When It Comes To Phosphorus Deficiency, Think Organically!
Gardeners are very much aware of the close relationship between organic matter and nitrogen, but the decomposition of organic matter in the soil is of equal importance to the amount of phosphorus available to plants. In both sandy and clay soils, phosphates can become quickly unavailable - “locked up” - in the absence of rotting organic matter. The carbonic and nitric acids present as organic matter break down and help unlock the phosphorus.
Without phosphorus, plant growth slows. Crops won’t mature when they should. Scientists are not positive yet about what phosphorus does, but they think the following explanation is accurate. The cellular material that mysteriously pulls the cell interior apart to form two new cells contains phosphorus. If the content is low, the rate of cell division is slow.
The subject of phosphorus deficiency gives us an excuse to inveigh against a press release issued by our land grant colleges periodically. The purpose of the release seems to be to hit organic gardening a good lick just on general principles, gain attention, and prove to the old alma mater that here is one researcher who has not wavered from the path of chemical righteousness. An expert is Invariably quoted to the effect that “Food grown on poor soil is no less nutritious than food grown on good soil. The variation is only one of quantity.”
How can responsible people utter statements like that? Outside a very, very, narrow context, that is plain, unvarnished error. Phosphorus deficiency is one of many examples that will refute such a declaration. Cows pastured on soil lacking phosphorus have poor bone development. Such a cow can look like the living death walking around. Check the University of Minnesota and ask to see their photos of cows grazed on poor, phosphorus-deficient soils in northern Minnesota. If we humans didn’t get adequate phosphorus in our diets, we’d start looking like those knock-kneed, mangy cows.
Discovering Phosphorus Deficiency
The quickest, surest indicator of phosphorus deficiency in vegetable plants is a reddish-purple discoloration of leaves, leaf veins, and stems. The coloring comes from an over-concentration of sugar resulting in the formation of anthocyanin, a purple pigment - the same reddish purple you see in autumn leaves. The excessive sugar production is triggered by the scanty supply of phosphorus.
Corn leaves, including sweet corn, may first appear a darker green than usual when young if phosphorus is lacking. Then the leaves and stalks become purplish. Knee-high corn with purple-fringed leaves almost always reveals that your land needs phosphorus. Defectively shaped ears are another sign - the crooked ears caused by slow silk emergence at pollination time. Crooked and incomplete rows of kernels on the ear is another sign.
Tomatoes starved for phosphorus get the characteristic reddish-purple color on the underside of their leaves, the color first appearing in spots on the web of the leaf, spreading to the entire leaf, and finally affecting the veins. Leaves are small and stalks too slender. Cole vegetables turn reddish purple too, on leaf edges. But don’t confuse that with purple cabbage! Also some sweet corn, like Early Sunrise, has a purplish hue in the stalks, natural to the variety. Remember, too, that cane sorghum shows reddish blotches on the stalk because of high sugar content, but it’s supposed to have high sugar content.
Supplying Phosphorus If Necessary
A good, built-up organic soil seldom if ever shows phosphorus deficiency because where high organic matter content is maintained, the natural phosphorus in the soil remains more available. But every soil, no matter how good, should have phosphorus added to it periodically if the soil is heavily cropped. Phosphate rock, either raw or the colloidal type, is the accepted organic fertilizer to apply. Rock phosphate is not cheap, but a two ton per acre application once every four years won’t break you up either.
Rock phosphate is not as readily soluble in water as superphosphate, though modern crushers can now render the former to a very fine powder that allows the phosphorus to be released much faster than used to be the case. Moreover, in the presence of lots of organic matter, more phosphoric acid becomes available from slow release sources like phosphate rock than the superphosphate salesmen will admit.
Organicists don’t use superphosphate for a number of reasons. They figure the extra processing necessary to convert rock phosphate into superphosphate represents a use of energy unnecessary to organic agriculture. The sulfuric acid used to make the conversion causes a build-up of a type of bacteria in the soil which feed on fungi that break down cellulose.
