2013 Lawn Additions

Lawn additions dropped this year, as I mentioned in the gardening post from yesterday.  At this point, I'm reaching maintenance mode on the soil and no longer need to apply the level of organics that I used to.

A total of six pounds per thousand square feet of nitrogen isn't exactly anything to sneeze at, however.  It's more than enough to assure that the lawn grew perfectly, spread to repair problems, and was a very nice green all year long.

This chart doesn't include sprayed iron, which I only did once this year, earlier in the week.  I also applied calcium lime, once in spring, once in late summer, at a low rate to adjust the soil pH upward a touch.

Date	N	P	K	Iron	Organics	Other Notes
5/15/2013	0.91	0.26	0.13	0.00	13.0	Soybean Meal
7/26/2013	1.05	0.30	0.15	0.00	15.0	Soybean Meal
8/18/13	0.63	0.25	0.00	0.54	12.6	Milorganite
9/9/13	1.05	0.30	0.15	0.00	15.0	Soybean Meal
10/3/2013	1.05	0.30	0.15	0.00	15.0	Soybean Meal
11/6/2013	0.20	0.00	0.02	0.00	0.00	Vigoro 29-0-4
11/21/2013	1.12	0.00	0.16	0.16	0.00	Vigoro Super Green
Total per K ft:	6.01	1.41	0.86	0.70	70.6	706 active organic total

2013 Garden Additions

Garden additions went way down from last year (just as the lawn's did).  I also tapped a very small amount of boron in the form of 20 Mule Team Borax into the gardens in May.

The organic material tests now have the gardens at a very good 9.3%.  I didn't add mulch this year as there was enough left from last year to carry through, so that number might drop a little in 2014.

This table doesn't include synthetic additions.  Once per week, I add 1 pound of 24-8-16 across the entire garden, or about 1/4 the recommended rate.  Adding this to the organics brings the gardens up to stellar performance, but does tend to lower the pH.  I corrected that again this year with the dolomite I added in April, plus a small amount of calcium carbonate-based lime in July.

Date	N	P	K	Iron	Organics	Other Notes
4/20/2013	0	0	0	0	0	Dolomite 40 per K
5/9/2013	1.10	0.00	0.44	0.88	22.0	Milorganite
6/5/2013	0.83	0.23	0.10	0.10	12.5	Milorganite, Soybean Meal
7/8/2013	1.55	0.62	0.00	1.24	31.0	Milorganite
Total per K ft:	3.48	1.29	0.10	2.22	65.5	131 active organic total

That's a Wrap!

This week closed out the gardening and lawn season for the year as temperatures are due to plunge into the thirties (for a high) next week.  Tomorrow is the last day we show a high over fifty for quite some time, although we'll undoubtedly flirt with higher temperatures in December.  We usually do, nowadays.

Yesterday I completed spraying 6 oz per thousand square feet of iron on the lawn.  I'm still drawing off the fifty pound bag of ferrous sulfate monohydrate I bought last spring, but I ran out of ammonium sulfate.  I substituted Miracle Gro 24-8-16, which works perfectly well.  The lawn is now finishing up its color change, from a rather anemic green with a slight yellow overtone to a deep green with blue notes.

This evening I dropped my winterizer.  1.12 pounds of nitrogen, from Vigoro Super Green.  That will help add a bit more iron into the mix, plus some slower release nitrogen for the inevitable warmer periods through winter.

With luck--and temperatures that don't dive under fifteen--the lawn won't go dormant this year at all.

I'll release my charts of feedings for both the lawn and garden for the year shortly.

A Drip of Nitrogen

Although the organics are still feeding the lawn from October, we're starting to spin into the late fall.  Our long-range forecast implies strongly that growth won't stop on the lawn until early December, if even then.

I dropped 0.20 pounds of nitrogen per thousand square feet this evening to wash in during tomorrow's rain.  And this time, it was synthetic as I happen to be out of grains and would rather not make the 30 minute each way trip to get more just for a small feeding.

That should kick in around the weekend and feed the lawn for the next two weeks or so (nitrogen demands are down due to the slowing growth and lower levels of sunlight).

