Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Note – Even though I just brought this item around a couple weeks ago I am bringing it around today because I have added a PS with a video showing how I use it when I set out transplants.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is Dr. Earth Premium Gold Organic Fertilizer.  This is part of my 4 core item regime for producing healthy and heavy bearing plants.   I have written about this before but my four core items are, GS Plant Foods Liquid Kelp Fertilizer, Garrett Juice Plus, Endo Mycorrhizae Fungal Inoculation and of course Dr. Earth Premium Gold Organic Fertilizer.  You can find them all under the tag “fertility” in one place.

Alert – 4-4-4 Premium Gold is out of stock in many sizes.  Also the 4 pound bag just got jacked up to a stupid cost, don’t buy it.  The 12 pound bags are almost sold out, the price on them is fine for now anyway.

 

I also was just told by a source it is “being discontinued”, I have not verified that.  If you want a stand in, the alternate product I recommend would be Dr. Earth Tomato Vegetable and Herb Fertilizer.  It is almost the same product though it does not have the perfect 4-4-4 ratio.  Rather it has a 4-6-3 ratio which is still pretty balanced and I would not hesitate to use it.

 

I have also been asked for a lower cost option.  While I am 100% sold on Dr. Earth products, I do find “Eco Scraps” fertilizer to have a good mix or beneficial organisms and a great NPK ratio.  3 four pound bags of it will cost about 22 dollars vs. 30 for 12 pounds of Dr. Earth.  So if you need a lot of it it can save you some money and while it is not as good in my opinion I have used it and it is a damn good product too.

So given there are many fine quality organic solid fertilizers, why have I settled on Dr. Earth Premium Gold?  First is that it is a balanced fertilizer, with an NPK ratio of 4-4-4 and what that means is that you are always giving your plants a good boost of all three primary nutrients.

Next is the make up, here are the ingredients: Fish meal, fish bone meal, mined potassium sulfate, soft rock phosphate, kelp meal, seaweed extract, and earthworm castings. Also contains humic acid (5%), aloe vera (2%), and yucca extract (1%), and prebiotic microbial food – soluble sugars (7%). In other words it doesn’t rely on any single source and hence you get a much more balanced source of nutrients for plants.   Also note the humic acid included here, this goes beyond just fertilizer, it helps build soil and make all nutrients easier for the plants to absorb.

Of course you know that I am big on building soil as well, which is one reason I recommend a fungal inoculation in addition to fertilizers and foliar sprays.  Well Dr. Earth Fertilizer builds upon that, because it contains seven strains of beneficial soil microbes plus ecto and endo mycorrhizae to build up even more soil biology.

To really dive home how well this combination works take a look at one of my wicking beds.  These beds were planted with small plants about 5 weeks ago.  On planting the roots were dusted with fungal inoculation, I put a small pinch of Dr. Earth Premium Gold Organic Fertilizer into the hole with them and they have been twice sprayed with a mix of Garrett Juice and Liquid Kelp.  I think you will agree the vigor, growth and health are all very evident.

Click for Full Sized Image

So give Dr. Earth Premium Gold Organic Fertilizer a shot on your garden today.  You can get a 4lb bag for only 12.00.  And two bags will serve most vegetable gardeners well over a season, possibly two. Again I just drop a small amount into the hole when I plant and about once a season I pull back mulch, add a pinch around my plants and water it in after replacing the mulch.

If you want to load up though they now have 25 pound bags on Amazon as well.

When I establish a new bed I also scatter a small amount across the entire surface before adding the mulch layer.  If you want to really push things into super high biological activity, sprinkle a small amount of dry molasses on the soil at that time as well.   Due to shipping costs I recommend  you source dry molasses locally, most garden and landscape shops will have it.

Remember you can always find all of our reviews at TspAz.com

P.S. – Here is a video of me using the Dr. Earth Premium Gold Product when setting out transplants.  Please note normally I also dust the roots with Endo Mycorrhizae Fungi.  I did not in this video because I didn’t have any on hand and it was not available last I checked.  That product is also now back in stock and you can find it here.   Please note that Dr. Earth 4-4-4 actually has all four species of Mycorrhizae that the Endo Product has.  I use it because the Endo product boosts the effect a LOT and a little of it goes a long way.  It is a personal choice and you don’t need it but if you want to know more about why I use both tune in today’s show (Episode 2659) and i will be discussing it in the TspAz.com segment during the show closing.