Bone meal is another source of phosphorus that makes sense on a small garden or on a few choice shrubs around the house. There are three kinds of bone fertilizer products: raw bone meal, steamed bone meal, and bone black, all with a phosphorus content of over 20 percent, though exact content will vary according to the age, diet, and kind of animal the bones come from. Some disagreement exists among gardeners over the benefits of bone meal. Some say they get no results from it; others wouldn’t garden without it. The difference of opinion probably springs from the fact: that it takes a long time for the meal to decompose and release the phosphorus in it. Also, gardeners who really care enough to use bone meal usually already have soil in good shape.
Cheers,
John Parker
P.S. Check this site out for all your organic needs:
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Tomatoes Can Cut The Risk Of Cancer…
If you are interested in growing tomatoes for health reasons… such as prevention of cancer here’s some interesting information that will have you planting tomatoes in no time.
Did you know that eating 10 servings of tomato paste and tomato products per week can make you healthier, and maybe save your life?
Eating tomato sauce twice a week can cut down the risk of prostate cancer by 33 percent, according to the non-profit Prostate Cancer Foundation. They have a marvellous free booklet about nutrition online at prostatecancerfoundation.org.
Scientists have found that the red-pigmented antioxidant “lycopene” which is found in many fruits and vegetables in particular tomatoes, may play an important role in reducing risks of many diseases, including cancer.
Tomatoes have anticancer and heart-protective effects, in addition to having lycopene, which helps control high blood pressure as well.
One in every six men will cultivate prostate cancer at some point in their lives. The disease mostly strikes older men, but men can take steps at all ages to trim down their risk. It’s particularly important if prostate cancer runs in your family, although the cancer can strike even people who have no family history.
Now…I didn’t say go and open a jar of tomato past and dig in! Just that quite a lot of studies have related diets high in tomatoes with lower risks of certain cancers.
A Harvard study in the mid-1990s found that men who consumed at least 10 servings of tomato products per week had a 34 percent lower risk of prostate cancer than other men.
More up to date research suggests that lycopene benefits women, too.
Some of the best foods for shielding against prostate cancer are delicious, colourful ones that have other health benefits as well.
If you don’t know how to boost your tomato intake, just combine a few slices of tomato to your lunch time sandwich or crunch on cherry tomatoes rather than potato chips or pretzels. And don’t forget you can also drink tomato juice!
But just before you go saying “NOT FOR ME” take into account that there are really easy ways to add tomatoes into your diet. Current research suggests 30 milligrams daily is enough such as a simple smearing of ketchup on sandwich bread or drinking a cup of tomato juice.
So it shouldn’t be that hard.
Fresh tomatoes are delicious, but don’t anguish when winter comes, because canned and tomato sauces are even richer in lycopene than fresh tomatoes.
Be sure to eat your tomato sauce with a little bit of fat, whether you drizzle on a teaspoon of olive oil or pour the sauce over something that contains fat, such as cheese ravioli or chicken. That’s because lycopene dissolves best in fat, and it’s easier for your body to absorb it if you eat a little fat at the same meal.
Also don’t forget your veggies…
Broccoli and its cousins are particularly potent cancer fighters, so enjoying this family of vegetables can be especially beneficial.
To find out more on tomatoes, tips, information and growing tomatoes check out my about me page.
Cheers…
John Parker
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The Importance Of Having The Right Amount Of Nitrogen In Our Soil
Soils rich in organic matter are seldom deficient in nitrogen, since nitrogen is produced during decomposition of organic matter. The amount may not be high enough to produce top yields, however. That’s why soil periodically should be planted to a legume that will fix additional nitrogen in the soil by the action of bacteria living on the legume roots. Since there are about 75 million pounds of nitrogen in the air above every acre of land, the amount of nitrogen fixed by legumes Is limited only by the plant’s ability to do the fixing.
