Are your raised beds in jeopardy? Is the potting soil worn out after last summer’s intensive vegetable gardening? Did you plan to rejuvenate that microbial world before you replant? Maybe the fertility was gobbled up by last year’s crops. Maybe you need some rocket fuel to kick-start the nutrient levels so your plants explode into growth.
Here’s how to quickly rehabilitate your raised beds so they become instantly enriched with the organic stuff plants need. The problem with dry organic fertilizers is their components take quite awhile to break down. Until they do your plants languish, lagging in their performance because they need food now, and so do the microbes that help them grow.
A good strategy for small box gardens and raised beds is a no-till and almost no-work approach. No-till keeps existing microbes underground and protected to maximize populations. This is particularly true for mycorrhizae, fungi beneficial to plants that have a webby body destroyed by cultivation. Tilling doesn’t kill the fungi. It just knocks it back to interrupt the immediate benefits, too.
Whenever you mix a fertilizer into water, it is said to be “in solution.” That means its nutrition is mobile. Water is a carrier of nutrients of all kinds to bring them into the root zone for easy uptake. As the fertilizer-enriched drench filters down into the soil, it adds nutrients to depths well below the surface. This provides incentive for young vegetables to root deeply from the start.
Dry fertilizers have always been dangerous because you work them into the soil, then water it all in so the particles gradually dissolve or disintegrate. If materials aren’t thoroughly mixed into soil or when too little water is used, breakdown slows. Such problems are often the result of dry fertilizers used indiscriminately with drip irrigated plants.
West Coast hydroponic growers and drip irrigated market farms drove big demands for liquid organic fertilizers. They are used in fertilizer injector systems that add a steady delivery of nutrient-rich concentrate every time the water flows. In recent years, hydroponics has produced many new brands and crops available at garden centers or online. Look for liquid products under Dr. Earth, Espoma, Peaceful Valley Farm Supply, Eleanor’s, Botanicare and Biobizz.
Virtually all these fertilizers can be utilized for this kick-start planting method. Try any listed as organic such as fish emulsion. Mix the concentrates of your fertilizers in a big 5-gallon plastic bucket. Pour on immediately while everything is in suspension or it will settle out prematurely for irregular results.
SIMPLE FOUR-STEP REHAB
1. Scratch the top inch of the soil surface to break up crusting that repels moisture. It also opens the surface so moisture can move freely through carrying nutrients deeper down. Pull all weeds.
2. Thoroughly drench the soil surface with your nutrient solution. Follow that with a slow and thorough saturation of the entire soil mass so no dry pockets remain.
3. Add potting soil to bring your bed soil surface up to a proper elevation. Potting soil gradually decreases in volume over time, so this is inevitable shrinkage that compromises the depth of your root zone. Use really good quality potting soil as a seed bed to help seeds remain moist and quick to germinate.
4. Use compost as your surface mulch to maintain soil moisture. Once you plant and seedlings come up, the compost can be layered around them gently as heat rises. Mulch reduces this evaporative potential, keeping plants and roots from yo-yo moisture levels.
If you’re short on time and energy, this liquid method of getting your garden up and running is the solution. It’s really valuable in drier Western states, where moisture depletion is chronic and rewetting peat can be problematic. The real beauty is once you discover solutions, you can brew up a new batch anytime you want to give those beds more zest later in the season.
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Maureen Gilmer is an author, horticulturist and landscape designer. Learn more at www.MoPlants.com
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