Figure 15-5: A fertilizer bag is labeled with nutrient content.
For example, a 5-10-5 fertilizer contains 5 percent nitrogen, 10 percent phosphate, and 5 percent potash, and it's called a complete fertilizer because it contains some of each type of nutrient. In contrast, bone meal has an analysis of 4-12-0. It's a good source of phosphate but doesn't provide any potash. The other materials in a commercial fertilizer that the analysis numbers don't account for are generally filler — unimportant materials that add bulk to the bag so the fertilizer is easier to spread.
How much fertilizer do you use? Soil tests are the best way to correct deficiencies (see Chapter 14 for details), but fertilizer bags also give general dosage recommendations for gardens. Most fertilizer recommendations for maintenance fertilization (rather than to correct a deficiency) are made according to how much nitrogen a crop needs. So, for example, if you have a recommendation for 3 pounds of 5-10-10 fertilizer per 100 square feet, but the fertilizer that you have on hand is 5-5-5 fertilizer, apply 3 pounds of 5-5-5. Even though the 5-5-5 fertilizer's percentage of phosphate and potash is less than that of the 5-10-10, it offers the same recommended amount of nitrogen.
Choosing a fertilizer
Most home gardeners can grow a perfectly beautiful and productive garden using organic principles. In the last 20 years, an explosion of organic products (such as fertilizers) has hit the market, making gardening with this method much more accessible. I choose to garden with organic fertilizers, and I explain why in this section; I also warn you of the dangers of chemical fertilizers.
Organic fertilizers
Organic fertilizers — animal and green manure, blood meal, fish emulsion, cottonseed meal, granite dust, and rock phosphate — have several advantages:
Many organic fertilizers contribute organic matter to your soil, improving its structure, feeding soil microbes, fighting fungal and bacterial diseases, and contributing micronutrients.
Most organic fertilizers supply a slow but steady diet for plants.
Some organic fertilizers, such as manure and compost, may be inexpensive — or free if you create them yourself.
Complete organic fertilizers, such as 5-5-5, are now more widely available and have higher concentrations of nutrients than in the past, making them easy-to-use alternatives to chemical fertilizers.
However, it's not all sun and roses when using organic fertilizers. Here are some disadvantages:
Some organic fertilizers, such as manures and compost, are bulky and difficult to store and transport.
Their slow release of nutrients, in some cases dependent on the action of soil microorganisms, may take too long to remedy a dire situation when an adequate nutrient supply is needed.
Many organic fertilizers are lower in nutrient content than their chemical equivalents, and the contents may vary depending on the weather and conditions where the fertilizers were produced. So you may not be exactly sure how much to put on your garden.
Chemical fertilizers
Chemical fertilizers are synthetically manufactured. They include elements such as sodium nitrate, potassium chloride, and superphosphate. Chemical fertilizers come in liquid, granular, powder, or pellet form. You can fertilize when you water with a watering can, using a liquid fertilizer. Or you can sprinkle some granular fertilizer around each plant.
Chemical fertilizers are widely available, less expensive than organic fertilizers, quick acting, and easy to use, but I believe that the disadvantages of using chemical fertilizers far outweigh the advantages. Here's why:
Chemical fertilizers add no organic matter to your soil and contribute nothing to improving soil structure. In fact, some research suggests that chemical fertilizers actually harm the microorganisms in the soil, making the soil less able to support long-term plant growth.
Chemical fertilizers are concentrated and fast acting, but they have no long-term benefits for your soil. It's like taking a vitamin for your health versus eating a good meal.
Manufacturing chemical fertilizers requires large amounts of energy, usually supplied by nonrenewable resources. This massive use of energy increases pollution, global warming, and our carbon footprint. Even though some commercial organic fertilizers, such as rock phosphate and green sand, also are manufactured and require energy inputs, home gardeners can instead choose to use locally made compost and manures to get the nutrients they need for their gardens.
Side-dressing
Depending on the crops you grow and the type of soil you have, you may need to add repeat doses of fertilizer throughout the growing season — a practice called side-dressing. For example, because sandy soils don't hold nutrients well, giving plants small, regular fertilizer applications ensures a steady supply of nutrients.
In the following sections, I describe specific fertilizers and methods that are best for side-dressing and explain how frequently you should side-dress your veggies. For information on fertilizing vegetables growing in containers, see Chapter 18.
Fertilizers and techniques that work well for side-dressing
Granular organic fertilizers, such as 5-5-5, are a good choice for side-dressing most root and fruiting crops. Use 1 to 2 tablespoons per plant, or 1 to 2 pounds for every 25 feet in a row.
Depending on plant spacing, side-dress either in a narrow furrow down a row or around each individual plant (refer to Figure 15-6). In either case, spread granular fertilizer (which is easier to use than liquid fertilizer) at least 6 to 8 inches away from plant stems. Rake the fertilizer into the soil and then water.
Figure 15-6: Ways to fertilize vegetable plants.