Some day - and researchers are working at it already - we may have legumes and bacteria which will supply all the nitrogen a soil needs without any help from additional fertilizer. But for now there will be times when a soil needs additional help in building up a sufficient supply of nitrogen. This is particularly true for gardeners who take over poor ground and want to raise good crops Immediately. It takes nature years to restore a soil’s fertility. With organic help, the natural process can be sped up.
Growing and consuming plants, in some other way than allowing them to rot back into the soil from which they sprang, are activities which are by their nature nitrogen depleting. If you don’t put back as much as you take out of the soil, you’re losing ground - literally. The process is sort of like money and banks. If you establish a savings account and draw no money out of it, the interest keeps accumulating. Your money increases without any particular effort on your part.
If, on the other hand, you don’t have a savings account but must borrow money steadily, then you must always be paying back - principal plus interest. If you have more nitrogen “banked” in the soil in the form of organic matter than you are taking out, the soil continues to build up - progressively, like interest on savings. You don’t just hang on by the skin of your teeth each year in your gardening. And if a year comes when you can’t get extra fertilizer from outside sources, there’s enough in your “bank” to tide you over. But if you haven’t practiced thrift - if you’ve taken out more nitrogen than you’ve left in - you have to pay back from another source with interest. And you can’t ride out a bad year of fertilizer shortages.
Balancing The Supply
Plants can’t use nitrogen in its raw form. First acids in the soil change it to nitrate forms which the roots then take up. In the plant cells the nitrate salts are converted to ammo acids of many kinds which recombine to form protein. And protein, of course, is the real staff of life.
You can upset the process by which nitrogen becomes protein either by not providing enough of the former or by providing too much. Too little in a vegetable garden makes plants spindly and yellowish; too much and they grow rank, producing too much stem and leaf in relation to fruit, or producing leaf which has small protein value.
Too much nitrogen can make grains, especially wheat, grow so rank that they fall over at the first heavy rain or hard wind. In very dry weather, an excess of nitrogen fertilizer can build nitrate levels in stunted plants high enough to cause nitrate poisoning.
Nitrogen Deficiency посмотреть порно ролики бесплатно порно видео кончающие смотреть
You can spot nitrogen deficiency in your garden sometimes by color. Vegetable plants well supplied with nitrogen are a rich, dark green and grow fast in warm, humid weather. When growth is slow and plant color yellowish-green, you’re most likely short on nitrogen. First the leaves yellow, then the stems. In case of nitrogen starvation, the whole plant turns yellow, then brown.
Yellowing of leaves occurs from other causes, so be forewarned. Even experts cannot always tell by sight alone. On ground not properly drained, the yellowing may mean that nitrogen is not available to the plant because of excessive moisture and lack of aeration, even though enough of the nutrient is actually present in the soil.
Cheers,
John Parker
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What Do Organic Gardeners Use To Supply Potassium?
A major plant food is potassium, more commonly referred to as potash when talking about fertilizer. Potassium is certainly the most elusive plant food. In one acre of ground there may be 40,000 pounds of potassium in the top six inches of soil, but only 1 percent порно бессплатно проститутки чебоксары of it might be immediately available. Potassium seems to be needed for all the functions of the plant, but the plant does not build it into the structure of its parts. The element may move back into the soil as the plant matures.
It also moves around in the plant, usually going from older to younger tissue. Once the plant dies, the potassium is very easily leached out of it. Scientists don’t know yet exactly why potassium is so important to plants. It just is! The most commonly held theory is that potassium helps the plant resist disease, protects it from cold, and protects it during dry weather by preventing excessive losses of water. It also helps in the formation of plant sugars.
A plant lacking potassium grows slower. The leaves may get yellow streaks in them. Edges and tips of leaves become dry and scorched. In corn, the ears that do develop arc often just nubbins and on the stalks, the space between leaf nodes is abnormally foreshortened. The dwarfing makes the whole stalk shorter and the leaves appear too long for the plant. Stalks of corn or other grains are generally weak where potassium is in short supply and will break or blow over more easily.
