blood meal for N deficiency?

I've got some 8-week old plants vegging outdoors in Coast of Maine's Stonington Blend organic soil mix. Right now they're in 2g pots but as soon as I sex them they'll go in the ground--hopefully next week or so.

Although Stonington is a "water-only" supersoil in pots that size the plants use up the nutrients pretty quick. I waited a little too long to start feeding them (about 6 weeks) and some of the very lowest leaves started turning yellow--figure it's a simple N deficiency. Soon as I started noticing this I topdressed with maybe 1/4C or so of organic fertilizer (5-4-4 with alfalfa meal, crab meal, feather meal, fish meal, kelp meal, kelp extract, rock phosphate and sulfate of potash). I added some compost to help break it down faster as I realize organic fertilizers need to decompose before the plant can benefit.

They also got couple good drinks of compost tea.

Plants looking OK overall but thinking based on color that a little more N might be welcome.

I have some Espoma organic bloodmeal which I've never used before. What do you think about either topdressing or making a tea with it? I understand a little bit goes a long way and it's easy to burn your roots. Package recommends topdressing individual plants with 1/2 tablespoon. Guessing that's a little conservative, but figured I'd start with that and wait for results before increasing. Anybody here use bloodmeal? What amount do you use? Anybody make tea with it? Basically I'd like to give them a nice big dose of N but don't want to overdo it.

Also, what do you think about a little bloodmeal once they're in the ground? Would that be basically inviting critters to come sniffing around and dig up the root zone?

Thanks for any and all advice

Of course you can use it! In fact you sound pretty sure about both yourself and the use of blood meal, so just try it!
Lean towards the conservative side while dosing it (high N and fast acting), you can increase either frequency or quantity later.

COM also sells Stonington blend plant food, that is great to use as a top dressing. Use 1 teaspoon for every 2 1/2 gallons of soil. Sprinkle it around the pot, then use a fork to mix it in, then water and go. And one top dressing feeding will last 4 weeks!

NewEnglandFarmer said:

I've got some 8-week old plants vegging outdoors in Coast of Maine's Stonington Blend organic soil mix. Right now they're in 2g pots but as soon as I sex them they'll go in the ground--hopefully next week or so.

Although Stonington is a "water-only" supersoil in pots that size the plants use up the nutrients pretty quick. I waited a little too long to start feeding them (about 6 weeks) and some of the very lowest leaves started turning yellow--figure it's a simple N deficiency. Soon as I started noticing this I topdressed with maybe 1/4C or so of organic fertilizer (5-4-4 with alfalfa meal, crab meal, feather meal, fish meal, kelp meal, kelp extract, rock phosphate and sulfate of potash). I added some compost to help break it down faster as I realize organic fertilizers need to decompose before the plant can benefit.

They also got couple good drinks of compost tea.

Plants looking OK overall but thinking based on color that a little more N might be welcome.

I have some Espoma organic bloodmeal which I've never used before. What do you think about either topdressing or making a tea with it? I understand a little bit goes a long way and it's easy to burn your roots. Package recommends topdressing individual plants with 1/2 tablespoon. Guessing that's a little conservative, but figured I'd start with that and wait for results before increasing. Anybody here use bloodmeal? What amount do you use? Anybody make tea with it? Basically I'd like to give them a nice big dose of N but don't want to overdo it.

Also, what do you think about a little bloodmeal once they're in the ground? Would that be basically inviting critters to come sniffing around and dig up the root zone?

Thanks for any and all advice

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I've never used bloodmeal myself, but I'd probably avoid using it in a tea. I'd be concerned about possible pathogens since it is most likely coming from a slaughterhouse type setting and wouldn't want to help facilitate the growth of those microbes if possible. At least in the soil you have plenty of healthy microbes to outcompete them (if there even are pathogens present).

Maybe look into buying some alfalfa meal/pellets to use for a quick nutrient tea. Should be able to source them locally and relatively cheap. I'll put up to a tablespoon each of alfalfa/kelp per gallon of water and stir it a few times a day for roughly 24-36 hours the water with that.

No expert here, so take what I say with a grain of salt. Just my two cents

Give em dolomite lime first. They want the cal mag and pH buffer will make em happy too.

A bloodmeal tea can get foul quick. Ive tried it.
Its pretty strong stuff. High in iron which can lock stuff up as well if over used. You get a little bit of immediate water soluble N+. But most N+ comes after decomposing into a lot of nitrate a few weeks after amending soil. So great in the ground. A faster N+ might work better in the pots before transplanting. Id find some Urea, theres organic sources too. Or some hot chicken manure, get the urea and ammonia, do a one hour tea then use.

I put half a tablespoon into the pots and next day my dog made a beeline for them and stuck his snout on the soil. Guess that answers my question--think I'll pass on adding any more or I may have some drug up plants!

