Chance the Gardener

Organic Citrus

It's that time of year in Arizona. We have been enjoying our oranges for the last few weeks. They are pretty sweet this year.  Today we decided to go ahead and harvest the remaining 30+ oranges on our tree. Here is my harvest helper next to the fruits of our labor.

I must admit it is not hard to grow oranges at this point. Our tree is established and now we just feed it a couple of times a year with some all purpose organic NPK and occasionally add some Great Big Plants Organic Compost to the water at the base of the tree. Our biggest challenges are sunburn on the fruit, and properly adjusting the watering for the hot summer weather. This tree may be too close to the wall for maximum growth. Still, we get about 50-60 oranges a year from this one. Last year we planted another one (to the left) and hope to enjoy its fruit for years to come. The blossom buds are starting to form and it won't be long before the sweet smell of orange blossoms fill the air.

Meanwhile, here is the real challenge- our grapefruit tree.

 

I am the only grapefruit eater in the house and I am overwhelmed every year. (And a person can only drink so many grapefruit margaritas.) This tree gets the same NPK feedings and treatments of Great Big Plants, but has outgrown its cousin and way outproduces it. I estimate that we will harvest about 175-200 fruit from this tree. Grapefruit anyone?

 

Your Garden Soil Needs More than NPK Fertilizer

When you buy fertilizer, whether chemical or organic, you'll see three numbers separated by dashes boldly standing out on the package; such as 5-6-5. You might already know that they stand for the percentage of NPK contained in the fertilizer. N stands for Nitrogen, P for Phosphorous (Phosphate), and K for Potassium (Potash). So in our example, the fertilizer contains 5% N, 6% P and 5% K.   These are the three most important macronutrients that help your plants grow, blossom and bear fruit. What you might not know, however, is that your plants need more than NPK can provide.

Here's the scoop: Nitrogen strengthens the growth of leaves and helps convert sunlight into plant food. Phosphorous helps roots and stems develop and flowers bloom. Potassium contributes to the overall health of the plant, disease resistance, and water intake. The NPK ratio in fertilizers is often customized for particular plants, for example, tomato fertilizers tend to have more P and K to promote blossoming and fruit set.

What NPK is Missing

Liebig's Law of the Minimum, often simply called the Law of the Minimum, is a principle developed in agricultural science popularized by Justus von Liebig in the mid 1800s and often depicted as a barrel with broken staves. It states that growth is controlled not by the total of resources available, but by the scarcest resource (limiting factor). This concept was originally applied to plant or crop growth, where it was found that increasing the amount of plentiful nutrients did not increase plant growth. Only by increasing the amount of the limiting nutrient (the one most scarce in relation to "need") was the growth of a plant or crop improved. This principle can be summed up as, "Growth is proportional to the amount of the most limiting nutrient, whichever nutrient it may be. Likewise a plant's growth is restricted by the lack of a single element, even though there may be sufficient quantities of all other essential nutrients."

Put another way - plants need certain other macronutrients, micronutrients and trace elements, in addition to NPK. Some of these, including sulfur, calcium, and iron, are sometimes in store-bought fertilizers, but most often are not.

Other elements, like carbon dioxide and oxygen, are available in the air and water. You must have well aerated soil for these elements to properly interact with plant roots.

You may have had the experience of your garden plants looking sickly even though you are using the same fertilizer and at the same rate as previous years when everything looked great. What could be happening is that you have overdrawn your account at the Soil Bank.

Think about your garden soil as a bank where you save up nutrients for your plants. You start out with some naturally occurring nutrients and add fertilizer containing NPK, and maybe some other nutrients. Your plants will withdraw all the nutrients it needs (if they are all available). At the end of the season, some nutrients will remain and you will replenish some, but usually not all, with your next application of NPK fertilizer. Ultimately, one or more nutrients will be depleted (your account will be overdrawn for these) and the plants will not get what they need and will not grow to optimal performance, or might even look sickly.

