I use pond goo for compost. It doesn't burn the plants, but I've produced onions with tiny bulbs and huge leaves in my old organic garden, where the pond compost rested during the fallow season for years and years.
The feed store diagnosed the situation as too much nitrogen. I gave up, have swiss chard and spinach there now.
I have found adding epsom salts and Muriate of potash help somewhat. I have considered adding egg shells as well. And I now have goat poop but no idea whether it has more than nitrogen.
My question is, of the things I have available, what can I do to get the best organic fertilizer (or semi organic - epsom salts and potash just aren't) for my garden's overall performance. I have tomorrow off. I'd like to put it to good use. Thank you
Gypsi
Too much nitrogen
Go to Home Depot or Lowes and buy a soil test kit for $10, follow the directions and see what your soil needs, then buy what it needs to correct the soil. Otherwise, you are just stabbing in the dark. If there is too much nitrogen, you can grow leafy vegetables out the wazoo but not much else. To bring it to balance, you would add phosphorus and Potassium. This usually takes a good bit of experience with soils to know how much to add to get the correction you need. TAMU does soil tests for $25 but they will tell you how to correct your soil, ie, how much of each thing to add.Downside is that you have to mail the sample and wait.
Gypsi
I really started to grow successfull vegetables in Dallas after I discover the Texas Hydrophonic store here in Dallas.
I go to the Manana Rd. location, but there is also a store in Ft. Worth.
http://www.texashydroponics.com/shop/home.php
Here I found growing lights, starting medium.lot of great fertilizers (I love the ones from the Roots Organic series), but most of all they are very educated people and they took the time to teach me how to grow veggies in our area.
Check it out.
Going for the soil test kit. And arranging to get my aquaponics set up going after this next wave of cold weather. It is legal to keep one species of tilapia for aquaponics. But I grow most of my own food, have for years, and it is important that I get my soil right. I probably need 5 test kits.
I've done the soil test from HD or Lowes and while they aren't super accurate they definately told me what I had too much of and too little of. I knew what the native soil had in it, and after years of amendments not that much had changed. They aren't very expensive I highly recommend them and I think you'll be happy with the results.
Nitrogen can be reduced by incorporating woody mulch into the soil, the nitrogen gets used up in the process of braking down the wood, of course you have to wait a while and give it some time to work.
Like greens and browns, Josephine?
Mainly browns, of the woody kind, like shredded tree trimmings .
Because N is too many greens.....I think.....
so if I added chopped woody stuff to my compost pile that I pile all my pond greens on, it would reduce the nitrogen before it overloads the soil?
I did not get a test today. I did split a beehive, do a fairly careful examination of 2 more, reverse boxes on one of those, and had to quit before I was done with the last one. That is what happens to my gardening some times.
Or even hugelkulture style with decomposing logs - but shredded would prob be faster. only a few types of wood to avoid if you are using stuff around you- trees like black walnut. cherry. or ones that could grow thinking you are planting them like cuttings. black locust...
Guessing last year's cured crape myrtle, whatever I don't use as kindling in the woodstove, might work. Chopping isn't going to be fun though. How about dry oak leaves, do they help reduce nitrogen when they break down in the pile?
That can help too, but you could have some tree trimmings delivered for free, that would make it easy.
last time I had chopped wood mulch delivered for free I said one dump truck load and they dumped me two! I no longer have enough free space for that i think. (I have a neighbor that runs a tree trimming company) I do however have a pile leftover from the crape myrtle that was messing with the garage floor via its roots... I'll do something. Brown dried oak leaves I have, in plenty, and pine needles too.
That should work just fine.
Gypsi? Add a bit of sulphur too...
bump. I have about 1.5 tons of heavy nitrogen and oak leaf and sand misc debris from 2 ponds. What should I add as I mix this into my dirt?
Sounds delicious, not the too much N part but the idea of pond goo sounds great.