In tomatoes, potassium shortage stunts plants. The young leaves become wrinkled, older leaves grayish and yellow along the edges. Light-colored spots between veins turn eventually to a bright orange color before the leaves die. Fruits, if any, ripen unevenly and are abnormally soft. Cabbage along leaf borders turns bronze-colored, then a scorched brown. In carrots, the leaves curl. Beets grow tapered roots instead of fat bulbs. Radishes first show unusually deep green in the center of the leaf and scorching on the edges later.
How To Supply Potassium
Potash is the most difficult fertilizer for organic growers to obtain in quantity, and therefore presents the biggest problem in any large-scale organic venture. Muriate of potash is the main source of potash fertilizer in the United States, but is not recommended nor certified by organic gardeners even though it is mined from natural deposits laid down by ancient oceans. The potash in these deposits is potassium chloride salts, and organicists claim that both the salts and the chlorine in them leave residues that are harmful to the soil.
Instead, organic growers use greensand, also an oceanic deposit. Sometimes called glauconite or glauconite potash, greensand contains approximately 7 percent potash - all in a form available to plants. Greensand is actually more of a granulated clay than a sand, which helps explain why it absorbs and holds water to further aid plant growth. Greensand also contains silica, iron, lime, and phosphorus, plus traces of many other elements. Traditional recommendations call for an application rate of 1 pound per square foot. That’s fine for small gardens, but you may want to spread it thinner on larger plots or fields.
Cheers,
John Parker
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Why It Might Be Time To Start Using A Rotary Tiller
If your garden gets too large for practical hand cultivation, and is too small to justify a large garden tractor or small farm tractor, what you need is a rotary tiller. The tiller replaces both spade and hoe, and can replace rake and cultivator too, with a little ingenuity. A tiller, run shallowly between rows, makes a weed cultivator without equal.
Because of its versatility, the tiller is probably the most popular garden tool made today. But to determine whether you can economically justify purchasing one, you should compare costs and the amount of food your garden produces.
Tillers are either rear-mounted or front-mounted. With a front-mounted tiller, you push down on the handles to make it dig deeper, the same as the rear-mounted, though the principles involved are different. When you sock the “brake” of the front-mounted tiller into the ground, the tiller can’t go forward and the blade continues to turn in place, going deeper into the soil. If the soil is hard, the tiller blades will bounce off it, causing the vibrations that after an hour or two can tire you out. The rear-mounted tiller won’t vibrate when the going gets tough, but if you try to force it to bite into tough soil, it will lunge ahead, dragging you with it.
The moral of the story is that neither type works well in very hard soil or in heavy sod. Here, as elsewhere, patience is the answer. Go over the area several times, letting the blades chew into the ground only an inch or so at a time. In the case of sod, allow the soil surface to dry out some between passes with the tiller. After the first pass, you’ll have a mess. Cut through the mess the second time at right angles to the first working. Don’t try to till sod when the ground is hard and dry. Wait until spring.
The easiest way to till sod is not to try. Instead, cover the area with a foot of leaves in the fall and leave them there the whole next year. (You can set out plants, like tomatoes, down through the leaves if you want.) By the following fall, most of the leaves will have rotted away and the sod, too. Then you can rotary-till easily.
Tillers won’t always cut up plant residues on the garden either. Things like tomato vines and cornstalks will tangle in the blades, especially if the blades have dulled with use. It’s best to run a rotary mower over the patch to be tilled first if there’s lots of plant material on it.
Tillers will “disk” plowed soil very well. If the plowed area had been in sod, do not let the tiller dig too deep as it will bring sod back to the surface. Tillers will fall-plow or spring-plow garden soil that has been previously cultivated and do an excellent job of it. They will incorporate into the soil chopped straw, hay, grass clippings, or leaves exceedingly well, and as mentioned, they will cultivate between rows too.
Cheers…
John Parker
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