Container growing of plants involves four elements, any or all of which may be 'organic' .
1. The plant material used to produce a transplant, cutting, graft or seedling.
2. The compost in which the plant is grown, including any fertilisers in the compost.
3. Slow-release solid or liquid feeds added during growing.
4. Pesticides, herbicides, fungicides etc. used to treat the plant, as top applications or compost drenches.

It is the fourth element which concerns most people who wish to buy organic edible plants, and by good husbandry and the use of organic pest control, as certified for use in the organic food industry, a container plant can be safe and organically grown, even if it can not be certified as 'organic'. However, the first three elements hold many surprises.

2. and 3. For a grower of 'organic' container grown plants, the compost used is a significant problem. Equally significant is the fertiliser applied during growing. It is worth pointing out at this stage that there are major differences between organic farming/gardening and growing an organic plant in a pot. An organic gardener traditionally feeds the soil, not the plant, this being enough to produce a healthy plant or vegetable. Growing media for containers do not start out with any fertility (other than in soil, which is prohibitively heavy and ecologically unacceptable). Fertility must be added when mixing the compost or added later or both. But what can be used, with safety?

The arguments against blitzing land with chemical fertilisers are clear and compelling. Apart from the large production industries and the ecological problems these carry with them, there are the problems of ground water pollution, soil degradation and the wide scale impact on wild plants and the beneficial insects etc. that rely upon them. These considerations are far less applicable to container grown plants, where inorganic fertiliser is 'contained' and measured to the need. This is not to say that synthetic fertilisers are desirable in the case of container plants, but they are chemically 'simple' and without toxicity in this situation. This point is made because the same cannot be said for organic fertilisers, as they apply to container plants.

The word 'organic' has many meanings and several dictionary definitions. As used by the EC and national certification bodies like the Soil Association it means 'natural' and pertaining to living organisms. Not all certification bodies (and standards) have their emphasis on soil, but the Soil Association has become pre-eminent in setting standards. The problem is that not everything natural is safe and not everything 'unnatural' is bad. The result is that natural things have been banned and unnatural things are allowed. The list of exceptions gets ever larger, and there are still many anomalies needing to be addressed. The edges are getting very blurred. One example is the use of peat. It is natural, renewable (at a dramatically lower usage), safe and unsurpassed as a growing medium yet, because it has been mined so extensively for 'fringe' purposes as well as container growing, any compost using it will not be certified organic by the Soil Association. Perversely, a compost made from shredded garden waste, collected at local tips, would be organic (and is already in several 'Organic' composts) even though the garden waste could contain huge residues of toxic garden chemicals. Organic compost has also been made from milled residues and solids from sewage farms. This comes into greater focus when considering which organic fertiliser to use in composts or for feeding during growing. Firstly, any fertiliser that is organic and not animal based is either ecologically unfriendly or is transient, being soluble and quickly washed out. Attempts have been made to promote fertilisers based on rock elements denatured by algae, but this has been unsuccessful so far. The only effective organic fertiliser is derived from animals in the widest sense. One would assume that this would come from organic animals, but this is not the case. Most organic farmers who are approved by the Soil Association, or a similar body, will need all the manure from their animals, and the vegetable compost which they can produce, to condition their land and feed their crops. So there is little 'organic' material left over to use for potting composts. Even in the case of compost to condition the land of organic farmers, the Soil Association is prepared to allow the use of "brought in manures or plant wastes from non-organic sources" as an adjunct to a soil conditioning system. There are also exceptions in the case of intensive horticultural systems - e.g. mushroom farming. The reality is that certified organic proprietary composts contain non-organic animal waste products and they are permitted in fertilisers that can be used for additional feeding.

What are these animal waste products? If you ask an organic compost maker "exactly what is the fertility element of your compost?" they will decline to reveal their 'trade secret'. If you ask the Soil Association "exactly what is permitted and under what conditions?" they will probably only tell you that the conditions will vary. We know, we have tried. MAFF has now disappeared, DEFRA do not even know who deals with these matters and the Food Standards Agency appear to have dangerously low standards.

In the past, the staple organic food was Blood, Fish, and Bone, though these were not from organic animals and the mix often contained rather more than three ingredients. Hoof and Horn was also used. Little consideration was given to the incidence of pathogens, heavy metals and diverse toxins that might be and sometimes were present. The food scares begun by B.S.E produced an initial flurry of concern and restricted the use of these fertilisers. Dried blood, which traditionally provided the nitrate, cannot be sterilised without losing its food properties, and at present it can be used as a fertiliser on agricultural land (unsterilised) provided that it is from animals fit for human consumption. The report of the Food Standards Committee recommended no change in this, though the Soil Association have now brought in new restrictions for organic growing. Many consumers are not aware of this use of animal ingredients and those that are have great concerns. As yet there is no organic compost, free of animal ingredients, which produces a healthy plant.