Garden Clean Out

It's that time of year!  We're post first frost, the annuals are dying off, and the perennials are shedding their greenery for the season.

I've cleaned out and composted about two thirds of the garden at this point, and I'm waiting for the compost bin to free up to finish the final third.  I always chop up the plants with the mower and bag the remains, then dump that into the bin.  It decreases the size of the particles, and compresses everything into a much smaller space.

Add some water to the bin and there we go--compost in two weeks (if you turn it a lot).  The current temperature is running at 140° and holding, which means I'm not turning it right now as I'd burn my hands.  In four or five days that will drop to a more skin-friendly level.

The "quick" compost I produce is rough, and not good enough to dig into the soil.  It works beautifully as top dressing, however, and decay continues through fall and into spring, enriching the soil.

Apropos to the Season

I've had a resin pumpkin on hand since the clearance sales last year and finally got around to cutting it.  A few hours with a small hand-saw and you get the pumpkin below.

Resin pumpkins can't have candles in them or they'll burn, and light sources need to be under 5 watts.   I pulled out my electronics kit and whipped up a four AA battery power source to run 4 orange LEDs and 2 warm white LEDs.  It's a bit brighter than a candle flame, and far more constant, but the inside of the resin pumpkin is an orange-brown and benefits from brighter light.


As always, click on the image to enlarge it!

 

The Last Organic Feeding

Or at least for the year.  I dropped the last load of soybean meal at 15 pounds per thousand on the lawn last weekend.  As of today, it was watered in and it'll continue to be watered in during the next few days.

After this, there may be one more addition of Milorganite, but probably not.  The next planned feeding is winterization towards the end of November (or whenever top growth finally ceases).

The gardens are still in good shape, although not as heavily blooming as they were last month.  If the weather clears Sunday I'll try to get some photos.

Lawn Feeding, Soybean Meal

I dropped the third fall feeding today, fifteen pounds per thousand square feet of soybean meal (the first was also soybean meal, the second Milorganite).

That should kick in around the end of September and supply ample nitrogen through October.

The last organic feeding will be around October first, to release toward the middling-end of October and into November.  The remainder of that final feeding will freeze and release small amounts of nitrogen through spring, sufficient to carry me through May and the first of the major yearly feedings.

The absolute final feeding for the year is synthetic, and done whenever top growth ceases.  That's usually around Thanksgiving, give or take a week.  This year, I chose Vigoro Super Green as it was in stock when I went, and the cheapest thing available.

Easter Eggplant--Collecting Seeds

The Easter Eggplant (featured in earlier posts) is maturing beautifully, with "eggs" turning yellow and then a burnished orange that's the perfect color for September.  I can't recommend these plants highly enough, but do recommend putting them in pots where you can more easily enjoy the eggs.  The flowers are also quite pretty, but small and easier to see if they're somewhere closer to eye level.

With the fully mature orange color, it's time to collect seeds!  Although there are plenty of methods that work well for all eggplant, including the blender method, I chose the glass of water method.

Pick an eggplant (be careful, they have small thorns on the stem).  Fill a glass half full of water.

Cut the top stem portion off the eggplant.  You can cut as deeply as about a quarter way through the eggplant without losing too many seeds.

Then quarter the eggplant.  You can pull apart the seed containing areas by peeling back the yellow-white "meat" and exposing the seeds in layers.  Your thumbnail will be sufficient to free the seeds.  Dip your fingers containing the seeds into the water.

Repeat until you have all the seeds you want (it's best to take seeds from several plants to preserve as much genetic diversity as possible).  You may notice a few seeds float to the top, and all the excess eggplant meat and rind will also float.

Carefully pour off the water down to the seed layer but don't lose the seeds!  Then refill with water again and repeat pouring off.  Do this a third time and the water should be completely clear.

Dump the seeds onto a plastic or china plate (seeds will adhere to paper) and spread them out as well as you can. 

They'll tend to stick to each other, so do your best.  Let dry for a day or so, and spread them again.  Then dry for a week in a location out of direct sunlight and store for the winter.

