Thanks so much for pointing this out. I use a blend of composted manure, food scrap compost, leaves, grass, potash, dry milk, bone meal, and epsom salt for my organic garden, I only side dress plants with it during the growing season but apply wood ashes and composted food scraps over the entire bed(s) during the late fall and winter. I test the soil acidity every season. I used compost only in my container garden for 2 years and found the plants required so much more than the compost could deliver, mainly because there is really not much soil in the containers as the plants root system tends to take up much of the container. Rain tends to wash out some soil over time and I am sure nutrients are lost as well. I use Miracle Gro in the containers every season with excellent results. I am now experimenting with growing without soil and using only synthetic fertilizers. I am looking forward to comparing the results to my other methods of growing.
Great analysis! I have started using more of organic Nitrogen fertilizers. When I notice yellowing of leaves or just want more lush foliage, I use Blood Meal, which works great to green up!
I'm a big believer in using our composts, animal manures, and other garden generated "waste" to keep my soil healthy. Although, I do use some commercial organic Blood & Bone, and/or seaweed tonic around a potted plant or in the garden sometimes. Getting to know my soil and garden is why I'm a successful grower (most of the time) but I'm not a guy that does soil testing be that at my peril LOL Thanks Patrick, another interesting video mate!
Thanks, Self Sufficient Me ! That sounds like a great approach, Mark. This will actually be our first professional soil test. It'll be interesting to see if we've built up nutrient surpluses despite not using commercial fertilizers.
Absolutely, Patrick! That's why when I use synthetic fertilizer, its usually one with higher nitrogen content! I am due for a soil test this year, and I recommend that everyone do that in some form. I have a soil test kit that works well for NPK, but it's time tor a more comprehensive test this year, which means a trip to the county extension office! Great video!
great video! I have used the soil testing service through the University of Missouri many times to access my soil conditions on the farm, garden and lawn. these tests and their samples are easy to prepare, mail in and the results are usually quite elaborate. I have found that, when I manage for what I want to see, as the saying goes, I get good results. feed the soil for the crops you are or will be sowing and you will receive back plenty. PEACE
Thanks for that tip and information on fertilizers. I've been using a few in my indoor garden, but trying to do a little more of natural companion gardening indoors as well. I just purchased a soil test kit and will do some testing of my soil. Didn't know that nitrogen depleted so quickly.
Thanks for sharing this knowledge with us Patrick. Each year I say I am going to send samples from my garden to the Maine University to see what I have, or lacking from my 30X30 garden spot and the 2 raised beds. Hopefully this will be the year. Blessings.
Thanks for the video Patrick! I found it to be very informative. I guess that it's a good idea to add a slow-release nitrogen source, like used coffee grounds, to a compost/soil mix, and to go easy on the inorganic fertilizers, if you use them at all. I suppose that it may also depend on how much rainfall a garden receives during the growing season too. Gardens that receive a lot of rainfall probably don't have as much of a problem with phosphorus and potassium build-up as gardens that receive less rainfall.
excellent episode my friend! surplus can have a lot of implication on the nutrient cycle and plant growth! I am going to have to take a look at my soil analysis and see what I do and do not have enough of. I believe at least until evidence suggests otherwise that slow and steady organic additions are the way to go!
Yeah the good ol KISS method seems to keep crawling back up like a zombie out of a tomb. the old method has proven to be the most effective (even the lasagna method) but not on a commercial scale as we need to mass produce in a hurry to feed the growing global population. for general family usage and farming, urban organic gardening is the only way to go but there again hydroponics seems to sound like an logical solution (expensive) as i feel that plants don't really know the difference between organic and inorganic nutrients and the production is amazing and DELICIOUS! but the free resources that surround us is too good to ignore and waste
tolga erok I really think these methods could feed the planet, but it would take radical change in commercial farming and more people would have to grow their own food. That said, I'd be very happy just to see more people grow their own food and have access to organic food from local farms.
