Fertilizers come in many forms and all serve the same purpose. If you take alfalfa grass, chop them up and spread them on the soil, it will also works.

Well, on the bag of Alfalfa Meal that I bought at my local gardening store are the Nitrogen/Phosphorus/Potassium numbers 3-1.5-2 so I would say yes, it is, albeit a mild one.

Alfalfa around here is not sold as a fertilizer since it is an animal food, but you can buy it as a soil amendment in a few places. To be classified as a fertilizer the product needs to have the N-P-K listed as well as other things.

Melva, when folks want to argue about the finer points of gardening terms, I generally run for the dictionary. In this case, my Webster's Collegiate says that a "fertilizer" is anything that makes the soil more fertile. Ergo, alfalfa in any form is a fertilizer.

Most alfalfa meals and pellets have an N-P-K ratio of about 3-1-2 or something similar. But the actual level of the numbers, as sometimes printed on the bag, can vary from product to product over a relatively wide range. For instance, a company in Fort Worth used to sell an alfalfa meal which they claimed had more than 10% nitrogen in it.

Also, in addition to these usual plant nutrients, alfalfa also contains triacontanol, a complex alcohol that is a known growth hormone. If you want to see its effects, just scratch a cup or so of alfalfa meal into the soil around your roses and water it in well -- or drench your roses once a week with alfalfa tea, if your nose can stand the punishment.

Hi Melva! I had to laugh when I found this today. I hadn't been to this forum in a while....and I just sat back and chuckled when I read this thread! Glad we put this behind us - aren't you?? LOL!!
Jamie
ps.....I hope you are feeling a bit better! Probably too soon for that, but one can hope!!