O.K. picked up 5 new packages of seeds this past week. Mostly what I already have, some squash (barely produced last year but nice plants) some more radish and a couple of packages of watermelon.
I’m thinking of using the watermelon in a small area of the ground - maybe 2.5 x 6 feet. So not very big.
BUT my question is this:
I’ve been sowing egg shells, bits and pieces of vegetables, etc. into the thing trying to make natural fertilizer. I do have other stuff. The pepper plants in there last year didn’t have enough time and produced very little. BUT the leaves on the plants had a lot of holes.
Is it diseased from the tomato pieces, egg shells, etc. I haven’t put much into it for months to let it settle down. It’s been covered in snow and has been hit by rain.
I hoped to cover it with chicken wire in a cage of some sort to keep out rabbits and squirrels.
Some say you have to let it sit fo a year when you sow organic leftovrs in there (all vegetables, very little fruit and a fair amount of egg shells). It got the majority of stuff in it by October and November.
IS THIS going to be a reasonably-safe soil for growing watermelons? I’m hoping the thick skin helps ward off pests.
I grow most everything in buckets on the deck and the insects are almost never a problem. A few tomato cornworms last year (3-4).
Will it help if I soak with water prior to planting?
I sowed the egg shells because I got blossom end-rot on a few tomatoes a couple of years ago. I DO put the eggshells into my tomatoes and those have been just fine.
Thanks
Well, I have added banana peels and eggshells mixed with water and blenderized directly to my garden with no problems.
In general for all the kitchen waste and stuff. I leave it till it smells good. It will smell like rich loamy dirt.
Any other stink and it’s not ready. My composter looks like a large square trash can and has a swinging door top. I just dump stuff in. It has lots of air holes on all sides.
At the bottom, it has a door that raises up to get to the finished compost. So I dig it out, and throw any thing recognizable - like an egg shell back on top. Scoop it up with gloved hands and smell it. LOL
Depending on temperature etc. you can have compost within a few weeks to a year. So it’s variable.
The Indians used to put a fish head in with their planting IIRC. In the spring, turning under green stuff usually happens at least a month before planting. Rye can hinder germination.
Lots for different ways people compost. We have a black compost bin with a lid. When we take out the compost in the spring I start up the bin again with some straw and leftover leaves. We add all scraps from the garden, and store, egg shells. I add sweet corn husks but not the cobs. Probably 4 times during the season it gets turned over and watered. When fall sets in I don’t add anything all winter. By April we open the lid and it looks just like nice black and brown broken down soil. A we get older the easiest way to spread it is to set a tarp on the ground in front of the bin. I pull it all out and then drag the tarp onto the top of the garden. Then I drag it down the length of it, raking off a little at a time takes about 15 minutes.