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fertilizer/amendments - how quickly they affect soil
First time gardener (beyond a few greeny house plants)
My question is how readily available are the fertilizing components in stuff like composted manure, blood meal, bone meal, aluminum sulfate, triple phosphates, liquid seaweed? Do they need to be broken down some before plants will really accept them. I'm sure with liquid fertilizers they are ready to be absorbed becuase over time they risk being washed away. But stronger stuff like the aluminum sulfates and triple phosphates...how long before they get working? How long before ph changes (from aluminum sulfate) show up? Two of the four transplants have some yellowing. Two low lying parsley branches have yellowed. This happened on another in rich soil when it got damaged--which might be the case here. The rest of it is okay so far. The other is some chives and the bottom are yellowing. I may not have hardened it enough, maybe I shock it too much tranplanting. I'm just worried the yellow is from lack of nitrogen or too alkaline soil or both. Here's what I've done up to now... My landlord is letting me use a 12'x6'plot near my patio for gardening. The soil seemed pretty bad. For the last two year it always looked dry and sandy and at most only a few weeds would pop up. I did a soil test on the original sandy stuff (from about six inches down). Ph of 8, no nitrogen registered, very-very low Phosphurous and heavy potash. to amend the soil I dug out the top 18" (12" along the front where a drainage pipe ran through the ground). I got rid of the lowest clay stuff. I added about 5-6 cu.ft. of peat moss, composted manure, humus and vermiculite (amending heavier on the higher soil). I probably kept about 9-11 cu.ft of original dirt. I also got rid of about 1 cu.ft of rocks and pebbles. Looking back I think I should have probably amended it more. I did another test. Ph was down a little, Nitrogen still didn't really show up, phosphurus was at low level(better) and potassium still heavy. I then focused on the top six inches, adding a mix of different fertilizers. My readings say that a variety of fertilizing components may amend the soil better that just one type. I used Blood meal, bone meal, triple phosphate and aluminum sulfate. The last two I went a little easy on because they are the strongest and the phosphate is less of an issue. I watered my seeds and transplants with rainwater (collected in a tub below the roof runoff) with a drop of liquid seaweed (a little weaker than recommended). I'm going to do another test by sunday or monday...I'll be digging to plant tomatoes and peppers. If nitrogen is still low does that mean I just need to wait for the fertilizers to break down and work? I wondered if there is any condition that would cause such an absence of nitrogen. I assumed it was just the lack of dead plant materials in the soil. Of the 15 cu ft I unearthed, I saw only 5 earthworms. I did bust two cocoons (1.5" long, gooey inside) of who knows with the shovel. I dug up absolutely no roots, and outside of the top inch or two, no twigs or anything plantlike. With the exception of a few seed types, most have broken ground. Top growth is not noticeable, but we've had such dreary weather the last week+ it may just be due to lack of sun. DiGiTAL_ViNYL (no email) |
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