fertilizers
- To: s*@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU
- Subject: fertilizers
- From: n* s*
- Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2000 10:02:06 -0400
Isn't Miracle Grow an acid formulation? I use Peter's or Rapid-gro for
foliar feeding. Figured Miracle Grow was for areas with a high pH. Not the
case here. I use wood chips from tree cutters for most of my mulch.
Planting areas get fine pine bark for a soil amendment. My soil needs
drainage and opening up which peat does not provide. We use 10-10-10 on the
mulch in the winter. Helps the mulch break down to humus, and provides
plants with the nutrients they need. We are in an area that gets summer
droughts. If we fed every month thru the summer, we would kill our plants.
I think that we each know our own conditions, and that generalizations
about fertilizers are non-productive. There is also a lot of difference in
the plant world. Some are very sensitive to salts (fertilizers) and some
are really hungry. Epsom salts is tossed on the garden occasionally, and I
always use lime with magnesium. Figure that I use enough soluble fertilizer
for planting and foliar sprays to take care of the other micronutrients.
Figure the differences in soil, climate and plants, and generalizations are
not the way to go...... Nancy
>I apply Miracle Grow or a similar product as a foilare spray, Just do not
>have the time to make a drench and I can control the amount the plants
>receives instead of the soil, were it will wash out in a rain storm.
>
>It does not pay to over fertilize, this produces to rapid of growth and week
>leaves (plus the color makes me sick) If you really over fertilize the plants
>will stunt and even die. A High ion salt concentration (Fertilizer) will
>remove water from the roots and burn root hairs and tips. Just like eating to
>much Iron or Calcium in our diet is bad for us. So too with plants and over
>fertilizing. If they take up to much of an ion it throws the cellular process
>out of whack.
Nancy Swell
505 Baldwin Road | "I have the receipt for fern seed"
Richmond, Virginia 23229 USA | "I walk invisible"
| Henry IV, Act 1
Zone 7 - min. 5 (-15 C), max. 100+ (38 C), NARGS, AFS, BPS, HFF, HPS, RHS,
ASA, RSA swell@erols.com
