Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Aliza Vanderlip <songbird97520@yahoo.com>]

Plants take up potassium more readily then calcium/magnesium.  When there is an over abundance of potassium (perhaps in relation to ca/mg?) the plants will take up the excess potassium and the plants will be weak and spindly.  It is more of a soil balance issue as opposed to potassium being bad.  The plants need potassium but not at the expense of Ca/Mg.  More an issue for folks using NPK synth fertilizers but something to be aware of nonetheless.

Blessings,

Aliza
www.eftashland.com


“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” Howard Thurman

--- On Tue, 12/7/10, Barbara Money <bmoney9@verizon.net> wrote:

From: Barbara Money <bmoney9@verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] learning curve
To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
Date: Tuesday, December 7, 2010, 11:06 AM

We save wood ash from our main heating source, and some of it ends up in the garden. Theoretically, in place of lime for raising pH. It does have small pieces of charcoal in it, and it contains potassium. why is excess K bad? Someone mentioned that it ties up calcium, ...OK, got that. But why is it in the common fertilizer "formula"? What does it do for the plant?

Regarding added organic matter: we have tons of leaves, llama manure, and may get some aged horse manure and fresh hen manure. How should I put theses on the garden this fall? Last year we got a load of oak leaves and ran them through a shredder or mowed over them in place, which was a lot of work. I mixed horse and llama manure with the shredded leaves in the beds. This year it is a mix of oak, ash, hickory, and maple, not yet shredded. I still have some uncovered piles of shredded oak leaves //that have not broken down all last winter and this summer.// I'm wondering if it's worth the bother to shred the leaves, and just use them as a weed-suppressing mulch once the veggie seedlings are up. Maybe layering the manures on top of the leaves (shredded or not) over winter so nutrients leach through them to help them break down? The shredds I put in the garden beds did break down, mostly (I hand-cultivated them in 2-3 inches, not deep--the tiller went deeper); maybe contact with soil is what they need?

Don't yell at me for tilling, I don't want to anymore! But Hubby, who studied horticulture in the 70s, still thinks soil must be mixed up.

Barbara M
Foster, RI

-- "Animals Are A Gift"

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