Hi, Ray! Thanks for reaching out for information, and sorry for the delay in responding. Osmocote is a manufactured product. It is not organic. It does not derive it's nitrogen from chicken manure -- as is the case with most 'organic' fertilizers. So, what is Osmocote and how is it made? It starts with natural gas. That's the source of the nitrogen. Other essential nutrients are added, such as iron, and in precise amounts. That way, each granule has identical measured amounts. Organic fertilizers may or may not contain other nutrients, and no two batches are the same (what did the chickens eat and how did their digestive systems process their food?). The Osmocote mixture is blended at high temperature as a liquid, pumped to the top of a tower, and blown from a nozzle in small droplets. Gravity brings the aerated drops to earth, cooling and solidifying as these descend. By the time they reach a conveyer belt at the bottom or the tower, they are homogeneous prills of perfectly spherical nutrition. A proprietary polymer coating derived from linseed oil is applied which provides the material's slow-release properties. Depending on the thickness of the coating, longevity can be as short as two months or as long as sixteen months, depending upon the individual formula. Osmocote Plus Outdoor & Indoor Plant Food is made to release for 6-months. The remarkable thing about Osmocote is that nutrient release is driven by soil temperature -- not by water -- and works osmotically. That means nutrients from the granules enter the soil at the exact same rate as nutrients are moved to the plant by its root system. Walla! No danger of over-feeding! In fact, Osmocote can be over-applied up to a factor of 3X with no danger of burning. As to the Q about using a second fertilizer with Osmocote, if intent upon doing so, we suggest using a water-soluble like Miracle-Gro. It can be applied every few weeks as part of the watering process. M-G partially feeds thru the visible plant (foliar), and will not interfere or disrupt any feeding from the Osmocote granules in the soil. Nutrients from M-G that enter the soil will merely retard the osmotic release from the Osmocote granules. Bob Stohler for Marianne Binetti. Bob is the manager of the PlantersPlace.com website.