Our Epic Market Garden Failure! High PH and Boron Toxicity in Tomatoes and Peppers
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- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
- In this video, we share our unfortunate experience with boron toxicity in our massive market garden. This new garden space at our new house was planned to grow a variety of crops for sale, but we encountered a major setback with boron toxicity. This discovery has been devastating and requires extensive work to consider using this garden space in the future.
Join us as we discuss what boron toxicity is, what we've learned about it, and how it has affected our crops, especially our peppers and chile plants. We also talk about the steps we need to take to address this issue and salvage our gardening plans.
Thanks for watching! Let us know in the comments if you've experienced boron toxicity or other soil issues and share your tips for recovery. Don’t forget to like and subscribe for more gardening updates and lessons learned. Happy gardening!
The PH is the problem not the boron.. You are not getting proper nutrient uptake in that PH range. You did the right thing with the sulfer... Just have to retest in the fall and see where you are at with the PH.. 6.4-6.8 is ideal.
Blood meal will adjust the ph itself 🎉
Thanks for the comment! We are realizing the PH is the main overall problem.
Oh man I can just imagine how you’re feeling!!! All that work. 😢 I’m so sorry you’re dealing with this!! We also got the June freeze here in SE Idaho but this year I was prepared and everything was covered. My peppers still suffered pretty badly though.
Thanks for the comment! Glad you are able to cover everything with that crazy frost!
WoW! I am feeling for you two with the bugs.
Blood meal also helps with bugs garlic and clover are great for mosquitos
Haha they were a bit annoying!
Your on the right track, irrigation and amendments to increase drainage. Sulfur to drop ph, but stick away from organics because they will increase water retention vs leaching. Hang in there
Thanks for the comment! That is exactly the direction we’ve decided to go at this point.
I suspect your only issue is PH. At that high of PH the plants can't really uptake any nutrients. Check your water, make sure you aren't watering with 8.0 PH water. I'd be curious if your testing early on in the year used the same water source as your plants are currently getting.
Thanks for this comment! We have had the well water PH tested and will post an update video soon. At this point we agree the PH is the biggest problem.
Sulfuric acid. Liquid. Dilute for quick way to drop ph rapidly. Micro nutrient is not causing this issue. Ph is problem. It’s causing a lockout of nitrogen. Phosphorus. Add elemental sulfur for slower release. Do it now. Look up commercial blue berry farmers and talk to one bout liquid acid. You want a 7-6.5 ph. U need to drop 2 points. HURRY. U CAN SAVE THE CROP Also if it was a toxicity issue. Plants loads of corn. Plant thick. Will pull toxicity from soil. Also hemp
Thanks to the info. We may plant corn here next year. We plan to use elemental sulfur, not sulfuric acid we have read sulfuric acid will have negative impacts on soil organisms. We realize it takes time for the elemental sulfur to break down and improve soil PH, but we want the end outcome to be best long term. We did add some elemental sulfur last spring so hopefully things are improving already.
this is super helpful! When I transplanted my peppers and tomatoes this year I did also notice the same things in the Missoula area.
That is a bummer! Hope they bounced back! Soil tests can tell so much.
In my opinion, gardening is not about growing plants. It’s about making your soil good better best it’s all about the soil.
Very true! We are learning more and more about that as we continue to learn about growing our own food. In the past we’ve lucked out with darn good seeming soil that was really productive. We’ve had to learn the hard way this time about making our soil good. Thanks for the comment.
Boron is not soluble in water. You can water leach it but that puts the boron deeper into the soil. You should add agricultural Sulphur to adjust your ph. This may take you a few years to get it dialed in / corrected. I guess you know your soil type if not, do a soil type test and get that corrected at the same time. I would suggest OFF for sure. Just my two cents.
Good thoughts thanks for the comment! The timeline to fix the PH is a process that will take a lot of time. It was a bummer when we discovered that (particularly after looking more into your comment so thank you!). Can you give more info or a link to the OFF you suggested?