Eggplant seeds tend to do best if they experience vernalization, or the process of simulating winter and then raising temperatures for spring.  I may do an extended entry on this in the future as I now have two species that benefit from vernalization (the other is cleome).

Storm Damage

We had vicious thunderstorms blow through on Labor Day, including more than 3 1/2" of rain and violent winds.  Parts of the garden took some damage, most notably the tallest and most exposed of the cleome.

Most of the shorter plants, including the marigolds, zinnia, ageratum, and so on came through unscathed, as did all the trees and shrubs.  As a general rule, larger and more spread-out annuals will tend to be damaged most easily by winds.

When this happens, there's very little you can do.  Remove any broken branches, re-seat any plants that have been shifted, and hope for the best.

Damage will tend to occur toward the end of the season, so at the very least you don't have long to look at it.  Early season plants are smaller and more flexible.

In my case, much of the mass was chopped and composted, and the damage wasn't terrible.  One cleome that I couldn't re-seat will simply lean a bit for the remainder of the season.

Milorganite Down!

I hacked down the jungle-like growth out there that a week of intermittent rain set off.  This morning, 13.6 pounds per thousand of Milorganite went down as an interim feeding. I should be noticing increased green from the iron by mid-week as we're getting some rain today.

I'd fed with soybean meal on July 28th, just before an earlier rainy period, and will feed again around September 10th with soybean meal.  The final organic feeding will be around October 1st, with winterization around Thanksgiving using a synthetic.

Yes, fall is the time to feed your lawn.  Synthetics should wait for the temperatures to break downward a bit (we usually say Labor Day).  Organics can start any time from August first through Labor Day and be just fine.

Optimally, you'll want to deliver about three quarters of your lawn's nitrogen in fall as more of it goes into root storage and development than in spring.  Feeding once around Memorial Day is sufficient for the spring lawn.

The other feedings, assuming using an off-the-shelf synthetic, in my area are Labor Day, October first, and whenever the grass stops growing (for me, around Thanksgiving).

That last one is actually the most important as almost all the nitrogen is transformed into carbohydrates and stored for winter.  Winter survivability rises dramatically in lawns that were "winterized," or fed just after cessation of top growth.

Since my area inconsistently freezes, I use Vigoro Super Green with a goodly percentage of slow-release nitrogen.  Areas further north would do better using the cheapest fast-release (no "WIN" listed under nitrogen on the bag's nutrient panel) fertilizer you can lay hands on at bag rate.

What Works Faster: Milorganite or Ironite?

This is another question that showed up in my search results--apparently Milorganite and Ironite are frequently compared head to head.

They really shouldn't be as they're completely different things.  Milorganite is an organic feeding that happens to contain a large percentage of iron.  Ironite contains a large percentage of iron and happens to contain a very tiny amount of nitrogen.

As far as speed of greening, both Milorganite and Ironite will give essentially identical results.  Enough of the iron is water-soluble that it'll reach the roots at about the same speed for each product after watering in (or rainfall).  While Ironite has a bit more iron, it's not significant at bag rate applications.

As far as feeding, Ironite will give a tiny boost of nitrogen.  Milorganite will give a much larger one (there's ten times more nitrogen in Milorganite), and about two-thirds of the nitrogen in Milorganite releases over the long term.  Organic nitrogen requires time to decay, process, and become available to the plant roots.

Milorganite will help enhance your soil over time as well, although the process is rather slow--on the order of years, not weeks or months.

If you read my posts from this weekend, Milorganite is the heavy-hitter in my gardens (and often in the lawn, although less so this year).  Ironite...I don't use the stuff, personally, as the unit price is more expensive when comparing both the iron and the feeding capability of Milorganite.  Add in the soil alterations and there's no comparison.  It's Milorganite hands down!

Easter Eggplant

Easter Eggplant is an eggplant that produces fruit the size and shape of Grade A chicken eggs.  The "eggs" start out a creamy off-white, something like eggshells, and turn yellow as they mature.  Colors can range into orange as they get older.

