On Mon, 16 Feb 2004 20:59:28 -0500, "Ray Drouillard"
wrote:


"Frogleg" wrote

Yeah, but... "home grown" and "organic" are not the same thing.
Backing up the thread a bit, we come to 'taste tests' between organic
and non-. There's no question that a tomato picked in one's own
garden, or a peach from one's (or one's neighbor's) tree is superior
to well-travelled produce, whether they've been fertilized with
(organic) goat manure or something in a plastic bag.


Some people are purists :-)

I prefer to eat veggies that don't require the removal of chemicals
before eating.

This is where I quarrel with the purists. I don't care for
insecticides and I don't use them (except once, in a pot where
Japanese beetles were devouring a woodruff plant). I *have* used Bt
San Diego to control Colorado potato beetles. In Virginia. :-) *I*
don't want to wash stuff off my veg either. But I see a difference in
the level of 'sin' between wholesale use of pesticide and a little
MiracleGro. That is, I think that fertilizers, perticides, and
herbicides should be separate categories, not lumped together as "evil
chemicals."

Also, whether or not you add ammonium nitrate or
whatever to the soil, having good humus in the soil makes for better
produce. Also, while the plants themselves don't need much in the way
of trace minerals, we need them. You won't find selenium and the like
in a bag of chemical fertilizer, but you'll find a variety of minerals
in the dairy doo, compost, or whatever you are using.

Selenium is found in the soil, and in animal protein, as well as in
some veg. If the soil is deficient in a given area, local animal poo
and compost will be, too. In which case, the mineral can be applied
as...commercial fertilizer!

http://oregonstate.edu/dept/ncs/news...7/selenium.htm

When someone posts that they're starting a garden and want to know
what brand of fertilizer to use, I often reply that lively plants need
more than a sprinkling from a bag of granules. I go on and on about
the benefits of compost, not so much for nutrition but for general
soil improvement, aeration and water drainage/retention. But if
someone posts about an obvious nitrogen deficiency, I'd recommend
ammonium nitrate. Animal poo does *not* appear to be perfectly
balanced fertilizer. Good? Yes. Perfect, convenient, without any
downside? No.

I think we essentially agree that mad-dog conviction on either side of
the organic-chemical Great Divide are wrong-headed. There are too many
gray areas in a controversy that is often seen as black&white.