It is no secret that chemical-based fertilizers are dangerous for the planet and our health. However, most of the time it is quicker and easier to grab them off the shelf because these are the brands and products that are often advertised or endorsed, making you feel more comfortable buying them.
Luckily, if you are not a fan of chemical or synthetic fertilizer and prefer a more natural and healthy alternative, you don’t have to search any further.
In this article, we provide you with a list of the top 8 organic fertilizers on the market today. We’ll give you a great selection of plant food for your indoor garden and eliminate the need to purchase the chemical compounds you’ve always used.
What you will find in this article:
- What is organic fertilizer
- 8 great organic fertilizers for you to try
- The benefits of using organic fertilizers
- Disadvantages of organic fertilizers
- How to make the best organic fertilizer at home
Table of Contents
What is Organic Fertilizer?
Organic soil is a medium used by gardeners composed of animal and plant particles such as worm castings, rotting fruits and vegetables, and decaying plants. The breaking down of these specific items provides the vital nutrients needed to grow healthy, happy gardens.
Because you don’t want to fill your pots and planters with rotting and decaying elements, the fertilizers are premixed into clay, silt, and sandy soil.
Indoor and outdoor gardeners use organic fertilizers, but they are extra beneficial to plants grown inside that are not getting the same natural resources from the environment that outdoor plants get.
These fertilizers are particularly popular because they lack the chemical components many other fertilizers use, making these products a lot safer for homes, families, pets, and the environment.
Top 8 Organic Fertilizers for Indoor Gardens
If you’re interested in indoor organic gardening and are avoiding chemical fertilizer for your plants, here is our list of the best organic fertilizer brands.
1. Organic Plant Magic: Compressed Organic Potting
If you have kids or pets running around the home, Organic Plant Magic is a great potting soil plus fertilizer to invest in. This product’s main components include coconut coir and worm castings, and it is 100% natural.
Not only is Organic Plant Magic safer to use, but the soil is compact and expands to three times its packaged size once wet, giving you more soil in each bag and making your fertilizer easier to store.
Ingredients:
- Worm castings
- Ground coconut coir
- Mycorrhizae
- Kelp
- Beneficial bacteria
- Amino acids
- Humic acids
2. Miracle-Gro Performance Organics All Purpose Plant Nutrition Granules
This all-natural, concentrated, organic granular fertilizer is easy to apply. Simply sprinkle it onto your indoor potted plants and watch them grow.
While this product isn’t directly mixed into the garden soil, it is still extremely effective at providing your indoor plants with all of the vital vitamins and trace minerals to help increase plant growth and keep your plants strong and healthy.
With Miracle-Gro Performance, you will see a noticeable difference in your gardening results in as little as seven days.
Ingredients:
- N/A
3. Wiggle Worm Worm Castings Organic Fertilizer
This Wiggle Worm pure worm casting organic fertilizer is made from one ingredient only, and that ingredient is worm castings–otherwise known as worm poop.
The earthworm nightcrawlers used to produce these castings eat a variety of organic matter made from nutrient-rich products processed during the digestive phase to produce a compound perfect for feeding your plants.
This product is known to dramatically increase the growth and strength of indoor plants, which is why it made it onto our list of the top 8 organic fertilizers.
Ingredients:
- Earthworm castings
4. Espoma Indoor! Liquid Plant Food
The Espoma company is dedicated to creating organic, safe fertilizers and potting soil for customers and the planet. This organic, all-natural plant food is registered by the CDFA and is a USDA-certified biobased product.
This liquid plant food is full of safe and crucial nutrients indoor plants need to thrive. The product uses sustainable and renewable ingredients, and they never use fillers or sludges.
Not only does the Espoma company create extremely beneficial fertilizers, but they are a zero-waste manufacturer and the largest recycler of manure, keeping our waterways clean and your plants thriving.
Ingredients:
- Natural proteins
- Humic acids
- Kelp extracts
- A proprietary set of beneficial soil microbes
5. Joyful Dirt Organic Based Fertilizer
Joyful Dirt organic fertilizer comes in a convenient and easy-to-use shaker bottle that allows you to pour the plant food directly into your indoor potted plants.
This product is so powerful you only need a small amount and a little water for your plants to grow noticeably bigger and fuller, right in front of your eyes.
Because the ingredients are organic and natural, this plant food is 100% safe around kids and pets, giving you peace of mind that everyone in your home, including your plants, is happy and safe.
Ingredients:
- Mycorrhizae Nutrients
6. The Watering Vine Organic Liquid Fertilizer for Indoor Plants
The Watering Vine organic liquid fertilizer is water-soluble, meaning it will go directly to your plant root, starting the growth process faster than many other options available.
These ingredients are thoughtfully sourced and ideal for anyone who wants a safe and all-natural fertilizer for their indoor plants. It provides plenty of nutrients to grow some of the best plants you will ever see.
All of the ingredients used by The Watering Vine are certified organic and never include fillers or additives. The company has even partnered with USA-based companies to save on emissions during transportation and shipment, leaving less of a carbon footprint.
Ingredients:
- N/A
7. Johnny Appleseed Organic ClimateGard No-Kill Biodynamic Granular Organic Fertilizer
This ClimateGard granular organic fertilizer utilizes microbiology and ethically-derived plant nutrition to make a safe and potent fertilizer that has zero negative impact on the planet or the living organisms around it.