Interesting info! I noticed in a friends soil test this past fall that they had extremely low on nitrogen and a few other elements but everything else was within a decent range. They really didn't have a good indication of this from the plants, but I guess we'll see next year after adding amendments. I don't think I've seen a before/after on here for anyone making adjustments based on a soil test.
I love your videos and there are so informative. my greenhouse class will be doing a mycorrhizae fungi experiment in the spring and we are going to look at multiple things including excessive fertilizer use, minimal use, and no fertilizer. We were going to use a 20-20-20 fertilizer, but after watching this video I might recommend to my professor that we do a side experiment and use a 5-1-2 fertilizer. After the experiment is done, we could compare which one has more mycorrhizal growth
Thanks, Ranbir Sandhu ! That sounds like a great experiment! Please keep me posted on the results. Also, feel free to post updates on the experiment on the Home Garden Field Trials g+ page: plus.google.com/u/0/b/103187007100189514101/communities/112003872175936735513?pageId=103187007100189514101
Very good video I wish the would make the gardening center at Home Depot watch your videos, I mentioned this to them and they thought I was full of it. Anything you put on the ground repetitiously will build up no matter what it is. thumbs up on this one.
Yes sir! When I was much much younger I worked in a nursery with a man retired from the State extension office. I swear if this man touched gold it would have turned into an eggplant. He always told people that a higher nitrogen but lower phosphorous and potassium was the better way to go. The last 2 years I've used no fertilizer at all except nettle tea and compost. I've had good results except for the odd weather we've had. I am now absolutely convinced that commercial fertilizers are unnecessary for the home gardener if planned well and if small scale farmers will change habits and practices they can also do away with it or at least most of it.
I'm glad to hear that this is consistent with your experience and with your friend's advice! Our garden has only gotten better since we stopped using store-bought fertilizer.
All good advise. I would recommend the Haney test though. That is a new much better soil test that better evaluates what nutrients in the soil are available and will be made available throughout the growing season from biological activity in the soil.
Thank you for the informative video. Learned something new from it. Are you still going to do compost tea trials in both poor and rich soils? keep up the great work.
You're very welcome, tolga erok ! I'm glad you found the video informative. I plan to do a compost tea trial this summer. *****, are you planning a poor soil compost tea trial?
I quit using man-made fertilizers in the veg garden several years ago. I've never been curious enough to do a soil test, thinking I could do well enough by just using self-made compost along with grass and leaf mulches. You seem to confirm my practices. I would like to add wood mulches this year, and may experiment with diluted urine and compost tea as liquid fertilizers. It's interesting how my practices have changed as I've learned how to "farm the soil" as opposed to just growing veggies. It's a process, a change, an education. Thanks for the lesson.
You're very welcome, Brian! We've found compost, vermicompost, mulch, and compost tea provide more than enough nutrients for a great garden. I'm even thinking of phasing out compost tea to see if there's any noticeable difference after it's discontinued.
OneYardRevolution | Frugal & Sustainable Organic Gardening Patrick, if you do phase out the compost tea I hope you'll do a video on the results and your reasoning for the phase-out. About compost: my garden is situated on the edge of an overgrown field and directly beneath high-tension utility power lines. There is a lot of bird's foot trefoil growing nearby and I've been thinking of harvesting it as another compost ingredient. It's in the pea(legume) family and high in nitrogen. I already have a surplus of leaves(carbon) ready to go. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_corniculatus Bird's foot trefoil.
Brian White Hi Brian. I'll be doing a compost tea field trial this spring/summer to see if there are any noticeable benefits. I'll set up 2 beds with the same crops. One will get weekly compost tea applications. The other won't. Other participants are welcome to join the trial as well. I've been continually simplifying my methods over the course of several years, eliminating a number of products along the way. Now I'm going to see if I can even further simplify my methods and still get great results. The bird's foot trefoil sounds like good stuff. If you pull it up from the roots, you'll get the nitrogen nodules on the roots.