As it turns out, that description of the Easter Eggplant is accurate.  Several of the older eggs on my plants are beginning to turn, and I discovered a set this morning that are now fully yellow.  They're on one of the most beaten-up plants in the corner of the garden that sits in full sun all day long.

As always, click on the photo to embiggen it!

Watering in Milorganite and Soybean Meal

I noticed a search term rising in my stats report and it's a good question.  How much water does Milorganite need?

Technically, none.  You don't need to water in an organic fertilizer to get it to work.  Natural rainfall will do that for you very nicely, and neither Milorganite nor soybean meal (nor any other organic fertilizer) will burn if you don't water it in.  That assumes you've applied a reasonable amount as large amounts of Milorganite can burn, but bag rate to double bag rate certainly won't be a problem.

Milorganite contains some water-soluble nitrogen, so until it's watered in nothing is happening at all.  Around a quarter inch of rainfall or irrigation is sufficient to move that water-soluble N into the soil to start work.

Soybean meal contains no water soluble nitrogen, so there's no immediate nitrogen release at all when watered in no matter how much water you use.  Other organic fertilizers will vary, but the percentage of water soluble nitrogen will tell you how much effect to expect immediately after watering.

The remaining sixty percent (or 100 percent for soybean meal) of water insoluble nitrogen has to decay and break down in the soil to become available to your plants.  That's dependent on moisture as well, so a constantly slightly to moderately damp environment will feature the fastest nitrogen release.

Too much water tends to expel oxygen from the soil, which is necessary for decay.  Soy and Milorganite will still decay under anaerobic conditions, but the results aren't quite as good.  Too little water will shut down decay and stop nitrogen release until rainfall resumes.

This is actually a good thing.  Soils that are too wet or too dry don't foster large amounts of plant growth to begin with, so reduced nitrogen release is appropriate for what the plants need at that time. 

My Garden Secret

OK, stop hassling me via e-mail.  You know who you are.  :-)

There are actually several secrets to making your garden bloom like this.

1)  Get A Soil Test.  Just like the lawn, or your vegetables, they're stuck in the soil.  They can't move.  You as the gardener will need to balance the soil appropriately, so get a soil test.  I prefer Logan Labs.

Reading it can be difficult.  For the most part, you want saturation percentages of 60% calcium, 15% magnesium, 10% potassium, 15% everything else.  Give or take some, and it does depend on what you're growing--those numbers are for typical annuals.

As a general rule, 250-500 PPM phosphorus is best for flowering gardens, but I've pushed mine far higher.  You don't really need to do that.

Adjust things appropriately and your gardens will bloom.

2)  Milorganite.  18-36 pounds per thousand square feet, applied monthly.  Milorganite will provide some water-soluble nitrogen, but also adds plenty of organic nitrogen that will take a while to decay into your soil.  At first, those amounts may be too large and you may find that it smells very bad as it decays.  If so, back off for a while until the scent fades and apply at lower levels the next time.  Slowly step it up.

Milorganite is probably the most important feeding I give the gardens.

"I can't get Milorganite!" -- I've also used soybean meal to excellent effect and do occasionally use it instead of Milorganite.

In neither case do you have to specifically water it in.  Both the Milorganite and soybean meal will start work the next time you water or it rains, and neither will burn your plants if it sits on the leaves.

3)  Water.  Wilted, stressed plants won't bloom.  Dead plants definitely won't bloom.  Keep the soil evenly slightly moist at worst all the time.  It's best to water far enough before sunset that the plants have time to dry thoroughly before dark.  That reduces fungus issues and also helps keep slugs down a little bit (not much).

4)  Other feedings.  I have an EZ-FLO hose-end system and use it to inject a quarter-rate feeding once per week into my gardens.  Roughly, over the course of a month, I use the same amount of water soluble food that would be recommended for a week.

A hose-end feeder will work just fine.  If you're following Tip #2, you don't need a great deal, but it's wise to trickle in a little bit often.  Just pass over the plants once, then water in or let the rain carry it in for you.

While I use 15-30-15, I've recently changed to 24-8-16 because my soil tests are coming back with very high phosphorus levels.  There's no need for me to add any more.