@@MontanaMidValleyFarm OFF is a brand of insect repellent, it looked to me that you all were being eaten alive.
Thank you for sharing. It’s good to know for my gardening journey.
Thanks for the comment and glad you found it useful!
Applications of quality irrigation water and/or rainfall will leach excess boron from the soil. Soil amendments of gypsum, sulfur or lime and organic matter have also been shown to help reduce boron levels. One effective way of reducing boron levels in soils is by leaching the high-boron soil with water that is low or absent of boron! You may want to have your water tested as well! I also amend my soil with 17 different trace minerals all organic and our soil here is horrible nothing but sand and clay but adding the trace minerals helped alot now i have a lush healthy green garden thats out of control and producing! Wishing y'all the best of luck hope this info helps!
Thanks for the info! Good though on testing the well water. We just got that done! I am curious about looking into gypsum more. Thanks for the comment!
@MontanaMidValleyFarm You're welcome! Any time glad to share any information I have it's tough sometimes I learned the hard way trying different things and somethings that work for someone else may not work for you! I had a half acre with bad soil I thought I was doing the right thing adding just whatever that's not the right thing to do I killed the whole half acre overnight lost everything then I got smart took a 6 hour class with a local farm that is a world record gardener and learned alot more than I could ever imagine so now I stick to what he taught me. Hopefully you guys get it straighten out and get things growing! Happy Gardening!
We would be very interested in a similar class! That is great that you were able to gain that knowledge! I’m sorry about the loss you experience that must have been so devastating. I feel your pain regarding being careful with what is added. One time we added broken down horse manure thinking we would give the soil a good start in the spring and ended up adding a bunch of herbicide. I agree gotta be careful what you add, not everything helps!
@MontanaMidValleyFarm Absolutely if you have a larger Gardner/ farmer near by that has some knowledge they'd like to share reach out and see if they could give you any Information they have about your situation won't hurt to ask could point you in the right direction and get you back on track!
Well, the soil is hydrogen deficient. Thats the way to look at it. People will recommend sulfur but that doesnt really work and is expensive. Youll really need to increase the carbonic acid through microbial activity. Boron really wont be an issue when the microbes take over and reduce PH unless you irrigate with the ground water which of course is where the boron came from in the first place most likely. Growin cole crops or grapes can pull boron out if thats actually the issue. That ground is perfect for something...its just not tomatoes apparently. And it wont be any other low ph crop either for a while.
Thanks for the info we fill definitely look into that. We had the well water tested for boron and the levels were small.
You are probably in a drain basin with that field and was heavily irrigated with well water. Happens frequently in saline soils in arid enviroments because of mineralization left over after evaporation. Your plan for testing the water content and eliminating that water source if high, as well as leaching through soil supplementation is the typical recommended procedure.
I think you are spot on with the drain basin thought. Thanks for the comment!
@@MontanaMidValleyFarm Maybe putting in a run of drain tile from the field to the ditch would speed up leaching?
We all want to do what we want to do, when we want to do it. In your case, instead of doing what you want, why not consider doing what you must? Figure out what you can grow and grow that until your soil heals. You can grow something that will thrive and that you can make money with. I live in Florida and I've done what you are doing; tried to grow what I want, instead of what actually grows here. I've finally accepted my environment and I'm seeing success, finally, growing the things that grow here...
Good advice thanks for the comment!
Yeah dropping the ph will help with a ton of things. Add in calcium( fypsum is fairly cheap and easy to apply) and some compost will help balance things out. And foliar spray of calcium on the plants will help mitigate the toxicity may be to late for some this year but going forward calcium may be yours plants friend to help with those levels
Thanks for the info. We need to address the high PH.
I would try foliar feeding some tomatoes. Nutrients through root absorption will be poor due to ph. This could prove to you its nutrients and not boron toxicity. Miracle grow would do.