Try this … simple fast

Budzbuddha said:

Try this … simple fast


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Good call...I have some fish hydrolosate on hand that would also probably work well. Although the woman from Coast of Maine who creates their products told me that she's had a call or two from upset customers who used their fishbone meal outdoors and ended up having their plants dug up by critters. I guess it's impossible to completely avoid that risk with many fertilizers. But probably the liquids are a bit safer than the solids.

Buddha has a much better option there. If you topdress organic amendments that havent been cooked ahead of time, it will take too long to get that N in there.

If you are organic you want to stay ahead of the grow. Get simple amendments in there 2 weeks ahead of time when possible.

ComfortCreator said:

Buddha has a much better option there. If you topdress organic amendments that havent been cooked ahead of time, it will take too long to get that N in there.

If you are organic you want to stay ahead of the grow. Get simple amendments in there 2 weeks ahead of time when possible.

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Agreed....original mistake was not topdressing 2 or 3 weeks earlier. Last year I fed in week 4 and didn't have this issue. Lesson learned. I think they'll be fine though...minor set back quickly corrected.

I use DTE blood meal in my mixes and get good results and I like this stuff. Never thought about making a tea with it but it is a faster releasing source of N than the other amendments I have. I've been messing around with getting the ratios down. Last indoor run I used COM stonington for veg and the plants were using up the nutes after week 3 or 4. In my experience roots organic gets em a few weeks further than that (thats what I use now for veg with a little neem seed meal and blood meal for extra N). For the flowering mix this run Im using around 175g for 3 cuft . I dont cook the soil and im looking to get a nice fade around week 6-7
Also yeah my dogs go crazy with getting into the soil when I mix, one of them dug into 1 of the pots in the off season so I always keep my eye out for that lol

mattypacks said:

I use DTE blood meal in my mixes and get good results and I like this stuff. Never thought about making a tea with it but it is a faster releasing source of N than the other amendments I have. I've been messing around with getting the ratios down. Last indoor run I used COM stonington for veg and the plants were using up the nutes after week 3 or 4. In my experience roots organic gets em a few weeks further than that (thats what I use now for veg with a little neem seed meal and blood meal for extra N). For the flowering mix this run Im using around 175g for 3 cuft . I dont cook the soil and im looking to get a nice fade around week 6-7
Also yeah my dogs go crazy with getting into the soil when I mix, one of them dug into 1 of the pots in the off season so I always keep my eye out for that lol

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Thanks for sharing your experience. After giving it more thought, I decided to go ahead and use the bloodmeal. How's that any more attractive to animals than seafood-based ferts or feather meal? They all stink plenty, so what the hell. I guess I could go with alfalfa meal but I'd have to use a lot to equal the N punch of blood or feather meal. Plus I may as well use up what I bought.

NewEnglandFarmer said:

I've got some 8-week old plants vegging outdoors in Coast of Maine's Stonington Blend organic soil mix. Right now they're in 2g pots but as soon as I sex them they'll go in the ground--hopefully next week or so.

Although Stonington is a "water-only" supersoil in pots that size the plants use up the nutrients pretty quick. I waited a little too long to start feeding them (about 6 weeks) and some of the very lowest leaves started turning yellow--figure it's a simple N deficiency. Soon as I started noticing this I topdressed with maybe 1/4C or so of organic fertilizer (5-4-4 with alfalfa meal, crab meal, feather meal, fish meal, kelp meal, kelp extract, rock phosphate and sulfate of potash). I added some compost to help break it down faster as I realize organic fertilizers need to decompose before the plant can benefit.

They also got couple good drinks of compost tea.

Plants looking OK overall but thinking based on color that a little more N might be welcome.

I have some Espoma organic bloodmeal which I've never used before. What do you think about either topdressing or making a tea with it? I understand a little bit goes a long way and it's easy to burn your roots. Package recommends topdressing individual plants with 1/2 tablespoon. Guessing that's a little conservative, but figured I'd start with that and wait for results before increasing. Anybody here use bloodmeal? What amount do you use? Anybody make tea with it? Basically I'd like to give them a nice big dose of N but don't want to overdo it.

Also, what do you think about a little bloodmeal once they're in the ground? Would that be basically inviting critters to come sniffing around and dig up the root zone?

Thanks for any and all advice

Click to expand...

I wouldn't (and personally do not) use Blood/Bone Meals in anything aside from compost. Its very hot and unless a plant has a severe N def, Blood Meal will hurt more than it will help in my experience.

That organic fertilizer (like many others on the market) have both fast and slow acting (decomposing) ingredients in their mixes. Yours in particular, the alfalfa and feather meals act pretty quickly. Nutrients should be available within the week, if not already active within your soil.

Right now, only the fast acting ingredients are providing nutrients. When the slow release part of your fert mix starts kicking in, you don't want to add something as hot as blood meal to your soil as you risk toxicity at that point.

