999 11:48 AM
Subject: Re: Osmocote


>Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html
>
>Martha said,
>>I wasn't aware this was an organic product. I know in most potted plants
we
>>get from nurseries, the soil base has osmocote in it, so I guess I assumed
>>it was a chemical product. Could someone read their bag / box and tell us
>>what's in it?
>
>Well, *I* assumed it was organic because Don Chapman said to use it in
>conjunction with his mycorrhizal products, and he recommends against
>synthetics because they burn the myco's!  But now that Martha has
stimulated
>me to look at the box, I'm changing my mind about Osmocote.
>
>The "Vegetable & Bedding Plant Food" formula is 14-14-14 14 with NPK
>"derived from ammonium nitrate, ammonium phosphate, calcium phosphate, and
>potassium sulfate."
>
>Sounds pretty chemical-y to me, and the current owner of the brand is
>Scotts, definitely a chemical house.
>
>Interestingly enough, Osmocote has been mentioned several times over on the
>Organic Gardening List, and nobody there challenged its use.  And those
>folks are fanatics!
>
>--Janet
>
>
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