General Question

livingchoice's avatar

Will I get sick if I eat vegetables that use a particular fertilizing method?

Asked by livingchoice (553points) February 15th, 2012

A friend of mine introduced me to a DVD of a guy who uses beer, ammonia, dish washing liquid and other ingredients to fertilize just about everything. My question is; will these chemicals/substances be transferred into the plants and will I get sick if I in turn eat the plants. Here is his site for reference. http://www.jerrybaker.net/garden/information/tipsandtonics.aspx

Observing members: 0 Composing members: 0

9 Answers

SpatzieLover's avatar

No, you will not become ill. I, myself, use many of Jerry Baker’s methods for my veg garden. These are natural methods to help you avoid harsh chemicals.

syz's avatar

Ahhh, commercial fertilizers are more concerning to me: Inorganic fertilizer is often synthesized using the Haber-Bosch process, which produces ammonia as the end product. This ammonia is used as a feedstock for other nitrogen fertilizers, such as anhydrous ammonium nitrate and urea. These concentrated products may be diluted with water to form a concentrated liquid fertilizer (e.g. UAN). Ammonia can be combined with rock phosphate and potassium fertilizer in the Odda Process to produce compound fertilizer. Source

livingchoice's avatar

@SpatzieLover how long have you been using his methods and what were your results?

Coloma's avatar

No, those methods are acceptable. I go for the even more organic, but, I also have access to lots of manure. Horses, and my goose poo pool water is the original “miracle grow.” lol

SpatzieLover's avatar

The results are terrific @livingchoice. This is the only way I know how to garden.

Like @Coloma I also use maure or Milorganite. Since we own a tavern, I have access to beer. You wouldn’t believe how green your garden will be will beer & ammonia.

As for the dish soap, it is one of my go to methods (besides the hose, my fingers & attracting wildbirds) to rid my plants & trees of unwanted bugs.

Water is one of the most over looked methods of gardening, as is compost. Many gardeners go straight to chemicals when water or compost would be the best choice for the issues their facing.

Skaggfacemutt's avatar

No wonder my garden looks so good. I throw my soapy scrub-water on it. I didn’t know I was doing anything good for it.

dappled_leaves's avatar

If it’s being used as fertilizer, then yes – obviously it ends up in your food. That’s how fertilizer works; it feeds your plants. The difficult part is realizing that for the most part, these chemicals being in your food will not actually harm you.

The harm is more likely to come to the environment, when runoff carries your fertilizer into rivers and lakes, affecting the plant and algae growth in those places.

livingchoice's avatar

@dappled_leaves so are you saying that this fertilizer of beer, ammonia etc. is harmful in the end?

dappled_leaves's avatar

No, I would guess it’s not dangerous to you. Note that he says “dishwashing liquid”, but there are lots of those on the market. Presumably, the dishwashing liquid is there for the phosphates, although more and more dishwashing liquids are being made without phosphates, for the reason I gave above – because they are fertilizers, and fertilizers are not a good thing to unleash on the environment in large quantities.

Answer this question

Login

or

Join

to answer.

This question is in the General Section. Responses must be helpful and on-topic.

Your answer will be saved while you login or join.

Have a question? Ask Fluther!

What do you know more about?
or
Knowledge Networking @ Fluther