OneYardRevolution | Frugal & Sustainable Organic Gardening Can't blame you for wanting to pare down some of your practices. If we adopt every new gardening tip/trick we hear about we could come to see our gardens as too much work. Based on your other sound inputs; compost, worm castings, mulch, I believe your soil is in great shape without the tea. I now think that I'll just do a diluted urine trial and leave the tea trial to you. I'm thinking chard, kale and corn for the trial. Good point about the root nodules on the trefoil but I'll leave them in the ground. Trefoil can withstand repeated cuttings, much like grass and clover.
Now, I do not feel guilty about not fertilizing the dirt portion of my garden. Other than adding some Epson salt and top dressing my tomatoes with eggshells, I do not add much to the garden.
Good info. I rarely fertilize and I've never had my soil tested. Guess I'm kinda lazy that way :-).. You're right to build up the soil and it will give back. No need to buy nutrients when there is so much available for free.
Thanks for the video, very informative. I have started looking at the nutrient percentages in different fertilisers. I am now realising how very important it is to good plant growth. I do compost every bit of free organic matter I can get hold of. But must admit I have been a bit tempted by the "dark side" (mineral fertilisers) lately. Just wondering if you have an opinion of the Mittleider method. They seem to use a weekly feeding mixture based on 13-13-13 or 16-16-16 fertiliser. It seems like a version of hydroponics to me. But the results they show appear to be very good.
Hi George. We never add store-bought NPK fertilizer to the garden. Free compost, vermicompost, and mulch provide all the nutrients needed. The Mittleider Method will work, but it's not for me.
Nice video. The lecture format is engaging. Maybe add a podium? Jk. I added an organic fertilizer for the first time ever this past summer. I've never used anything but compost and worm castings for 12 years. I did it as a test in my tomato bed. I will say that I had my best year ever for tomatoes, though it was also a very long and warm summer. (Well, "long and warm" by Pacific Northwest standards) And I also might have given the tomatoes more attention than in the past BECAUSE they were a test bed. I used a name brand organics that is 5-0-3. It also contains microorganisms to allegedly build soil. I'd love to hear more about soil tests. You mention consumer-grade tests and give the impression you don't think much of them. Do you send yours off?
Thanks, Zerkbern ! It would be funny to see me talking behind a podium, especially out in the garden. ;-) Perhaps your tomatoes needed a little more nitrogen and the fertilizer made the difference. I see that the fertilizer didn't contain any phosphate. We're going to send a soil sample to a lab affiliated with the University of Illinois agricultural extension. My understanding is that, in general, it's hard to get a good reading on available nitrogen levels because nitrogen can be very transient in the soil.
I'd rather have a crack at fixing my soil using compost, compost tea, mulch and other organics. One of the reasons I turned away from commercial farms is their over-reliance on fertilisers. That stuff will kill a waterway or great barrier reef as quick as look at it.
Yes, it binds to some extent, which is a good thing because otherwise it would move through the soil very quickly. Fortunately, it's not bound so tight that plants don't have access to it. Garden mythbuster Robert Pavlis discusses this topic at 19:00 in this podcast: tovasgarden.com/garden-myths/
A balanced fertilizer will unbalance the soil. Never thought of that? I don't use fertilizer on my soil these days but use compose and manures. I do use chemical fertilizers in my hydroponic systems but empty them weekly before I add new nutrients or that would do the same thing based on the plants use of the old solution. Chuck
OneYardRevolution | Frugal & Sustainable Organic Gardening I could tell by your nails on one hand, several videos ago (and commented) and suspected it was you playing. It's really excellent, you play very nicely and it's quite soothing. Love it! Do you sell albums?
Thanks so much for pointing this out.
