I have been gardening this block for 5 years, not an enormous time, but I don’t use animal products to fertilise I just use compost/mulching/weed tea/and cover crops.

Everything seems fine. Yet every gardening show or whatever will be like “slather that manure and blood and bone on each year, use fish emulsion, fucking sacrifice your firstborn on that shit”. Am I an idiot or do you just not need to do any of that?

edit: not looking for the peanut gallery. Interested in opinions from people who don’t use animal products and what their experience has been.

  • arcane potato (she/they)@vegantheoryclub.orgMEnglish
    2·
    23 days ago

    I think most farms use synthetic fertilizers but every organic farm I have worked on and every organic farmer I know uses some variation of the above as their primary soil amendments along with plant compost and worm byproducts.

    You didn’t mention your location but for example the USDA definition of organic required that ‘most’ synthetic fertilizers are not used. I’m not questioning your experience, I’m just stating that by nature of being a farmer seeking certification as organic they choose to exclude most synthetics for reasons of certification - not necessarily because it’s less expensive or ‘better’.

    https://www.usda.gov/about-usda/news/blog/organic-101-what-usda-organic-label-means

    Produce can be called organic if it’s certified to have grown on soil that had no prohibited substances applied for three years prior to harvest. Prohibited substances include most synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.

    Please be aware that this is a vegan gardening community. You’ve provided an answer to to OP based on your experience, which is fine but please understand that promotion of the use of animal bodies in gardening is not welcome.

    • Jabril [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
      1·
      22 days ago

      Hey sorry for the confusion, I will rephrase what I said: most commercial non organic farms use synthetic fertilizers but every organic farm i have worked on in the US and every organic farmer I know (at least three dozen commercial organic farms) use animal based fertilizers. The OP asked about these, I am not advocating for them but answering the question about if they work to to produce higher yields than home composting alone.

      I didn’t realize this was a vegan instance, I am not promoting the use of these products, just answering OPs question.

      On a side note: Does worm casings or worm tea go against vegan principles?

      • arcane potato (she/they)@vegantheoryclub.orgMEnglish
        4·
        22 days ago

        I didn’t realize this was a vegan instance, I am not promoting the use of these products, just answering OPs question.

        No worries, I figured that is what was going on. I wanted to get it out there because I agree your comments were not promoting it but I thought you were missing some important context.

        On a side note: Does worm casings or worm tea go against vegan principles?

        In my opinion, yes. I agree with Naeve’s comment but will add that for me the concept of speciesm is important. Other beings are here with us, not for us.

        My soil is full of worms and life. I get bunny poop deposits regularly. I achieve this by creating an environment where they have food and a nice place to exist.

      • NaevaTheRat [she/her]@vegantheoryclub.orgOPEnglish
        3·
        22 days ago

        Does worm casings or worm tea go against vegan principles?

        In general yes. Veganism is about respecting other living being’s right to live unmolested. Worms farms artificially constrain the lives of creatures which may not appreciate that, and the process of breeding and distributing them harms many.

        It is completely vegan to say have a compost pile open to the ground and make it attractive to worms, provided of course you’re not making a deathtrap etc. But worm farms tend to be about preventing worms from leaving. I can’t think of a way to collect the liquid that wouldn’t interfere with their ability to burrow.

        You might think this absurd, but we literally don’t know how consciousness arises or how widespread it is. Because we don’t need to have worm farms, and worms may not enjoy being interfered with, it is a position of unjustified arrogance to risk harm for our convenience.