For leafy green crops, fish emulsion is a quick-acting, highly soluble organic source of nitrogen that gives your greens a boost, especially if they're turning a pale green color. You can add micronutrients to this fertilizer by mixing it with seaweed. Add this liquid fertilizer to your watering can following the directions on the label. As you water, pour this solution around the bases of the plants and on the leaves.
Knowing when to side-dress
Too much fertilizer can be more harmful than too little. Excess fertilizer accumulates in the soil in the form of salts and damages plant roots. So be sure that growing conditions enable plants to use the fertilizer that you apply. For example, don't add fertilizer during a dry spell if you can't irrigate your garden, because without adequate soil moisture, roots can't take up nutrients. And if cool weather causes your plants to grow slowly and need less fertilizer, go easy on the fertilizer until the temperature warms up or you'll be wasting it.
The kind of plants that you grow makes a difference in how often you side-dress. Plants that take a long time to mature (such as tomatoes and eggplants) and heavy feeders (like corn) generally benefit more from side-dressing than quick-maturing crops that fix their own nitrogen — such as lettuce, or legumes like peas and beans. See Table 15-2 for some general side-dressing guidelines.
Proceed carefully: Using wood ashes as a fertilizer
Wood ashes are a source of potash and phosphate, although the exact amounts of these nutrients depend on the type of wood burned (hardwoods generally contain more nutrients than softwoods), the degree of combustion, and where the wood was stored (for example, dry storage prevents nutrient leaching). A general analysis is usually in the range of 0 percent nitrogen, 1 to 2 percent phosphate, and 4 to 10 percent potash. But the major benefit of wood ashes is as a liming agent to raise the pH of the soil. Naturally, if you live in an area where soils are alkaline, don't use wood ashes as a soil amendment; they raise the pH even higher.
Apply wood ashes to your soil in moderation (no more than 10 to 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet of garden) because they may contain small amounts of heavy metals, such as cadmium and copper. Remember: These metals build up in plants if you add too much wood ash to the soil and can kill the plants — or harm you if you eat lots of those plants.
Give 'Em Something to Lean On: Supporting Your Vegetables
Some vegetables, like peas and beans,
have climbing habits that require some type of support to grow on. Other vegetables — including tomatoes, cucumbers, and even melons — have sprawling habits that benefit from some type of staking or support. Staking plants, tying them to a trellis, or growing them inside wire cylinders reduces disease problems because it allows for better air circulation and keeps the fruits off the ground where they may be attacked by bugs or become sunburned. (Fruit skins get sunburned due to sudden exposure to strong sun and eventually rot.) Supported plants also are easier to harvest and require less space to grow (they go up instead of out).
Figure 15-7 shows some techniques for supporting vegetables, but you can find more in Chapter 16. In the following sections, I provide some suggestions for supporting different types of vegetables.
Beans and peas
Twining or clinging plants like beans and peas grow best when they're supported by some type of string trellis. I like to use an A-frame string trellis, which enables me to grow plants on both sides, but single poles are fine, too. Making an A-frame string trellis is easy; just follow these steps:
1. Using at least six 2-by-2-inch redwood or cedar stakes, build two 6-by-6-foot squares.
Figure 15-7: Techniques for supporting vegetables.
Redwood and cedar stakes are naturally rot resistant and good choices.
2. Secure the corners of the squares with metal corner braces and connect the two squares on one side with sturdy hinges.
The hinges enable you to easily move or store the trellis.
3. Hammer small nails at 2- to 4-inch intervals along the top and bottom of the trellis.
Don't pound the nails in all the way; leave about 1 inch sticking out.
4. Weave some sturdy twine or string up and down the trellis, between the nails.
Bingo; you have an A-frame string trellis.
Handmade wooden teepees are a great way to support your beans, and kids love them because they're great places to hide. Here's how to construct your own teepee:
1. Using four to six 2-by-2-inch redwood or cedar stakes that are 6 to 8 feet long, form a conelike teepee.
2. Tie the stakes together with twine at the top of the teepee.
3. Run some string or twine around the bottom of the teepee, securing the string or twine at each stake with a small nail.
4. Run more string back and forth around the stakes, from the top of the teepee to the bottom, leaving several inches between each run.
Leave one side of the teepee open so your kids can get inside, and then plant beans around the base of the teepee. In time, the beans will cover the trellis, creating a great fort for your kids.
Melons and cucumbers
You can plant bush varieties of melons and cucumbers inside small (2- to 3-foot-high) wire cylinders similar to those used for tomatoes (see the next section). But for more vigorous varieties, I like to use a sturdier version of the A-frame trellis that's used for beans and peas (see the previous section). Instead of using string, I cut 6-foot-by-6-foot pieces of hog fencing (it has 6-inch squares) and nail them to each side of the trellis. The wire provides better support for heavy fruit (like melons) than string does, and the wide-open fencing doesn't constrict the growth of the fruit (so you get straighter cucumbers). You can purchase hog fencing at agricultural stores.
