Lets talk fertilizer!

[AMKuska]

Last year I didn't fertilize my garden at all, except for the sacks of steer manure I tilled into the ground before planting. This year I'm interested in fertilizing my garden, but I don't want to put any nasty chemicals on my garden. Except for possibly watering half-finished compost into the ground I'm not sure what's safe for the plants.

I'm planning to grow lettuce, broccoli, tomato, peppers, potatoes, bok choy and onions. Anyone have any tips?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Check with your extension office and get a soils analysis. That way you know what you are dealing with. If you can get Monty's attention he's pretty good at figuring out what the reading mean.

Once you know what you need to add we can get down to specifics.

 

[thistlebloom]

I think a basic fish emulsion and liquid kelp solution can be a good place to start. Applied according to the label, it's just a general purpose basic
fertilizer. Can't go far wrong with that while you're waiting to amend your soil per the extension soil test findings.

 

[valley ranch]

Steer is a pretty good start. For broccoli, lettuce and bok choy, miracle gro can be very good for any leafy plant, where you eat the plant. For tomatoes and peppers I use steer {cow} tea. We had so many tomatoes last season, it works well. Fill a 5 gal bucket 1/2 full of steer, the rest with water, fill it to the top with water, fill it agani when the water is absorbed, depending on the size of your garden, you can use a plastic trash can, give it a day, than dip it out to your plants, and refill with water. You can put the manure in a sack if you want. Not many things better than steer.

Richard

 

[journey11]

I'm sure your soil composition is vastly different than mine, but the thing I find most often necessary here is the need to apply lime. If the pH is wrong, the plants can't efficiently use whatever nutrients are already there. My soil tends to run too acidic. For most garden veggies, you want to stay around 6.0 to 6.5. There are a few exceptions, like potatoes that like it more acidic.

 

[valley ranch]

We grow most of our food at the lower ranch on the high desert, I may add lime there this coming season, it's very alkaline, never used lime before, may try it in one area.
I plan to carry duff, of fir and pine trees, from here at our mountain place, there are areas where the duff is a couple feet deep.

 

[Ridgerunner]

You need the right pH. How do you know whether to raise or lower it or how much until you know the pH of your soil? That's a big reason a soils analysis is so important. My soil tends to be acidic but when I got it analyzed last year pH was right on. I did not need to do anything to pH. I just had a couple of nutrients I needed to add and not much of them.

Valley, if your soil is alkaline you may need to add some sulfur or something to lower the pH instead of adding lime to raise it. That duff will probably lower the pH as it decomposes. That may work out really well. But I would not add lime to alkaline soil, not without knowing the pH.

 

[AMKuska]

What is an extension office?

 

[thistlebloom]

What is an extension office?

Aww, don't be embarrassed, lots of people aren't familiar with them.
Here's a link for you to look over for offices in Washington:
http://extension.wsu.edu/locations/Pages/default.aspx

 

[Ridgerunner]

http://whatcom.wsu.edu/

Each state has their own extension service. It's tied to your state land grant university and is intended to connect people to specialists in agriculture and manufacturing to aid the state's economy. Each state is different but they should be able to let you know how to get a soils test. Each county should have it's own office.

They are involved in 4-H, have ties to Master Gardeners, normally have some great pamphlets to help you grow things in your state, and offer many other services. In general the agent may not know much about a specific topic but they should be able to connect you to a specialist that does.