Synthetic organics?

[electron_blue]

I'm shopping around for someone to help me get my lawn in shape and am trying to avoid 'chem lawn' and use organics. There are two companies in my town that claim to offer organic and natural lawn care. One claims that it's not possible to have an organic weed control, but that they have two options when it comes to organic fertilizer: one is chicken poop (basically) and the other is "synthetic organic", meaning it's man-made. The guy couldn'lt give me any other information than that.

Have you heard of synthetic organic? Any opinions on it?

[Gormy Cuss]

1. It's probably urea.

The "organic" label for fertilizer means that the nutrients contained are naturally part of the product. "Synthetic" means that the product is itself manufactured. "Synthetic organic" means, more or less, that it's manufactured product with the chemical makeup of the naturally occurring equivalent-- organic chemistry, not natural, unadulterated organic products.
In other words, it's made from inorganic material.

urea article from Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urea

I don't think urea products are OMRI* approved, which is the best standard for what constitutes organic gardening IMHO.



*Organic Materials Review Institute. There's sometimes an OMRI logo on packaging of approved products, sometimes not.

On edit: I haven't used it myself but in catalogs I see corn gluten meal offered as an organic weed control for lawns. Ask the lawn services why they can't use it.

[BOSSHOG]

2. Along time ago

My Dad spread horse manure on his hay field right before the growing season and his crop was enormous. He had an old wooden horse drawn wagon with a rake on the back which would rake the manure out of the back of the wagon and toss it 20 feet high and cover the whole pasture. Chicken manure is also a good natural fertilizer for your soil although it can be messy. We used Scott's Organic Choice Lawn food this year, it has a whiff of manure about it but a little went a long way. 15 pounds covered about 2/3 of an acre and the lawn is looking good. I can't address your question but I wish you well. Good idea to stay away from the chemical stuff.

[Poiuyt]

3. Sure

I'm a former synthetic organic chemist. That meant that I synthesized organic compounds (in my case it was for the pharmaceutical industry). I imagine that they took some natural, organic fertilizer, i.e. manure, and analyzed it to see what was in it that causes the plants to grow. They then manufacture that particular compound or compounds and sell it as organic fertilizer.

BTW, any chemical substance that has carbon in it is considered to be organic (except coal or diamonds). It doesn't have to be from just a plant source. Most organic compounds are manufactured from petroleum or its byproducts.