I use a blend of composted manure, food scrap compost, leaves, grass, potash, dry milk, bone meal, and epsom salt for my organic garden, I only side dress plants with it during the growing season but apply wood ashes and composted food scraps over the entire bed(s) during the late fall and winter. I test the soil acidity every season.
I used compost only in my container garden for 2 years and found the plants required so much more than the compost could deliver, mainly because there is really not much soil in the containers as the plants root system tends to take up much of the container. Rain tends to wash out some soil over time and I am sure nutrients are lost as well. I use Miracle Gro in the containers every season with excellent results. I am now experimenting with growing without soil and using only synthetic fertilizers. I am looking forward to comparing the results to my other methods of growing.
You're welcome, Donna. I look forward to seeing the results from your different growing methods.
Great analysis! I have started using more of organic Nitrogen fertilizers. When I notice yellowing of leaves or just want more lush foliage, I use Blood Meal, which works great to green up!
Thanks, California Gardening !
I'm a big believer in using our composts, animal manures, and other garden generated "waste" to keep my soil healthy. Although, I do use some commercial organic Blood & Bone, and/or seaweed tonic around a potted plant or in the garden sometimes. Getting to know my soil and garden is why I'm a successful grower (most of the time) but I'm not a guy that does soil testing be that at my peril LOL Thanks Patrick, another interesting video mate!
Thanks, Self Sufficient Me ! That sounds like a great approach, Mark. This will actually be our first professional soil test. It'll be interesting to see if we've built up nutrient surpluses despite not using commercial fertilizers.
Great video Patrick! Useful to know about all of that and can't wait to see your soil results in the spring, thanks for sharing
FIRST;)
HuwsNursery - Grow Organic Produce Inexpensively Thanks, Huw!
Absolutely, Patrick! That's why when I use synthetic fertilizer, its usually one with higher nitrogen content! I am due for a soil test this year, and I recommend that everyone do that in some form. I have a soil test kit that works well for NPK, but it's time tor a more comprehensive test this year, which means a trip to the county extension office! Great video!
Thanks, Keith! This will be our first lab test, so I'm curious to see the results.
Thanks for a great video explaining the true nature of fertilizers and how it affects our gardening. Looking forward this year to your garden trials!
Thanks, Sheri Fischer !
great video! I have used the soil testing service through the University of Missouri many times to access my soil conditions on the farm, garden and lawn. these tests and their samples are easy to prepare, mail in and the results are usually quite elaborate. I have found that, when I manage for what I want to see, as the saying goes, I get good results. feed the soil for the crops you are or will be sowing and you will receive back plenty. PEACE
Thanks, 1mtstewart ! That's great advice!
Another great video! Soil testing is the way to go if you want to know the nutrient levels of your soil.
Thanks, OhHowHappyGardener ! I couldn't agree more about soil tests.
Thanks for that tip and information on fertilizers. I've been using a few in my indoor garden, but trying to do a little more of natural companion gardening indoors as well. I just purchased a soil test kit and will do some testing of my soil. Didn't know that nitrogen depleted so quickly.
You're welcome, lovers4healthylife !
This is exactly what I found regarding "balanced" fertilizers. Good info.
Thanks, Cate's Garden !
Thanks for sharing this knowledge with us Patrick. Each year I say I am going to send samples from my garden to the Maine University to see what I have, or lacking from my 30X30 garden spot and the 2 raised beds. Hopefully this will be the year.
Blessings.
You're welcome, Jim! This will actually be our first professional soil test. It'll be interesting to see the results!
Me also, my friend OneYardRevolution | Frugal & Sustainable Organic Gardening
So anxious to get in the dirt.
Blessings
yeah Graphics! And great point with soil testing (I should make a greater effort to investigate that. :-)
Thanks, Siloé!
Thanks for the Balanced Fertilizer lesson! Always love your videos! Great information...
You're welcome, Eco Oasis ! Thanks for watching!
Nice one Patrick.. Can't really beat manure & compost for cost or nutrient content ;-)
Thanks, Rob! I couldn't agree more!
that fresh food you're eating keeps you looking good my friend.