Make Deposits into the Soil Bank

One of the best ways to make deposits of a wide variety of nutrients into the Soil Bank is to use compost in your garden. Not only will compost contain a wide variety of micronutrients, it helps soil structure and porosity (improves aeration) and includes beneficial microorganisms. For more on the benefits of compost, see our earlier blog post.

If you aren't into making your own organic compost or dealing with the mess and trouble of heavy bags, try our easy to apply Great Big Plants Organic Liquid Compost. You will get a wide spectrum of soil micronutrients, along with humic and fulvic acids and lots of beneficial microbes all in a liquid concentrate. Think about it as overdraft protection at the Soil Bank.

While plants need Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potassium to thrive, they need a variety of other nutrients as well. By using organic compost to supplement NPK fertilizers, you can nourish your plants, your body, and the environment and keep your Soil Bank accounts full.

Microorganisms: Your Garden Soil's Best Friends

Did you know that there are millions of soil microorganisms in just a handful of healthy garden soil?

The microorganisms living in your soil - including protozoa, fungi, bacteria, arthropods, and beneficial nematodes - are essential to keeping soil fertile so that plants can grow. Though too small to be seen by the naked eye, they work together to power the nutrient cycle that plants need to grow.

Plants can't feed on soil organic matter (dead leaves, plants and animals) directly, as animals do. They need this material to be broken down and bio-chemically converted into simple forms that are microscopic and water soluble so the plants can take them up through the roots.

That's where microorganisms come in. Without them, organic matter would simply contaminate soil, and plants wouldn't be able to extract the nutrients they need.

These are just some of the tasks that microorganisms perform:

• Decompose soil organic matter, such as leaves and minerals
• Extract and convert nutrients, such as carbon, from the decomposed material
• Provide the plant with nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus in a converted and plant usable form

Chemical fertilizers are not an effective substitute for a thriving microorganism population. These fertilizers still need to be converted to a plant usable form and do not supply bio-chemicals and exudates which are part of the healthy interaction between plant roots and microorganisms.

Carbon is the preferred food of microorganisms. To boost the population and activity of microorganisms try adding a little carbon, especially in or near the root zone. The carbon to nitrogen ratio, C:N, is important to the conversion and availability of nitrogen in the plant root zone.

Fortunately, it's not hard to attract microorganisms. They somehow manage to find their way into soil naturally, and then it's up to you to care for them. Nourish these tiny creatures with the basics: food, water, and air. Feed them soil organic matter by adding compost, ensure that the soil stays moist, and keep it aerated, and they will keep doing their jobs.

Be aware that healthy soil is teeming with little creatures who simply need basic care to do what they're genetically programmed to do: to power the nutrient cycle. If you keep these microorganisms alive and help replenish their population, in turn, they'll help your plants thrive.

Experts Comment on Tomato Gardening Issues

The Great Big Plants team just returned from the Independent Garden Center Show in Chicago. In response to many customer requests, we are attempting to make the Great Big Plants line of liquid organic composts available on retail shelves.

Of interest to many at the show were the difficulties with tomato gardens this year. The consensus from dozens of professionals was that the Northeast U.S. experienced the worst tomato growing year in many decades. Many cited the cooler, later arriving summer as the major culprit. This situation manifested heavy disease pressure, especially Late Blight Fungus. See the NY Times article on this: Late Blight Fungus. Several experienced gardeners said that they had to abandon their tomato gardens completely.

Along a similar theme, a new customer in the mid-Atlantic area sent us pictures of her ailing tomato plants and asked for our opinion. The Great Big Plants team forwarded the pictures to several professionals who manage tomato growing operations. The following are some of the comments regarding the same pictures.

"Looks like it could be powdery mildew. It's a new strain that is very aggressive and is rolling through fields right now. Also, the purple leaves suggest N or P deficiency."

"The photos look like phosphate and potassium deficiency."

"First, heat stress; secondly, disease, i.e., powdery mildew, bacterial spot, etc. And most likely a combination of these."

"Jeez, bacterial spec + over watering + under fertilizing are my guesses."

"Barring disease, salinity and/or poor drainage looks to be probable there."

