Blood meal!
What is it?
WHY is it?
A 7lb resealable bag of Jobes Organics Blood Meal
Blood meal is a natural fertilizer made from the blood of slaughtered animals. In essence, it’s a byproduct meant to turn what would’ve been waste into a usable product.
While that is a rather gross image… it is natural and organic in nature. Humanity has yet to find protein sources that are acceptable for everyone and so slaughtering animals is simply part of our society. A gross one, but not one we can be rid of just yet.
So the question becomes one of trying to minimize the damage we do… the use of byproducts like blood meal, which help plants grow, is an attempt to turn a negative into a positive.
This does mean that blood meal is not vegan friendly!
Jobe’s Organics Blood meal – a dark chunky powder…
Jobe’s Organics blood meal is a chunky dark colored powder that is not fully water soluble and will clog a sprayer if you try that…
My bag doesn’t have much of a smell but I wouldn’t be surprised if yours did. It is the blood of animals which is not a uniform product… variation should occur.
Instructions are straightforward and simple.
Spread the powder out and heavily water in. You need to water it in because, while I can’t smell it, predators can. You don’t need to waste their time and confuse them by leaving animal blood everywhere.
The amount of powder you should use depends on what you’re doing and what your soil is like… for small trees you’ll need one to two cups. For big ones, you’ll need to dig a hole and measure out a quantity based on the trunk size.
Blood meal is a rather straightforward natural nitrogen rich fertilizer and as long as you’re gentle with the amounts you apply not much can go wrong.
It’s meant to be used for promoting vigorous green growth on greedy plants like corn, garlic, salad greens, and evergreen trees. Blood meal is for the nitrogen lovers in your garden!
Blood Meal Pricing…
I was lucky and got my blood meal from Wal-Mart for $7… $7 for 7 pounds so that’s $1 a pound. A 3 pound bag was selling for $5.
But currently on Amazon, a 3 pound bag is selling for $9.25. Or over $3 a pound.
And a 3lb bag of Jobes Blood Meal is selling for $6.98 at Lowes and $9.95 at Wal-Mart.
An alternative brand, Espoma, is selling a 3 pound bag on Amazon for $13.49.
Down to Earth has the most expensive blood meal of the three at $25.25 for a 5lb box. So over $5 per pound.
Ultimately if you can snag a 7lb bag of blood meal for less than $10 you’ve got yourself a good deal. A 3lb bag would be a good deal at ~ $6 or less.
An alternative to blood meal…
An alternative product to blood meal is feather meal!
It has almost the same ratio of nitrogen and just like blood meal is an animal byproduct. Feather meal is made from the feathers of slaughtered poultry.
Currently a 5lb box of feather meal is selling for $14.50 on Amazon.