Thanks, High Desert Garden !
Thanks for the video Patrick! I found it to be very informative.
I guess that it's a good idea to add a slow-release nitrogen source, like used coffee grounds, to a compost/soil mix, and to go easy on the inorganic fertilizers, if you use them at all. I suppose that it may also depend on how much rainfall a garden receives during the growing season too. Gardens that receive a lot of rainfall probably don't have as much of a problem with phosphorus and potassium build-up as gardens that receive less rainfall.
Thanks, Cryptopolis ! I agree. There are a number of factors that will have an impact, including rain and soil type. Thanks for watching!
excellent episode my friend! surplus can have a lot of implication on the nutrient cycle and plant growth! I am going to have to take a look at my soil analysis and see what I do and do not have enough of. I believe at least until evidence suggests otherwise that slow and steady organic additions are the way to go!
***** Thanks, Stephen! Yeah, I think slowly adding organic matter to the soil surface will provide more than enough nutrients.
This ties nicely into your how much is too much compost clip!
Yeah the good ol KISS method seems to keep crawling back up like a zombie out of a tomb. the old method has proven to be the most effective (even the lasagna method) but not on a commercial scale as we need to mass produce in a hurry to feed the growing global population.
for general family usage and farming, urban organic gardening is the only way to go but there again hydroponics seems to sound like an logical solution (expensive) as i feel that plants don't really know the difference between organic and inorganic nutrients and the production is amazing and DELICIOUS! but the free resources that surround us is too good to ignore and waste
tolga erok I really think these methods could feed the planet, but it would take radical change in commercial farming and more people would have to grow their own food. That said, I'd be very happy just to see more people grow their own food and have access to organic food from local farms.
Interesting info! I noticed in a friends soil test this past fall that they had extremely low on nitrogen and a few other elements but everything else was within a decent range. They really didn't have a good indication of this from the plants, but I guess we'll see next year after adding amendments. I don't think I've seen a before/after on here for anyone making adjustments based on a soil test.
Thanks, MrChipGardener ! Most soil tests don't give a good indication of nitrogen levels, so it's possible your friend's garden actually had enough.
good info - We are beefing up the garden this year with more plants so this was helpful. - Ruthie
Thanks, Ruthie!
I love your videos and there are so informative. my greenhouse class will be doing a mycorrhizae fungi experiment in the spring and we are going to look at multiple things including excessive fertilizer use, minimal use, and no fertilizer. We were going to use a 20-20-20 fertilizer, but after watching this video I might recommend to my professor that we do a side experiment and use a 5-1-2 fertilizer. After the experiment is done, we could compare which one has more mycorrhizal growth
Thanks, Ranbir Sandhu ! That sounds like a great experiment! Please keep me posted on the results. Also, feel free to post updates on the experiment on the Home Garden Field Trials g+ page: plus.google.com/u/0/b/103187007100189514101/communities/112003872175936735513?pageId=103187007100189514101
Very good video I wish the would make the gardening center at Home Depot watch your videos, I mentioned this to them
and they thought I was full of it. Anything you put on the ground repetitiously will build up no matter what it is.
thumbs up on this one.
Thanks, MrMac5150 ! I don't think Home Depot would appreciate my advice to stop buying their products and use free resources instead! :D
OneYardRevolution | Frugal & Sustainable Organic Gardening True, I guess they are all about selling, only.
Yes sir! When I was much much younger I worked in a nursery with a man retired from the State extension office. I swear if this man touched gold it would have turned into an eggplant. He always told people that a higher nitrogen but lower phosphorous and potassium was the better way to go. The last 2 years I've used no fertilizer at all except nettle tea and compost. I've had good results except for the odd weather we've had. I am now absolutely convinced that commercial fertilizers are unnecessary for the home gardener if planned well and if small scale farmers will change habits and practices they can also do away with it or at least most of it.