These responses point at two things. One, you can't be a plant pathologist from pictures. Two, don't take caring for your tomatoes lightly - lots of bad things can happen to them!

What is Humic Acid and What Does it Do for My Garden?

Is a picture worth a thousand words or what? I came across this picture of increased root mass due to the effects of Humic Acid. (Source: Sustainable Agriculture Reserarch and Education; www.sare.org)  We have found that many people are not acquainted with this substance and its benefits. So, in spite of the picture, here are a thousand words anyway. (Well, maybe not that many.)

Humic acid is a term that refers to the combined humic and fulvic acid content found in naturally occurring decomposed plant and animal residues dating back thousands of years or more. Leonardite coal deposits have been found to possess the most bio-chemically active form of humic acid.

Humic acid can help improve soil structure. When applied to clay soils, humic acid can help break up compacted soils, allowing for enhanced water pentration and better root zone growth and development. When applied to sandy soils it adds essential organic material necessary for water retention thus improving root growth and enhancing the sandy soil's ability to retain and not leach out vital plant nutrients.

Humic acid also plays a critical role in the ability of the plants to uptake nutrients from soil. It is especially beneficial in freeing up otherwise unavailable nutrients in the soil so that they are made available to the plant as needed. For example, humic acid can separate aluminum and phosphorus molecules, making the phosphorus available for the plant. Humic acid helps chelate mironutrients, increasing their bio-availability to plants. 

Soil microbial activity is stimulated by humic acid by virtue of providing the indigenous microbes with a carbon source for food. As we know, soil microbes are responsible for solubilizing nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus so that they can be available for the plant's roots. Microbes continue to break down soil organic matter which increases humus and ultimately adds to the humic acid base of the soil.

So just imagine if you could easily add humic acid, benefical microbes and minor nutrients directly to the plant root zone all at the same time. Hmm....

How to Plant an Amazing Garden

PLANT THREE ROWS OF PEAS:

1. Peace of mind 
                2. Peace of heart 
                                 3. Peace of soul

PLANT FOUR ROWS OF SQUASH:

1. Squash gossip 
2. Squash indifference 
3. Squash grumbling 
4. Squash selfishness

PLANT FOUR ROWS OF LETTUCE:

1. Lettuce be faithful 
2. Lettuce be kind 
3. Lettuce be patient 
4. Lettuce really love one another

NO GARDEN IS WITHOUT TURNIPS:

1. Turnip for meetings 
                   2. Turnip for service 
                               3. Turnip to help one another

TO COMPLETE OUR GARDEN WE MUST HAVE THYME:

1. Thyme for each other 
                   2. Thyme for family 
                               3. Thyme for friends

Improve the rich soil of your garden by cultivating with PATIENCE.  Water deeply and often with LOVE.

Notice the beautiful roses of friendship, the sweet fruit of family, the tasty tomatoes of provision, and the healthy plants of faithfulness growing in your garden ... They are the harvest of your labor ~  Great Big BLESSINGS beyond measure.   Enjoy!

Posted by Chance's friend Dawn

Indoor Gardening? Avoid these 5 bad habits

There are a lot of bad habits when it comes to indoor gardening or having indoor plants. Here are 5 bad habits that I know first hand:

1. Inconsistent watering. Most all of my outdoor plants are on an automatic watering system. They get watered regularly and consistently. Unfortunately, at my house we often forget to water the indoor plants until we notice them getting stressed.  Letting the plants get stressed not only leads to uneven growth; it also makes them susceptible to pests and diseases. Plus subjecting them to so many near death experiences is kind of cruel.

2. Lack of pruning. Just as outdoor plants benefit from periodic pruning, so do many potted plants and container plants. A snip here and a cut there can improve indoor plants' health and appearance. However, not recommended for Chia pets.

3. Forgetting to walk the plants. Call me crazy, but my indoor plants and outdoor container plants seem to respond to being moved. Sometimes, I simply give them a half-turn toward the sunlight. Others, I move to different shelves or rooms. As I wrestle larger container plants across the patio, I sense they enjoy my heavy breathing.

