I started taking a home gardening class last night. My stake was able to get the teacher to come teach the class which is 2 hours a week for 6 weeks. Last night was really good. I learned more about home food gardening in the 2 hours he taught then the years I spent going to Utah State University for my Ornamental Horticulture degree. Granted, home gardening is VERY different from Ornamental gardening but there are some basics that are the same. Soil Prep is one of those, which was discussed last night.
I might end up starting a gardening blog, once I have my dirt BUT until then I will post stuff here - in case you are interested.
Plants need Nutrients
Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium/Potash, Iron, Zinc, and Magnesium
If you are nitrogen deficient then your plants will be yellow/green rather than a dark green
If you have enough phosphorus and potassium, you will have healthy, strong big plants with lots of flowers and fruit
Chlorosis - happens when a plant is missing a nutrient - the leaves turn a big yellow. If the vein is still green and the rest of the leaf is yellow then you are missing Zinc. If all the little veins are showing up too then you are missing iron.
We have lots of these in the soil in Utah but it can't get to the plant because of too much calcium cabonate aka lime being in the soil. You need to free up the nutrients by adding others.
So the question is - What to add and How Much?
Use a Complete Fertilizer
16-16-8 --> 16 Nitrogen, 16 Phosphorus, 8 Potassium These ingredients are always listed in the same order. Also add some sulfer and ironite.
These also help get the pH level of the soil to be happy. In Utah we need more acidic soil which means, more sulfur.
How much - for a 180 sq ft area (30 feet long by 6 feet wide) needs 1 qt of dry ingredients. Mix 4/5 qt of the complete fertilizer with 1/5 qt of ironte. You can mix this up in a glass quart jar. Then sprinkle over your dirt - cause at this point it probably is still dirt, not soil, and roto til it into the soil.
Now what if your dirt is just that, dirt. You might have sandy dirt or clay dirt. You can fix that too. You want to create a loam. The way to do this is with organic matter because it will add things such as nitrogen to the soil. Grass clippings (DO NOT USE if you have used Weed N Feed on your lawn because it will carry over to your garden and kill all your broadleaf veggies, like tomatoes), leaves, table scraps, peat moss. Don't use manure and never use steer manure. They both have too much salt in them and that just locks up the nutrients that we are trying to free.
Here is the key - this is all to be done BEFORE you plant. You do not need to fertilize again while you are growing except for a few things - which I will mention later. As for now focus on garden prep.
An additional item you can add if you live in Utah is a soil acidifier such as Miracle Gro Azalea food or GrowMore with Soil Acidifier from IFA. This is to be done in late February, early March. This is great if you are growing perennials such as raspberries. I know the raspberries at my mom's need this desperately. Just sprinkle this mixture over the snow and the snow and rain will dissolve it into the soil 1 qt of 1/3 miracle grow, 1/3 ammonium sulfate, 1/3 ironid. Again, this is for 180 sq ft so divide as needed for a smaller area.
Basically now is the time to prepare - start thinking about what you want to do this year so in 2 weeks you can start getting your soil ready. By the end of March you will be able to have it all but ready to go.
If you want to buy the book by this guy, his name is
Gordon Wells. He said that some nurseries have his book, as does Costco.
Sorry there are so many words to read. I hope this helps, if not, drop me a message!