Thanks for the comment. We have come to realize the high PH is a big problem. We have been using miracle grow to help the plants uptake nutrients. Appreciate the insight.
Gardening is not for the faint of heart! Hang in there! When you do have an amazing harvest you will appreciate it so much more. Be careful of any quick fixes. Good soil takes time.
Thanks for the encouragement! I agree the reward eventually will be much more meaningful!
lol down here in NC we can’t grow okra without adding boron
😂
Wow the ph is off the charts! I thought that it might help to do a smaller garden initially, so you can tweak the inputs you need to lower ph (sulphur) as well as leach out the excess boron.
Yes the PH is! Realizing that is our main problem. Thanks for the comment!
You guys are probably familer with the chemical called Gasson not sure if that's how it is spelled but some hay farmers have used it on their hay field's , its bad for growing vegetables though , hope that's not the problem.
It is spelled Grazon.
Horrendously detrimental to gardens. Some homesteaders have lost their gardens just by putting their own manures on their organic garden and didn't know their hay feed bought in was sprayed with Grazon.
@@leoniebelcher1680that would be so disappointing! Good to know!
Good to know. The previous owners were very anti spray and were very insistent on selling the property to organic farmers. They mentioned it a few times so it was clearly important to them. I do appreciate the insight as what these plants experienced looked like it could have been caused by many things.
How disappointing! I have no experience with Boron, i hope you can fix it.
Thanks we do too and the high PH!
That's great, my friend. subscribed to new channel)
Thanks for the sub!
Blood meal = green❤
If you do a cover crop ,,I’ve tried them all and every way you can plant it ,,here is the don’t do list
Never let someone cultipacker
Don’t try anything except Austrian winter peas and that seed is only available around July august n September,,,you can not buy it any other time of the year ,,not available
If you don’t follow this advice there’s no use in me going any farther
The variety of tomato plants you choose will decide whether or not you have success
The two most productive tomato plants you can try is Carolina gold and red deuce that is if you are growing them to sell ,,so many varieties are so erratic and ugly that you can’t give them away
Add one thousand pounds of lime and the same of gypsum before you plant it again,,you said 100 by 300 ft space right ,,I hope this will help you
Thanks for the tomato variety suggestions and cover crop suggestions. This space is 100x200 feet. However, we aren’t set on keeping these crops in this plot in the future. The space planted to corn this year has a lower PH so we may move things around.
@@MontanaMidValleyFarm here in nc those winter peas stay green all winter unless the deer eat them in to the ground and they out there right now eating in my gardens lol we love them n don’t bother them.
@bobbygreen2291 we will have to look into what they will do for our soil to improve it. But definitely appreciate the info.
@@MontanaMidValleyFarm I plant 100 to 200 tomato plants each year , most times the area is disc and sown in Austrian winter peas each October,, all I know is this area grows some kind of wonderful tomatoes every year since I started planting a winter crop of peas for the deer and I can’t run them off ,,I see 25 at a time in those peas but right now July ,,,I am picking four or more bushels of ripe tomatoes a day.
When I was 23 ,,I was moving cattle on the wellborn ranch at grant Montana on a July tenth at daybreak it was snowing so hard I couldn’t see the horse I was sitting on ,,then at one pm on the same day mosquitoes were eating all the flesh off my ears and it was 91 degrees. Lol. 1977
Oh boy! Sounds like Montana! Thanks for the laugh!! 😂
@@MontanaMidValleyFarm I had a baby girl who had asthma real bad ,,they said move ,,I moved to grant for three years ,,she never had another asthma attack,even after we moved back to NC,,she is a respiratory therapist 25 years now at a hospital Frye regional in hickory NC
@bobbygreen2291 interesting, glad it helped and she’s doing better!
@@MontanaMidValleyFarm she is 45 now and gave me two beautiful grandchildren 22 and 24
@bobbygreen2291 ❤️ time sure moves on!
I wuld try tilling in some wood chips/compost blood meal and clover seed ontop 🤫🫡