[texas_mrs]

I am dead-center in the middle of Texas. My garden looks pretty nice, but I am watering often. My tomatoes didn’t even make enough to mention. I am getting black-eyed peas, okra, watermelons and zucchini, but my green beans & pinto beans are not making any, even though the plants look good & they have lots of flowers. My husband fertilized with lawn fertilizer & I’m wondering if that’s why.

I have a new 18 X 14 film-covered greenhouse that actually has tomatoes inside that look pretty good. I have most of the roof covered with a silver tarp. No fans or misters inside. Mites took the tomatoes down after an awesome spring, so I cut them way back & now they have new growth. I’m hoping to get a fall crop out of them. They are in wooden plastic-lined beds that I water the heck out of once a week. Some are in self-watering containers.

I’m pinning my hopes on a good fall garden, if it ever gets cool enough to get out there to plant.

[Red_Devil 232]

The lawn fert. is meant to produce lush green grass. It is not wise to use in the garden as you will get great looking lush plants but the lawn fert does not have the ingredients needed for a veggie plant to produce its fruit. Lawn Fert is usually high in nitrogen and low in Phosphorous and Potassium. Your veggie garden plants need the two Ps.

Nitrogen:

• essential for growth of foliage;
• produces lush, tender, green leaves (or grass blades);
• deficiency results in a yellow-green color (chlorosis) and little or no growth;
• is easily flushed through the soil.

Phosphorous:

• stimulates root growth;
• hastens the maturity of plants;
• promotes development of flowers, fruits, seeds;
• deficiency can result in slow or stunted growth and purplish discoloration on leaves;
• remains in the soil quite well.

Potassium:

• gives vigor to tolerate changing weather conditions;
• helps resist disease;
• assists in the food manufacturing process;
• strengthens cell wall structure for strong stems;
• deficiency can cause week stems and slow growth;
• leaches from the soil, not so fast as nitrogen.

[Ellendra]

Makes sense. Black-eyed peas, okra, and watermelons are all native to north Africa, so it makes sense that they’d do well in the heat and drought.