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How can rock phosphate, cottonseed meal, kelp meal, lime and compost be used in soil for different plants?

I prefer not to use animal-based fertilizers, which means making my own. I bought the first four of these items to do that, but when I calculated amounts for a 5-6-5 fertilizer, they were very different from a recipe I found online (http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/2006-06-01/A-Better-Way-to-Fertilize-Your-Garden-Homemade-Organic-Fertilizer.aspx?page=3). Also, I don't know how much compost to use in soil and by how much to reduce other fertilizers in it when I do, if at all. Our home is landscaped with small trees, bushes, hostas, ferns and flowers. I may plant bulbs this fall and I would like to grow some vegetables in homemade self-watering containers next spring using the earthbox method (dry fertilizer mounded under a waterproof cover) and grow wheatgrass and dirt sprouts indoors (sunflower, buckwheat and pea). For container soil I have coconut "peat", some of which I mixed with regular peat and perlite. I prefer these materials because Vermiculite is hard to find, expensive and energy intensive to produce (I'd prefer not to use perlite either for the same reasons, but thought it neccessary) and I'm concerned about the depletion of peat from peat bog habitats, but thought the mix needed some amount of it. I welcome your suggestions for affordable, ecological, effective potting mixes, especially for self-watering containers.

Public Comments

1. Lots of questions.. I'll try to help: Rock phosphate is a phosphorus source promotes blooming. Cottonseed meal is mostly nitrogen (for greening/leaves). Kelp meal is a great all purpose fertilzer and root stimulant. Lime is purely for soil sweetening (pH, reverses acidic soil, only akaline loving plants and grass should get lime) Compost is a great all purpose soil amendment/fertilizer. In vegetable gardens you can use 30-50% compost. (so if you have one shovel of regular earth, you can add 1 shovel of compost to it) In standard gardens no more than 15-20% compost should be blended in OR topdress with 1/2-1 inch of compost. Perlite really is not necessary in soil it "aerates" it but really it was cheap filler used that now has become standard it is still used mostly cause people expect it. Kudos to you on the peat .. very few people are aware of this issue. I run and Organic gardening center in Washington and we stock kelloggs products which are all sustainable produced they make a wonderful potting soil that is NOT peat based and a peat replacement called Soil building compost to use in place of peat. www.kellogggarden.com - there may be a local source near you that carries them. Also we carry the Dr. Earth fertlizer brand which is phenomial and we have found it works better than home mixed blends, basically it uses all the ingrediants you've mentioned plus more. You can see them at our website http://www.gardensphere.biz/dry-fertilizers.html