In recent years we have seen a real increase in interest in organic gardening. Organic gardening is just now beginning to have the support of industry and researchers. In the past we were relying on snake oil salesmen and old wives tails for information on what to use. In many cases these cure-alls just didn’t work. Unfortunately this has had a very negative effect on the organic movement. In the last few years we have seen an increase in research tested products we can promote for the organic gardener to use.

Those of you inclined toward the organic way of gardening may have felt a little left out in the past articles. Here is some gardening information that might be helpful to the organic enthusiasts as well as the rest of the county's backyard gardeners.

Many people hear the words "organic gardening" and immediately think of the work involved in composting, cleaning out stables to get horse and cow manure, and hand removal of insects to keep them from eating everything.

In organic gardens the addition of compost of other organic matter helps to build up the nutritional value and improve the soil texture. This practice is advisable to any gardener. Nutrients can be added by using things like compost or manure, but there are now a wide assortment of organic fertilizers available for area gardeners to use. Just a few of the good products out there are: Microlife, Cottonseed meal, Pelleted Chicken Manure, Hasta Grow, and fish emulsion.

You can easily mix your own balanced organic fertilizer. A mixture of 37 pounds of bloodmeal, 37 pounds of bonemeal and 9 pounds of muriate of potash is good complete organic fertilizer for the organically inclined. This mixture will be enough to cover 2,000 square feet. This fertilizer has several advantages over chemical fertilizers. The above mentioned mix is slow releasing, won't burn and does not leach out of the soil. The mixture of bonemeal, bloodmeal and potash is equivalent to a

15-15-15 fertilizer.

The organic gardener is no longer armed with a brick and a clove of garlic to help fight insects and diseases in the vegetable garden. Insects and diseases are still the major problems facing the southern gardener. The problems can be overcome with wettable sulfur for spider mites; pyrethrins, crop oils or insecticidal soap for aphids, whiteflies, leafhoppers and thrips; rotenone or spinosad for beetles and caterpillars and Bt (Dipel or Thuricide) for cabbage loopers, tomato hornworm and many other chewing worms. Fungal problems can be attached with potassium bicarbonate (First Step), Neem Oil, and sulfur.

Be careful there still lots of companies out there selling junk that just doesn’t work so always try to use products from a reliable source. And you must be willing to let the insects have some of your harvest. As you can see the organic gardeners have many options open to them. As time passes and research continues more and more advancement will be made in low toxicity organic products to assist area gardeners.

Don’t forget to send your garden questions to Plant Answers at 9020 FM 1484, Conroe TX 77303 or e-mail me at t-leroy@tamu.edu .

Educational programs of Texas AgriLife Extension Service are open to all citizens without regard to race, color, sex, disability, age or national origin.