Buddha is on point with the 5-1-1 Fish Emulsion, I heavily 2nd his recommendation. Save the Hydrolysate for flower.

The fish emulsion is already decomposed, and it has a much lighter NPK. It will be readily available once you use it.

However, it looks like you already used it. Hopefully your plants will be able to make use of all that N, I'd personally be uneasy having an N value of 17 from both the blood meal and fert mix.

All the best.

ComfortCreator said:

Buddha has a much better option there. If you topdress organic amendments that havent been cooked ahead of time, it will take too long to get that N in there.

If you are organic you want to stay ahead of the grow. Get simple amendments in there 2 weeks ahead of time when possible.

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2nd this. Lighter ingredients can be applied at a higher frequency than hot ones like blood/bone/etc meals. Top dressing with something light every two weeks ensures your plant always has food in its pantry, so to speak. However, that can also be their potential downside, is needing to do it more often which increases possibility of forgetting to top dress.

That said, we all make mistakes. This is why I make a point to always have Fish Emulsion and Fish Hydrolysate around. They are perfect to feed with if you either forget to/cant top dress, or for those heavy feeders. The liquid fish, when poured on top of the organic fert blend, will help to break down the blend faster as well.

Budzbuddha said:

Try this … simple fast


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Click to expand...

it works great just be careful its pretty strong mix it with water like 30 ml per gallon

Responding to OP

Now that more than a week has passed, have you been able to green them up?

The "keep it simple" approach would be to just water with something you have experience with at an application rate you know works. If I ever need to feed before transplant, I am using like roughly half strength fish crab or shrimp emulsion.

What I really wonder is, why not transplant them now? If they are yellowing, were they not ready to move some time ago?

Blood meal is excellent nitrogen, and inexpensive. I till it in and have used it in anaerobic ferments (jadam type method). Once tilled in it won't attract critters, but a bag left out might get snatched by a bear or ripped open by racoon.

It is fairly soluable and a good candidate for top dressing. However I would not go top dressing 2 gal pots. I'd just feed them solution.

Making tea with blood meal is totally normal and a lot of people do it. Once again it's inexpensive and fairly soluable. Totally try it. I think I was doing 1 tbsp/gal or possibly even less.

Humble_Budlings said:

Responding to OP

Now that more than a week has passed, have you been able to green them up?

The "keep it simple" approach would be to just water with something you have experience with at an application rate you know works. If I ever need to feed before transplant, I am using like roughly half strength fish crab or shrimp emulsion.

What I really wonder is, why not transplant them now?

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I was waiting to sex them however I finally just went ahead and put them in the ground. They look good now, I think the bloodmeal helped. I included a little more in the amendments to the native soil when I transplanted so there's some extra N available to them in coming weeks. Followed my soil test recs pretty closely. Subbed feather meal for blood on a bunch when blood ran out. This is only my second grow so still getting a feel for it. But great results last year and looking for another good season this year. Trying to dial in my methods so I give them just what they need and no more (overdid P last year--plants were healthy but excess P in soil test from December). Appreciate all the words of wisdom.

NewEnglandFarmer said:

I've got some 8-week old plants vegging outdoors in Coast of Maine's Stonington Blend organic soil mix. Right now they're in 2g pots but as soon as I sex them they'll go in the ground--hopefully next week or so.

Although Stonington is a "water-only" supersoil in pots that size the plants use up the nutrients pretty quick. I waited a little too long to start feeding them (about 6 weeks) and some of the very lowest leaves started turning yellow--figure it's a simple N deficiency. Soon as I started noticing this I topdressed with maybe 1/4C or so of organic fertilizer (5-4-4 with alfalfa meal, crab meal, feather meal, fish meal, kelp meal, kelp extract, rock phosphate and sulfate of potash). I added some compost to help break it down faster as I realize organic fertilizers need to decompose before the plant can benefit.

They also got couple good drinks of compost tea.

Plants looking OK overall but thinking based on color that a little more N might be welcome.

I have some Espoma organic bloodmeal which I've never used before. What do you think about either topdressing or making a tea with it? I understand a little bit goes a long way and it's easy to burn your roots. Package recommends topdressing individual plants with 1/2 tablespoon. Guessing that's a little conservative, but figured I'd start with that and wait for results before increasing. Anybody here use bloodmeal? What amount do you use? Anybody make tea with it? Basically I'd like to give them a nice big dose of N but don't want to overdo it.

Also, what do you think about a little bloodmeal once they're in the ground? Would that be basically inviting critters to come sniffing around and dig up the root zone?

Thanks for any and all advice

Click to expand...

Just be careful about two things.
1) Outdoors, blood meal attracts rodents and other predatory and scavenging mammals. They will dig up young plants and damage roots.
2) Be conservative with the amount. Blood meal is powerful for an organic nitrogen source.