HINTS FOR SUCCESS Xpu
Using Foliar Fertilizers
- Apply foliar fertilizers early or late in the day when it's overcast but not rainy; avoid applying in bright midday sunlight.
- Use either a watering can or a sprayer to apply. With sprayers, adjust the nozzle to give as fine a mist as possible. For more even and thorough coating, add one or two drops of dish detergent to a hand sprayer, or lA teaspoon (1.2 ml) to a gallon sprayer.
Drench both sides of leaves until they're dripping wet; fertilizer that drips onto the soil can be absorbed by roots.
A combination seaweed/fish emulsion product works for most deficiencies. ^ deficiencies of major nutrients, try ^«-purpose foliar fertilizers, manure {e°. or fish emulsion. For micronutrient deficiencies, use liquid seaweed or e°ropost tea.
Conversions for Liquid Fertilizers
Rate per Aire
1 pint
1 quart
1 gallon
25 gallons
A dilution of 1 pint per 100 gallons = 1 tsp. per gallon = XA tsp. per quart.
While nitrogen is often considered the most important nutrient in fertilizers, it's also the most difficult to measure in soils. Soil microbes are gatekeepers controlling the day-to-day supply. Extended cold or dry weather (or waterlogging) slows microbes and therefore the amount of nitrogen released to the soil. Since it's harder to calculate how much you need, it's important to find ways to even out the supply.
Even more than for other nutrients, abundant organic matter helps ensure a steady supply of nitrogen — regardless of whether you use organic or synthetic fertilizers. It also cuts down on the amount of fertilizer you need. The recommendations at right are lower than those on many fertilizer labels, which are based on soils with little organic matter.
Using Green Manures and Animal Manure
Fertilizer isn't the only way to supply nitrogen. Using nitrogen-fixing green manures (legumes) plus manure or compost can supply all of a garden's nitrogen needs. On beds where a legume crop was recently turned under, reduce the chart recommendations by half and then be prepared to revise amounts based on your own observations. (Remember that green manures continue to release nitrogen over a long period.)
In addition to the sources given, 12 pounds of dry cow manure (6 pounds of dry poultry manure) per 100 square feet will supply an equivalent amount of nitrogen. You'll need 50 pounds of fresh cow manure, as it's much heavier and less concentrated. Many gardeners prefer to use a combination, such as half this amount with half the recommended amount of dried blood or other source. If you use manure as your only nitrogen source, test periodically for calcium, magnesium, and soluble salts. Where levels of these are already high, manure can create an imbalance. Where these levels aren't high, using manure can reduce the amount of lime needed for acidic soils.
It is the nitrogen in lawn fertilizers that makes lawns green. If you use traditional synthetic fertilizers on your own lawn, avoid creating stripes from uneven coverage by measuring out half the recommended amount and setting the spreader tor half the usual rate. Fertilize by walking back and forth in parallel lines. Then spread the remaining fertilizer over the same areo. walking at right angles to your original path.
116 IICilTI TO ORE AT SOIL
Adjusting the Rafts
Adjusting the Rafts
The application rates sui at right are for vegetable gardes.
i> Fast-acting sources of nitrogen wash away quickly, so apply in spring and repeat in midsummer
Lawns like lots of nitrogen, so you can apply the recommended amounts twice in one year.
For flowers, shrubs, and trees in average soil, use half as much, unless they're very heavy feeders (see chapter 8).
> If your soil is fertile, you'll need only half as much to maintain good fertility.
When a range of formulas is given, the higher application rate is for the lower analysis (weaker formula).
► Note that some nitrogen sources also supply phosphorus and/or potassium. If you use such sources, reduce your applications of the other nutrient(s).
Avoid overfeeding with nitrogen. Too much causes poor vegetable, fruit, and flower quality (in all but leaf)- crops) and delays maturity. It increases susceptibility to drought and diseases, and reduce venter hardiness. Nitrogen is washed away, so too much >* more apt to pollute nearby groundwater than to soil reserves. And beiurc im* nitrogen washes away, cause a temporary deficiency.
Nitrogen Sources
Nolurol/ Organic Sources
Blood meal 12-2-0.5 (dried blood)
Fish meal
Moderately fast-acting; can burn plants, so keep away from stems; slightly acidifying; repels rabbits and deer but may attract dogs; expensive
Supplies major and micronutrients; relatively fast-acting; fishy odor can attract animals; relatively inexpensive
Approx. Duration in Soil
Rate for Average Soil (for 100 ft*)
Rate for Deficiency (for 100 *|2)
Rate for Deficiency (for 100 *|2)
Fish emulsion Tankage
Good for foliar feeding; fast-acting; some 3-6 mos. follow directions on label for brands have fishy odor dilution and application rates
Dried, ground by-products from slaughter- 3-6 mos. house; available from animal feed suppliers
Cottonseed 6-2.5-1.7 Acidifies soil; contains pesticide residues 1-2 yrs. raeal unless labeled organic (rare); slow-acting
Soybean meal
7-0.5-2.3 By-product from processing soybean oil; slow-acting
Nitrate of 16-0-0 soda (sodium nitrate)
Mined form supplies trace elements but synthetic form doesn't; fast-acting; don't use on alkaline or salty soils; about lA as strong as limestone in raising soil pH
Synthetic/ Inorganic Sources
^nimonium nitrate
Ammonium sulfate
Ur ea
Fast-acting; don't use where soils are high in salt; slightly acidifying: flammable
20-0-0 Fast-acting; use only on alkaline soils, as 24% S it rapidly lowers soil pH
45-0-0 Very fast-acting, high risk of burning plants, so use only in blended fertilizers; mix into soil to minimize loss from evaporating ammonia; increases soil acidity
VA lbs.
follow directions on label of blended fertilizer
Urea-
formaldehyde
35-0-0 Only moderately fast-acting, so lower risk of burning; safe to use on soils with high salt levels
^fur-coated 36-0-0 Coating makes it slower-acting; lower risk ^ 13-16% S of burning plants; slowly lowers soil pH j
1 season
oneiric equivalents, see "Useful Conversions" on page 208.
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