Even with a heavy dose of
proper composting, many factors can lead to your plants becoming
deficient in valuable nutrients. Too much rain could wash away valuable
nitrogen, and not enough rain, well, could lead to a whole lot of other
problems.
Here are some popular signs that you should be looking out for in your vegetable garden, their causes, and potential solutions.
Are the leaves on your vegetable plants light green to yellow? Does the
growth of your plant seem stunted? Chances are your soil lacks
nitrogen and/or sulfur. A good quick fix is adding blood meal or fish emulsion.
Speaking of the leaves, are they red or purple when they are supposed to
be green? Looks like your soil is low on Phosphorous. Add some bonemeal or rock phosphate to your soil.
If your vegetable plants are producing fruits have you noticed if they
are too small or production seems to be slow? Your soil may lack
magnesium or potassium. Greensand, Epsom salt, wood ash or seaweed are
all helpful answers.
A lot of the same symptoms noted above will appear for the lack of other
nutrients such as iron, copper, and manganese. You should get a soil
reading if you starting seeing a lot of issues. Your local co-op can do
this for you or they sell home kits where you can test the soil yourself.
I would love to include this information in a book i'm writing for very beginnger gardeners to garden with kids. Would that be okay with you?
ReplyDeleteyes that is ok
ReplyDeleteThank you so much! I am a beginning gardener and I have a home day care. I'm gardening with my kids and I'm writing about it to teach other people that they can do it too. I needed some additional information on fertilizing and I know very little about it. The language you use is so easy to understand and follow. I mixed up my epsom salts and water today and the kids sprayed all of our tomatoes and peppers. We are having some of these problems and didn't know what to do. I've learned so much from your blog. Thank you so much!
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