With the variety of ingredients, this garden soil is everything you need and more to grow sustainable and lush indoor plants.
ClimateGard no-kill fertilizer never uses blood, feathers, or remnants from slaughter farms. Instead, it uses fungi and living bacteria. To make things even better, it comes in a convenient, organic cotton bag to further its fight to save the planet.
Ingredients:
- Nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus
- Calcium, magnesium, and iron
- Humic acid
- Bat guano
- Processed poultry manure and sunflower hull ash
- Fossilized seabird guano
- Silica derived from amorphous volcanic tuff
- Trichoderma harzianum and Trichoderma koningii
- Beneficial bacteria and fungi
8. Liqui-Dirt Nano Powder All-Purpose Organic
Liqui-Dirt’s all-purpose organic fertilizer consists of a balanced blend of vitamins, minerals, micro-fungi, and bio-organisms. All of the ingredients in this product are made through the zymology process, in which the 18 materials are broken down into thousands of separate, fully digested, and readily absorbed elements.
The process to make this super fertilizer can take up to five years before it is bottled up and ready for your indoor garden.
Liqui-Dirt products are made in the USA and are non-GMO, odorless, and have no chemicals in their ingredients, giving you nothing but natural and safe fuel for your garden plants.
Ingredients:
- Poultry litter
- Bat guano
- Rabbit manure
- Cricket frass
- Worm castings
- Humic shale
- Oyster shell
- Dolomite limes
- Mycorrhizae
- Kelp meal
- Alfalfa meal
- Blood meal
- Gypsum
- Concentrated fulvic acid
Benefits of Organic Fertilizers
Now that you have a list of great fertilizers to try, let’s discuss all of the benefits of using organic fertilizers for your indoor plants.
Improves Growth
Using an organic fertilizer will provide essential nutrients your plants need to grow the biggest and best they can. With these specific products, not only are your plants going to get a dose of essential foods, but they will get a large concentrated amount to help them grow exponentially.
Using an organic fertilizer restores and maintains all of your indoor plant’s fertility and promotes healthy, enhanced, and rapid growth.
Promotes Greening
Many times, indoor plants can start lacking in the vibrant green shades they should be. With organic fertilizers, you will notice that your stems and leaves are much more vivid and healthy, with the beautiful green color nature intended.
Balances Soil pH
Indoor and outdoor plants need a good balance of nutrients in the soil to help plants thrive and survive inside planters and pots, but you also need to make sure you have the right soil pH for what you’re planting. Using healthy soil for your indoor organic garden mimics natural outdoor soil for advanced growth and plant production.
Free From Harsh and Hazardous Chemicals
Many fertilizers are full of harsh, hazardous chemicals that are dangerous for the planet and the health and well-being of your family.
Using organic fertilizers gives you the option to feed your plants a completely natural substance that is beneficial to them and will protect the ones you love, including pets.
Better for the Planet
Whether using organic fertilizer indoors or out, you are doing the planet a favor. Natural ingredients found in these products are not harmful to our planet, unlike other fertilizers on the market.
Helps Plants Thrive In Indoor Elements
The organic material found in organic fertilizer boosts and enhances water absorption and efficiency to give plants sustainability during drought-like conditions, whether due to a missed water session or a humid day.
More Affordable than Chemical Fertilizers
Organic fertilizers are often more affordable than chemical alternatives because organic fertilizers use natural ingredients that are easy to find. They are often made from materials that would otherwise be thrown away.
Disadvantages of Organic Fertilizers
Unfortunately, nothing can be perfect, and even though organic fertilizers do have many more pros than cons, there are still a few disadvantages we should discuss.
Not all Fertilizers Are Made the Same
Many companies are reputable, but some do not provide the same quality and professionalism as others. Your experience with one brand may not be anything like someone else’s experience.
You might find yourself testing out multiple fertilizers before you come across one that will work well for your indoor garden.
May Lack Essential Nutrients
Unlike most chemical-filled options, organic fertilizers rely on the natural components of their ingredients to provide the essential nutrients plants need to thrive indoors. Unfortunately, most organic plant foods can’t measure up to their chemically altered opponents.
Takes Longer to Take Effect
Chemical-based fertilizers provide nourishment almost instantly. With an organic substance, you have to wait for the plant to benefit while the components break down and absorb into the soil, water, and plant.
If you have an already weak or weakening plant, this may postpone intervention and can cause the plant to get worse or die.
DIY Organic Fertilizer
As mentioned, organic fertilizer is relatively cheap when you purchase it from the store. However, if you want to use free organic plant food in your indoor garden, you should consider starting a compost pile.
A compost pile is a collection of soils and other disposable materials mixed to create a rich fertilizer full of nutrients.
To make a compost pile at home, you need a compost bucket or bin, soil, and some or all of the items listed below.
- Grass clippings
- Leaves
- Rotting fruits and vegetables
- Worms
- Wood shavings
- Vegetarian animal manure
- Newspapers
- Computer paper
- Cardboard
- Discarded food waste (not including meat, fat, dairy, and bones)
It is very important to constantly mix your compost pile. This allows the components to intertwine, heating the soil and releasing the nutrients.
A Final Word
You don’t have to settle for a substandard garden just because it is inside. Using a safe, chemical-free organic fertilizer gives you the healthy, thriving plants that you want and the safe ingredients you deserve.