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| It is usually said to fertilize plants to help blooms and fruits bigger and better. However, it is taking much longer for the powder or pelletized fertilizers such as bone meal or cottonseed meal to be absorbed by the plants. How long does it take and when should I apply it?
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Follow-Up Postings:
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| How long it might take for any nutrient to be made available to plants depends on the type of material and how active your Soil Food Web is. Something like bone meal can take quite a long time, even if your soil has a very active SFW. Cottonseed meal would be available to plants sooner than bone meal but not as quickly as blood meal. Conventional wisdom, from about the 1050's, is that soils need fertilizer were aas youi really want to make your soil into a good healthy soil that will grow strong and healthy plants without adding "fertilizers" especially those made from non renewable resources. |
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- Posted by tn_gardening (My Page) on Fri, Jun 24, 11 at 8:14
| The water soluble fertilizers are absorbed quicker, but they don't necessarily feed the soil. Most folks put the dry fertilizers in the ground the same time they do their planting (and perhaps again mid-way through the growing season). This gives the micro-organisms a chance to break things down throughout the growing season. If you are concerned about the speed of fertilizer absorption, perhaps you want to make some compost tea. |
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| Thank you for your replies. I was thinking of getting water soluable fertilizers, for I can have a better "control" of timing. However, the local nurseries and feed-n-seed stores don't carry them. They are already more expansive than powder or pelletized ones, so adding up the weight of shipping can be very pricy. I kind of give up the thought of order water soulable fertilizers. Basically, I have varieties of flower plants and some vegetable plants. My flowers seem to be doing ok, not great. The colors of the flowers are not vibrant, and the flowers tend to be on a smaller side. My vegetables are pathetic. I used to have a very hard clay soil, where a tiller even had a hard time to till it. I started my garden with a lot of gypsum, sand, pearlite, memiculite, compost, shreadded barks, lime, cotton seed meal, bone meal, blood meal, potash, composted manure, little epsum salt, and such. Then, every half year I add some cotton seed meal, bone meal, potash, and composted manure. The flower plants seem fine all these 3 years. However, my vegetables always end up as a dawrf version last year. Early this year, I added more amendments to the vege garden. This year is doing much better, yet still not very good. I planted the vegetable seedlings from the same batch of my parents-in-law's. Theirs yield many more cucumbers than mine, for example. However, they did not seem to add as many as amendments as I did. Yes, their land used to be a forest, so they started with a better organic rich place. Still, after adding everything I think is necessary, my garden is still not doing that well. |
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- Posted by lisanti07028 z6NJ (My Page) on Fri, Jun 24, 11 at 16:00
| If you incorporated a lot of shredded bark into the soil, you could very well be dealing with a nitrogen deficiency, which, if true,may explain the stunted vegetables. You've been putting a lot of stuff into your soil, and maybe it's ended up too heavy with one thing and not enough of another. I recommend heartily that you get a soil analysis done: your county agricultural agent can probably do it, or you can find an on-line service that can do it. You may need potash but not bone meal, or vice versa. You may want to get your water tested, too; if your water is very hard, that could complicate the chemical balances in the soil too. Regarding the water-soluble ferilizers:next time you go to a garden center or even a big box store, see if they have fish emulsion or seaweed emulsion - both Alaska and Neptune's Harvest should be pretty easy to find; they are liquids which are mixed with water for fertilizing. |
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| Thank you lisanti. Will do |
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| We have soil with considerable heavy clay, here in Madison, Wisconsin. I have been making compost, from shredded tree leaves, and garden refuse, for about 15 years. Every spring, I put down about 20 gallons of finished compost on our garden plot, and work it in. The plot is pretty small, about 6 by 20 feet. The garden really began to take off after 5 years of this, and now the soil is very easily worked, to a depth of 10 inches or so. The garden is productive, and the plants are generally healthy. It is my wife's garden, and she doesn't like to use fertilizers. All it gets is compost and water. I'm not saying you did anything wrong. My suggestion is to keep making compost and working it in-eventually you will see results. |
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| How much humus (residual organic matter) is in your soil? How well does that soil drain? How well does that soil retain moisture? What is the tilth of that soil like? What does that soil smell like? What kind of animal life is in that soil? What is your soils pH? What did a good reliable soil test tell you about the nutrients in that soil? |
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| So, basically if I have enough compost to work it with the soil, then everything just takes care of it, right? I have been making compost, but so slowly though. It's even never enough for my small garden. However, I would keep that in mind, adding more compost to it. Kimmsr, to answer your questions: |
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| Most all of the lab soil tests come back and tell you to add from 1/2 to 2 pounds of Nitrogen per 1,000 square feet, a fairly insignifican amount if you think about it. Lime, to adjust your soils pH needs to be added some months before you plan to use that soil so it has time to help the soil chemisty make the necessary adjustments. These simple soil tests might help you learn more about your soil, 1) Soil test for organic matter. From that soil sample put enough of the rest to make a 4 inch level in a clear 1 quart jar, with a tight fitting lid. Fill that jar with water and replace the lid, tightly. Shake the jar vigorously and then let it stand for 24 hours. Your soil will settle out according to soil particle size and weight. For example, a good loam will have about 1-3/4 inch (about 45%) of sand on the bottom. about 1 inch (about 25%) of silt next, about 1 inch (25%) of clay above that, and about 1/4 inch (about 5%) of organic matter on the top. 2) Drainage. Dig a hole 1 foot square and 1 foot deep and fill that with water. After that water drains away refill the hole with more water and time how long it takes that to drain away. Anything less than 2 hours and your soil drains� too quickly and needs more organic matter to slow that drainage down. Anything over 6 hours and the soil drains too slowly and needs lots of organic matter to speed it up. 3) Tilth. Take a handful of your slightly damp soil and squeeze it tightly. When the pressure is released the soil should hold together in that clump, but when poked with a finger that clump should fall apart. 4) Smell. What does your soil smell like? A pleasant, rich earthy odor? Putrid, offensive, repugnant odor? The more organic matter in your soil the more active the soil bacteria will be and the nicer your soil will smell. 5) Life. How many earthworms per shovel full were there? 5 or more indicates a pretty healthy soil. Fewer than 5, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, indicates a soil that is not healthy. Along with a good, reliable soil test from a good soil test lab will guide you toward making that soil into a good healthy soil that will grow strong and healthy plants. |
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| Thank you kimmsr. You gave me wonderful info..... It would take many years to get 5 earthworms per shovel :-) |
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