You also can grow melons on a trellis. Choose small-fruited varieties of watermelon or any variety of cantaloupe, and plant your seeds at the base of the trellis. Tie the vines to the trellis as they grow. After a fruit forms, slip the leg of an old nylon stocking over the fruit, tying the bottom of the stocking in a knot. Then tie the other end of the stocking to the wire trellis so that the fruit is supported. As the melon grows, the stocking expands and supports the fruit, which may break off otherwise. Flip to Chapter 8 to see how this support system looks.
Tomatoes
You can support tomato plants several different ways:
Tie them to stakes, which you pound in the ground next to the plants.
Grow them inside wire cages, which you can buy at nurseries or easily build yourself out of hog fencing.
If you're growing indeterminate varieties, which keep growing and producing fruit all season, choose or build cages large enough to support the huge plants that will grow. Also be sure to secure them to the ground well so they don't blow over during a summer thunderstorm. (You can read more on indeterminate tomatoes in Chapter 4.)
Construct string or wire trellises, like you do for beans and peas.
Fighting Weed Wars
A weed is any plant that's growing where you don't want it to. Some weeds are worse than others, but in general, you don't want any weeds in your vegetable garden because they compete with vegetables for light, water, and nutrients. If you have a lot of weeds, you'll have weaker plants and a less substantial harvest. Besides, weeds look terrible.
The key to battling weeds is to get to them early before they're firmly established. When they're young, weeds are easier to pull, easier to till under, and less likely to produce seeds that cause problems down the road. In the following sections, I show you how to fight weeds before and after you plant your veggies.
Making a preemptive strike on weeds
You can reduce weeds in your vegetable beds many different ways. Here are some things that you can do before planting your garden:
Presprout weed seeds. Presprouting — forcing weed seeds to germinate before you plant so you can kill them early — really cuts down on the number of weeds in your beds. Follow these steps:
1. Prepare your planting bed several weeks before you're ready to plant.
Refer to Chapter 3 for details on planning and preparing your beds for planting.
2. Water the soil well and wait a few days.
Presto, young weeds begin popping up.
3. Kill the weeds.
You can choose to kill the weeds one of two ways: pull them out by hand, or rake the bed lightly to uproot the seedlings and then let them dry out to die.
However you get rid of the young weeds, disturb the soil as little as possible when you do it; otherwise, you'll bring more seeds to the surface.
Plan for easy weeding. Leave enough room between rows so you can weed the soil easily.
Solarize the soil. When you solarize the soil, you use the power of the sun to kill weeds. This technique works best in the middle of summer in hot climates like Arizona and Florida. The only downside to solarizing is that it takes a while. Follow these steps to solarize your soil:
1. Prepare your bed for planting and water it well.
2. Dig a 6-to-12-inch-deep trench around the perimeter of the bed.
3. Cover the entire bed with thick clear plastic (4 millimeters) and place the edges of the plastic in the trenches and fill the trenches with soil. Then wait.
The temperature gets so hot underneath the plastic that it kills insects, disease organisms, and weeds. It usually takes a few months of solarizing to get a beneficial effect.
Plant your vegetables at the proper time of year. That way they get off to a fast start, and weeds have a harder time catching up with them. See Chapter 3 for details.
Battling weeds after planting
If you come across weeds after you plant your crops, you have several choices for eliminating them:
Mulch your beds. Applying a layer of thick organic mulch is one of the best ways to battle weeds. Even if mulch doesn't smother the weeds and their seeds, the weeds that do come up are easy to pull. Planting through plastic is also an effective way to keep weeds from becoming a problem. See the earlier section "Keeping Your Plants Cozy and Weed Free with Mulch" for more information.
Pull the weeds by hand. While they're young, weeds come out of the ground easily. Get 'em roots and all, whenever you see them. If you can't pull out the roots by hand, use a trowel.
Cultivate the soil. Simply hoeing or lightly turning the soil between vegetables exposes the weeds' roots and kills many of them. Cultivating is most effective when it's done often (a few
times a week in the first month or so of gardening) and early when the weeds are small. Some cultivating tools are designed especially for this purpose; see Chapter 20 for details.
Keep garden paths clean. Try to keep your garden paths as weed free as possible; otherwise, weeds will creep into your planting beds. Try covering the paths with a thick mulch to keep weeds from becoming established.
Make sure the areas around the garden are weed free. If you're growing vegetables near a field or weedy woodland edge, try to mow a wide strip between your garden and the field so the weed seeds can't blow in as easily. It won't stop all of them, but every little bit helps.
Chapter 16: Surveying Some Cool Farmer Techniques
In This Chapter
Growing plants that improve the soil
Planting schemes that increase harvest and reduce pests
Using the phases of the moon to determine when to plant
People have been growing vegetables for eons — probably since the days of Adam and Eve, though you usually associate them with fruits, not vegetables.
Over the years, farmers, and even gardeners for that matter, have tried almost anything to get better, bigger, and earlier harvests. Some of these techniques, such as planting according to the cycles of the moon, are rooted more in mysticism than in hard science. Others, such as using cover crops and succession planting, are commonsense approaches to farming that are now established practices in modern agriculture. They're also useful techniques for home vegetable gardeners.
In this chapter, you can take a look at some cool farming techniques — some based on fact, some on fancy — and decide whether they'll work for you.
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