I'm glad to hear that this is consistent with your experience and with your friend's advice! Our garden has only gotten better since we stopped using store-bought fertilizer.
All good advise. I would recommend the Haney test though. That is a new much better soil test that better evaluates what nutrients in the soil are available and will be made available throughout the growing season from biological activity in the soil.
Thanks, Red Baron Farm ! I'll look into the Haney test.
OneYardRevolution | Frugal & Sustainable Organic Gardening Always good videos for me!
Thanks,Efren Chen !
Thank you for the informative video. Learned something new from it. Are you still going to do compost tea trials in both poor and rich soils?
keep up the great work.
You're very welcome, tolga erok ! I'm glad you found the video informative. I plan to do a compost tea trial this summer. *****, are you planning a poor soil compost tea trial?
Thanks for this important information.I thought there might be some pictures(examples)but nonetheless,got the message.Thanks again.
You're welcome, ***** !
I quit using man-made fertilizers in the veg garden several years ago. I've never been curious enough to do a soil test, thinking I could do well enough by just using self-made compost along with grass and leaf mulches. You seem to confirm my practices. I would like to add wood mulches this year, and may experiment with diluted urine and compost tea as liquid fertilizers. It's interesting how my practices have changed as I've learned how to "farm the soil" as opposed to just growing veggies. It's a process, a change, an education. Thanks for the lesson.
You're very welcome, Brian! We've found compost, vermicompost, mulch, and compost tea provide more than enough nutrients for a great garden. I'm even thinking of phasing out compost tea to see if there's any noticeable difference after it's discontinued.
OneYardRevolution | Frugal & Sustainable Organic Gardening Patrick, if you do phase out the compost tea I hope you'll do a video on the results and your reasoning for the phase-out. About compost: my garden is situated on the edge of an overgrown field and directly beneath high-tension utility power lines. There is a lot of bird's foot trefoil growing nearby and I've been thinking of harvesting it as another compost ingredient. It's in the pea(legume) family and high in nitrogen. I already have a surplus of leaves(carbon) ready to go. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_corniculatus Bird's foot trefoil.
Brian White Hi Brian. I'll be doing a compost tea field trial this spring/summer to see if there are any noticeable benefits. I'll set up 2 beds with the same crops. One will get weekly compost tea applications. The other won't. Other participants are welcome to join the trial as well.
I've been continually simplifying my methods over the course of several years, eliminating a number of products along the way. Now I'm going to see if I can even further simplify my methods and still get great results.
The bird's foot trefoil sounds like good stuff. If you pull it up from the roots, you'll get the nitrogen nodules on the roots.
OneYardRevolution | Frugal & Sustainable Organic Gardening Can't blame you for wanting to pare down some of your practices. If we adopt every new gardening tip/trick we hear about we could come to see our gardens as too much work. Based on your other sound inputs; compost, worm castings, mulch, I believe your soil is in great shape without the tea. I now think that I'll just do a diluted urine trial and leave the tea trial to you. I'm thinking chard, kale and corn for the trial. Good point about the root nodules on the trefoil but I'll leave them in the ground. Trefoil can withstand repeated cuttings, much like grass and clover.
Now, I do not feel guilty about not fertilizing the dirt portion of my garden. Other than adding some Epson salt and top dressing my tomatoes with eggshells, I do not add much to the garden.
dakotabob10 No reason to feel guilty at all, Bob. With the results you got, it's clear that the plants were getting what they needed.
OneYardRevolution | Frugal & Sustainable Organic Gardening Thanks Patrick!
Good info. I rarely fertilize and I've never had my soil tested. Guess I'm kinda lazy that way :-).. You're right to build up the soil and it will give back. No need to buy nutrients when there is so much available for free.
Thanks, Grow Your Heirlooms ! I'm glad to hear you've had great results with minimal fertilizer too!
Thanks for the video, very informative.