4. Poor light management. Various indoor plants require differing amounts and types of sunlight - morning sun vs. afternoon, direct vs. indirect, etc.  Unfortunately, sunlight recommendations are sometimes vague or don't factor in that we may live in Alaska.  The best advice is to experiment within the general guidelines and pay attention to the results.

5. Unbalanced diet. Indoor plants live in a small, finite amount of soil. Eventually the plants will consume the trace minerals and minor nutrients in their soil. Because most popular chemical plant foods contain only the major nutrients, a steady diet of this type of fertilizer will not replenish these minor nutrients and trace elements. Unless we periodically resupply the soil with these, our plants will suffer. Not nice.

Hope you can use some of these tips to help your beloved indoor plants. After all, those darn things are expensive.

Our adopted company dog

This is our company dog. His name is Cual. One day a couple of years ago he came on our manufacturing facility property from the dry riverbed next to us. He had a woman's bathrobe belt tied around his neck and was pretty bedraggled. We figure he chewed one slipper too many. Anyway, he now lives on site and helps greet our visitors. Despite his gruff exterior, he is a very people friendly dog (except when strangers come on the property at night).

We realize that Cual has nothing to do with organic compost or plant and soil fertility; we just thought we would introduce him to our friends.  

Benefits of Compost

Whether one has a green thumb or is a complete gardening novice, everyone agrees that compost is a “good thing”.  At the same time, very few of us are aware of the specific benefits compost provides to our garden soil.  So the following is a list of compost benefits agreed upon by soil scientists and picky government regulators.  Pithy explanations are courtesy of yours truly.

Compost:

1. Improves garden soil structure and porosity – creating a better plant root environment. (It’s better to have garden soil you can dig in with your bare hands than dirt compacted like a concrete slab.)

2. Increases moisture infiltration and permeability, and reduces bulk density of heavy soils – improving moisture infiltration rates and reducing erosion and runoff. (Your garden soil should absorb water better than your driveway.)

3. Improves the moisture holding capacity of light soils –reducing water loss and nutrient leaching, and improving moisture retention. (Better your garden soil is a sponge than a sieve.)

4. Improves the cation exchange capacity (CEC) of soils. (As the Buddha observed, clinging is a source of suffering.)

5. Supplies organic matter. (Without organic matter, soil is essentially gravel. Gravel as garden soil is only good for plastic, pink flamingos.)

6. Supplies beneficial microbes to soils and growing media. (Garden soil without beneficial microbes is like a factory with no workers.)

7. Aids the proliferation of soil microorganisms. (Microbes need stuff like carbon and minerals.) 

8. Encourages vigorous root growth. (More roots good; less roots bad.)

9. Allows plants to more effectively utilize nutrients,while reducing nutrient loss by leaching. (Healthy soil requires far less fertilizer. Be sure to reduce your rates)

10. Enables soils to retain nutrients longer. (This is a major environmental plus. Retained nutrients get used by plants instead of leaching into the water supply.)

11. Contains humus – assisting in soil aggregation and making nutrients available for plant uptake. (Also good with pita bread and string cheese. Oh wait, maybe that’s hummus.)

12. Buffers soil pH. (Garden soil pH can determine the rate of nutrient uptake by the plant.)

Wow! That explains why so many people use and make garden compost even though it’s a pain.  The good news is that with Great Big Plants we can get the benefits of compost without all the trouble, and it's organic compost too. Even better is the fact that Great Big Plants doesn’t require you to dig up trees and shrubs or re-pot container plants because it’s liquid and travels with the water to the root zone. And if we do make our own compost, the addition of Great Big Plants significantly accelerates the process.

Welcome to our blog!

This is the first entry for the Great Big Plants blog, which we have so cleverly named in honor of one of the all time great gardeners. Our goal will be to share useful gardening information with our fellow gardeners, friends and readers. We will also share some of the experiences and pictures of the successes that we hear from you. We hope that we can help you to have rich garden soil, great big plants, and a smile.  Please feel free to submit comments anytime. 

As Chance says "In the garden, growth has its seasons. First comes spring and summer, but then we have fall and winter. And then we get spring and summer again."