Gypsi,
I think pine straw and oak leaves shredded up then mixed into the pond goo in about a 4:1 mixture would work great. I would let that cook for about six months then mix it into the soil. If you want to go to the trouble of turning and working the pile you could use it in half that time.
I have goat manure too. Does it need to go in?
You want to use up nitrogen if you have too much. The key is to use a very high carbon to nitrogen ratio.
Maybe the site below will help you with the goat manure.
http://www.ruralheritage.com/back_forty/manure.htm
This message was edited May 9, 2013 2:30 PM
I want to grow so many things I haven't got planted, and I am soooo tired. but corn, which needs a lot of phosphorus, is on my list of want to grows... I bought a lot of heirloom seeds and have had no time to plant. and the soil does need work.
Bless you, sometimes things can get overwhelming, can't they?
They can indeed,. For mother's day I asked my daughters to come out and help me get the rest of the garden in.
Well, that sounds like an excellent gift to me, enjoy them and the work done!!
Josephine.
I got dirt and my kids made raised beds. It's the best MD I've ever had bc they designed the beds and did everything I just got to plant.
Gypsi, the weather has been sooo strange you may feel behind but you really aren't. I know so many people that had to replant sometimes more then once.
Thank you Lisa. I have a greenhouse full of 4 inch pots of tomatoes and peppers waiting to go in the ground, and a sweet potato too (they really don't like cold weather). I have all the greenhouse windows open so stuff should be hardening off some. And I have about 35 pots of strawberry plants that I got from Burgess back in March.
I used some oak leaves and pond algae as "Mulch" around the roma tomatoes I stuck in the ground hastily last week. I really just want to stir this pond stuff into my native dirt - some of it sat, without much water on it, in a pond for 2 years. And it looks like finished compost. And make raised beds where I've used it and plant my sweet potatoes and root crops in it, does that sound crazy?
What sounds crazy? I'm being serious..
I finally planted my Eggplant a couple days ago but haven't planted the peppers bc they don't like cold soil either It took over a week for the beans to germinated and they were soaked for a few days longer then recommended..lol all I can figure is the soil temps were too low. When I touched the soil it felt chilly that's just weird for Texas in May?
That is weird for Texas in May. Does my wanting to mix unfinished compost into the soil to heat it up and just plant in it sound crazy?
No, I think there was a thread about it last year. Wanting to do it in Tx in May is weird, but thats the weather,not you. Lol
Gypsi instead of guessing why not call your county ext. agent and arrange for a soil test they will tell you exactly how do take the sample and where to drop it off or where to mail it to..Beyond that think about planting heavy feeders the corn would be a good choice as will almost all of the Squash as does several other plants that may not fall into the veggy catergory IE: cotton
I live in Tarrant county. I think our local government is pretty much useless. I tried to reach someone about oak wilt before I gave up and cut my tree down.
Gypsi, dont use FW. You need access to Tx A&M info. Thats why gov't county ext agents are so scarce right now in Tx, empty offices.
If your lucky, you might find some soil sample results from your area here (not counting the compost pile!): http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/HomePage.htm
Trouble is, a lot of what is wrong with my soil I did. i've been hauling home pond goo and oak leaves since 2004, it has built up in some areas, and I need to burn it off somewhat, possibly with phosphorus (been doing some reading). That and intensive planting.
The master gardeners of Tarrant County pay $200 for classes and one of them is asking me questions... Not sure how good those classes are. I'm just going to dig through my organic material and find out how to BUILD a balanced soil, because I have most of the raw materials piled around here, and just raise some beds over the sand areas that are my septic field, and plant on top. I think. If I mix enough good stuff on top and the balance is right, I should be able to get things going right again.
Put in my tomatoes and first row of peppers today. Used oak leaf/sand/pond goo mix plus pine straw, regular straw (uncomposted), crushed eggshells, and a generous sprinkle of tomato fertilizer pellets, Stirred, dug in, planted and watered well. If that doesn't heat up I suppose I could add goat poop, but I figured that would be going too far.