I have started looking at the nutrient percentages in different fertilisers.
I am now realising how very important it is to good plant growth.
I do compost every bit of free organic matter I can get hold of.
But must admit I have been a bit tempted by the "dark side" (mineral fertilisers) lately.
Just wondering if you have an opinion of the Mittleider method.
They seem to use a weekly feeding mixture based on 13-13-13 or 16-16-16 fertiliser.
It seems like a version of hydroponics to me.
But the results they show appear to be very good.
Hi George. We never add store-bought NPK fertilizer to the garden. Free compost, vermicompost, and mulch provide all the nutrients needed. The Mittleider Method will work, but it's not for me.
Nice video. The lecture format is engaging. Maybe add a podium? Jk.
I added an organic fertilizer for the first time ever this past summer. I've never used anything but compost and worm castings for 12 years. I did it as a test in my tomato bed. I will say that I had my best year ever for tomatoes, though it was also a very long and warm summer. (Well, "long and warm" by Pacific Northwest standards) And I also might have given the tomatoes more attention than in the past BECAUSE they were a test bed.
I used a name brand organics that is 5-0-3. It also contains microorganisms to allegedly build soil.
I'd love to hear more about soil tests. You mention consumer-grade tests and give the impression you don't think much of them. Do you send yours off?
Thanks, Zerkbern ! It would be funny to see me talking behind a podium, especially out in the garden. ;-)
Perhaps your tomatoes needed a little more nitrogen and the fertilizer made the difference. I see that the fertilizer didn't contain any phosphate.
We're going to send a soil sample to a lab affiliated with the University of Illinois agricultural extension. My understanding is that, in general, it's hard to get a good reading on available nitrogen levels because nitrogen can be very transient in the soil.
*All very good information **OneYardRevolution | Frugal & Sustainable Organic Gardening**. Thank you for doing this video, and sharing!*
Thanks, ***** !
Thanks for the tip
You're welcome, David D !
Most informative. I learned something new. Thanks
Great information
good advice, thank you
You're welcome, DonnaldaSmolens !
I'd rather have a crack at fixing my soil using compost, compost tea, mulch and other organics. One of the reasons I turned away from commercial farms is their over-reliance on fertilisers. That stuff will kill a waterway or great barrier reef as quick as look at it.
I couldn't agree more, Andy!
Fantastic information thank you=)
Thanks, Lehua Lani !
But doesnt phosphorus/potash bind to the soil and become unavailable to the plant?
Yes, it binds to some extent, which is a good thing because otherwise it would move through the soil very quickly. Fortunately, it's not bound so tight that plants don't have access to it. Garden mythbuster Robert Pavlis discusses this topic at 19:00 in this podcast: tovasgarden.com/garden-myths/
Very good to know. Maybe this is why chicken poop works so well.
Thanks, High Desert Garden ! Yeah, chicken poo is good stuff!
A balanced fertilizer will unbalance the soil. Never thought of that? I don't use fertilizer on my soil these days but use compose and manures. I do use chemical fertilizers in my hydroponic systems but empty them weekly before I add new nutrients or that would do the same thing based on the plants use of the old solution.
Chuck
Interesting. Yeah, hydroponics definitely has different requirements than growing in the soil. Thanks for watching, Chuck!
Is that you playing the guitar at the end? 😎
my2cents0 Yeah, that's me!
OneYardRevolution | Frugal & Sustainable Organic Gardening
I could tell by your nails on one hand, several videos ago (and commented) and suspected it was you playing. It's really excellent, you play very nicely and it's quite soothing. Love it! Do you sell albums?
Thought so, I saw the Taylor shirt in a previous video which is also what I play. 👍😎
my2cents0 Yeah, my wife has made a tradition of giving me Taylor t-shirts and hats for my birthday!
Thanks, Julianna HM ! I've played on other people's albums but haven't done one of my own yet. I hope to one day, though.
Why u always say baylans