dannyboy602
Well-Known Member
So basically it ain't bad but it ain't good. Or written another way...everything in moderation. Good to know.
Soil Food Web Gardening with Compost Teas
- Thread starter trichome fiend
- Start date
washedmothafuka
Well-Known Member
Exactly. If your plant is showing a certain deficiency mid-late flower, then giving them some ready to absorb nutrients isn't going to destroy your soil food web but it will give them the nutrients they need to finish flowering.
hillbill
Well-Known Member
99+% ROLS but am not a purist nor Puritan and my little bucket of Peters 20-20-20 solves deficiencies fast in emergencies, especially in veg. Haven’t used any in flower for 5 years or more, my bucket is 12 years old!
Trey_Green
Member
Thanks, OP. I'm already gardening outside, have been for many years. I find this food web science proves true through firsthand experience. I love perennials most of all plant types, because of the ease of care. Just dress the bed with some nitrogen and maybe a little P and K too, from natural sources like bonemeal and greensand. Then you're good for the year. More specifically, I like blueberries for the soil comfort challenge. (They like it hot!) Blueberries keep in touch with the local wine-caps, whose nearby colonies fruit under their foliage. Perennials like mushrooms, check.
As for the veggie beds, we trample them in the winter, after piling them with manure, leaves, and organic debris. In the spring, after the snow recedes (which can be as late as early June), we tear holes in the annual spots to aerate the soil, which I find is nondestructive, if one doesn't till up the whole field. Rather, I just punch through here and there, only where a plant will be going in the next 15 mins. or so. And I really plow down, nearly a foot, which is always excessive to my needs. Annual veggies and flowers like bacteria, check.
We also started a couple pairs of fruit trees this year and plugged in some gooseberries and wild strawberries. The trees are two apples, my favorite sort that's Minnesota-hardy, and two kiwis (yes, also hardy to Zone 4A). And we also plugged in a couple elderberries, against my counsel. I think semi-toxic trees have no place in a garden. Other folks have other opinions. Hey, I hear the fruit makes good wine, which is promising. So we plugged in the trees deep inside the mushroom colonies, back with the creeping Charlie and wild grapes (which might also make tasty wine) along the border of the property. I'll be pollarding the trees aggressively, making them into giant bushes over the coming years, preparing them for massive fruiting, just like I do with my indoor garden. So again, thanks for confirming what was my bias anyway. No salt in my garden, no rush. Something doesn't want to grow one year, let me improve the conditions and try again the next. There's nothing I can't grow, given the learning curve of a few years. Good thing I'm not starving in the meantime! Ah, modern luxuries.
As for the veggie beds, we trample them in the winter, after piling them with manure, leaves, and organic debris. In the spring, after the snow recedes (which can be as late as early June), we tear holes in the annual spots to aerate the soil, which I find is nondestructive, if one doesn't till up the whole field. Rather, I just punch through here and there, only where a plant will be going in the next 15 mins. or so. And I really plow down, nearly a foot, which is always excessive to my needs. Annual veggies and flowers like bacteria, check.
We also started a couple pairs of fruit trees this year and plugged in some gooseberries and wild strawberries. The trees are two apples, my favorite sort that's Minnesota-hardy, and two kiwis (yes, also hardy to Zone 4A). And we also plugged in a couple elderberries, against my counsel. I think semi-toxic trees have no place in a garden. Other folks have other opinions. Hey, I hear the fruit makes good wine, which is promising. So we plugged in the trees deep inside the mushroom colonies, back with the creeping Charlie and wild grapes (which might also make tasty wine) along the border of the property. I'll be pollarding the trees aggressively, making them into giant bushes over the coming years, preparing them for massive fruiting, just like I do with my indoor garden. So again, thanks for confirming what was my bias anyway. No salt in my garden, no rush. Something doesn't want to grow one year, let me improve the conditions and try again the next. There's nothing I can't grow, given the learning curve of a few years. Good thing I'm not starving in the meantime! Ah, modern luxuries.