Posted on 05/07/2010 6:30:17 AM PDT by Red_Devil 232
Good morning gardeners! If you are a gardener or you are just starting out and are in need of advice or just encouragement please feel free to join in and enjoy the friendly discussion. There are many Freepers from all over the Good Ol’ USA that are willing and eager to help.
I thought a little primer on fertilizers might come in handy this time of year especially to those of you just starting out.
What do the numbers mean?
Every bag or container of commercial fertilizer has a three number code that tells you the percentage that that particular fertilizer has of the "Big Three" nutrients used by plants.
The big three nutrients are, in the order listed on the container:
A bag of fertilizer labeled as 13-13-13 will have equal percentages of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium for a total of 39%; the rest is filler.
Ideally a soil test is needed to determine how much of these nutriments your soil needs.
Also the type of vegetables or plants you are growing may require different percentages of these nutriments to grow or produce successfully. Know your plants needs.
And remember small amounts will go a long way. Don't over fertilize. Too much at one time or too often can overwhelm plant systems and cause problems.
That is impressive. I can hardly wait to see the food GROWING on that magnificent palette.
I grow yellow and red tumbling toms in 'self-watering' hanging baskets...if you grow these; you had better like cherry tomatoes, because you will gets TONS of these...
Yes. The included delivery is a real incentive.
My pepper seedlings are only about 6” tall at this point. Hopefully we’ll have time to set them out Monday morning. I still have about 50 tomato seedlings (cherry tomatoes) to set out. No where close to tomatoes on those yet though, they’re also only about 6” tall right now. I started them after the ‘regular’ tomatoes that are already in the garden.
Our strawberries have been going for a couple weeks now. We have a slug problem and a pillbug problem I hope to cure with some sluggo. Beer will get the slugs but not the pillbugs. *sigh*
Growing a successful veggie garden in the Houston area takes more effort — in my opinion. Seems the heavy soil combined with too much rain & lots of pests makes it quite a chore.
This is our first spring garden since moving here this past August. I fear come July & August it’s gonna take a lot of watering to keep these plants producing.
Cats love my freshly-worked raised beds...they go out of their way to walk through them, or they just lay in them to enjoy a sunny days.
Good thing I like cats.
I hope so! Friend of mine uses her cherry tomatoes for sundried tomatoes. Cuts them in half and plops them on her drying screens.
Undoubtedly you are right (on hiding the analysis).
I live in the deep south too but not Texas. I found last summer that laying down newspapers and covering with grass clippings saved me 1/2 the waterings during dry spells. Which during June (95+ during the day, no rain for over a month) saved us a lot of water!
Aren’t those feedlot panels? Do you use them for tomatoes?
We used to have a banana tree on the 'lanai'...
One of my housecats escaped a couple weeks ago. We know he played for a while under one of my oak trees because there’s a sandpile under there for my kids. Lots of little footie prints. I just hope he didn’t do something *else* in the sandpile.
They like mint beds too. I think it’s related to catnip or something.
My Oh MY! Yep I can understand why you are limiting the landscape frabric to a few rows! That is no kitchen garden!
A friend of mine has a brand new Kabota tractor and a big ol' tiller attachment. He could till my garden area in two passes (five min. and he would be done)if only he could get the tractor up where my garden is!
We FReepers are all waiting to see your garden/farm(?) through this season.
Well, you have eaten your share of delicious mangoes. I like the ripe ones better but will try a green one. They are used in salads I hear.
We think he’s gorgeous too. In fact, he probably heard me say that we now have a kennel, but I’d never lock him in there. He likes to be right next to me — except when I’m inside the new fence. I’ve even called him to come in, but no dice.
He’s very gentlemanly. We have double doors to the master bedroom and bath. If they are half open, he will not push through, although he can do so easily. He waits for someone to open the door and invite him into the room. I know that he could push that garden gate open if he wanted to, but he won’t do it.
You can purchase these in sizes up to 200 gallons!
What a sweet doggie.
We’re unfortunately going to fence our yard sometimes in the next year. Too much ‘through’ traffic. Kids, dogs (neighbors), deer, you name it.
Where gardening turn into farming. I forgot, do you sell at a farmers market or sell from a farm stand? See my photos on last weeks thread for a mini apple farm that went from hobby to livelihood...
I didn’t try veggies in Houston. I’d be too afraid to eat them. We had to have a service come to spray and fertilize the lawn all the time and they’d put flags all over it warning people to keep their children and pets off. I wouldn’t want to eat anything growing near that grass! And of course there is the pest service that sprays the house monthly and outside too.
We got cinch (pronounced chinch) bugs in our grass one time. You could grab hold of a piece of grass and lift a square yeard of lawn right off the ground.
Come to think of it, I have to remove about 150 sq. feet of grass from where my corn patch is going. I’d appreciate some cinch bugs right about now!
If you hate to walk on garden soil then establish beds and walk to the side of the tiller on the designated strip (lane) for walking.
I’ve seen photos of tractors with wheels spaced 4-5 feet apart. They go down designated compacted lanes every year. The wheels never touch the vegetable growing bed. You never want to compact a heavy clay soil
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