For millennia, wool has been prized as a textile fiber, valued for its warmth, durability, and moisture-wicking properties. Is it also a great soil amendment and fertilizer in the garden?
Watch the video for this post here: https://youtu.be/nC3h7vkPozY
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I was working on a new video about growing tomatoes in hot climates and found all kinds of suggestions about the best NPK for tomatoes. Much of that information was wrong. People are just picking numbers out of the air.
What does science say?
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Is your tap water suitable for plants? Unless you know something about both hardness and alkalinity, you can’t tell if your tap water should be used.
Is RO water, distilled water, or rainwater suitable for plants? You probably think it is, but they also have problems that relate to hardness and alkalinity.
Let’s have a closer look at water and these two properties.
Nitrogen is one of the most important nutrients for plants because it is almost always in short supply. The amount of nitrogen available controls plant growth.
Synthetic fertilizer usually supplies nitrogen as urea or nitrate. Organic fertilizer supplies it as proteins and amino acids, and they claim these forms are better for plants. Which forms of nitrogen can plants use, and which is the best form for gardeners to use for growing plants?
In the good old days, commercial potting soil (media) contained no added fertilizer. Today, more and more products contain some fertilizer, either in synthetic or organic form. Gardeners have been led to believe they can fertilize less and skip fertilizing seedlings. Some believe they can stop fertilizing houseplants entirely. But no one seems to discuss the elephant in the room!
How much fertilizer has been added? Should you stop fertilizing? When does the added fertilizer run out? How quickly are the nutrients available to plants? This blog will answer these and other questions about this mysterious fertilizer.
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Gardeners normally talk about “teaspoons” of fertilizer when they make up fertilizer solutions, which leads to all kinds of confusion and misuse of fertilizer. Some of you are using too little, while others use way too much. On the other hand, horticultural professionals don’t make these mistakes because they talk about PPM values instead.
It’s time gardeners change their habits. Start using Parts Per Million (PPM) units instead of teaspoons in your discussions. This will improve online information and reduce your fertilizer mistakes. I discussed the reasons for doing this, along with several examples, in Calculating the PPM of Nitrogen in Your Fertilizer.
To help you use ppm values, I have created this simple-to-use Fertilizer PPM Calculator, which shows you how much fertilizer to use to make up a required ppm solution. It works for both metric and imperial units, and can be used for both solid and liquid fertilizers.
Many gardeners have noticed that grass is greener and plants look healthier after a good rain. They conclude that rainwater is better for gardens than tap water. Is that really true? Is rainwater better than tap water? Does rainwater make our gardens greener? Let’s open that umbrella and find out. Key Takeaways Are Plants Greener … Read More
Gardeners claim that nitrogen levels in the soil increase after rain. Water floating down through the air picks up nitrogen and deposits it on and near plants. Lighting adds even more nitrogen to the process. They base their conclusion on the perceived greening of the garden after a rain. In agriculture, it is well understood … Read More
Greensand is an organic fertilizer that has been around for many years but it has never become popular except in certified organic farms. Are gardeners missing out on an important soil amendment and source of potassium? Key Takeaways What is Greensand? Greensand fertilizer is a natural soil amendment derived from ancient marine deposits, primarily composed … Read More
Can you use too much compost? If you believe what you read, compost is the best thing for your garden. If that’s true, how can you have too much? The truth is that too much compost, especially manure and commercial compost, is harmful to your soil and plants.
How much fertilizer do you use? In North America, it is common to reply with something like “1/8 tsp of a 20-6-12 fertilizer. The problem with this answer is that it is difficult to compare the amount to someone using, for example, 1/4 tsp of 7-3-5 fertilizer.
Are either of these close to the recommended amount of 100 ppm nitrogen?
It is important to compare apples with apples and the best way to do this is to report and discuss fertilizer in ppm units. It is easy to do, it will make gardening communication much more useful and it will give you better insight into your fertilizer use.
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One of the hottest new additives for plants is silicon, which is also incorrectly called silica. It is claimed to reduce pests, improve growth and fend off diseases such as powdery mildew. Although there is some truth to the claims, there is also a lot of misinformation in the gardening community.
