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Bone meal...better options?
- Thread starter Roguejim
- Start date
Nice Blister . You are obviously a better pepper grower than I am.
Calmg+ maybe
Organic snobs have a strange barometer. Refuse from animal processing is bad, refuse from seafood processing is good. Most rely heavily on kelp products, but choose to ignore the clear cutting of kelp fields as an issue. Processing some rocks into soil supplements is bad, but some rocks are good? Malarkey. Finding a use for any refuse product to produce something new trumps fickle ideology, at least in this ass hats opinion.
Always telling it like it is. I love this guy!
Always telling it like it is. I love this guy!
Depends on whose kelp you use. I only use Acadian.miguelovic said:
EWCColdSmoke said:
What could Acadian as one of the largest global suppliers of kelp possibly have to do with overharvesting...
Granted they are one of the more responsible companies, I don't think the people of Maine care too much for their presence. I'm no historian on the company, but their attitude and efforts remind me of the local forestry companies. Sustainably clear cutting our forests to responsibly produce wood products, habitat destruction, top soil erosion, ground (and drinking) water contamination, etc. They even have a new harvesting technique, vastly different from clear cutting. They leave one tree per acre to reseed. Although I wouldn't spend much time looking for that tree. Without the support of his brothers, he rarely lives out the year.
http://bangordailynews.com/2012/09/01/news/down-east/more-and-more-oceanfront-property-owners-opposing-down-east-seaweed-harvest/
Granted they are one of the more responsible companies, I don't think the people of Maine care too much for their presence. I'm no historian on the company, but their attitude and efforts remind me of the local forestry companies. Sustainably clear cutting our forests to responsibly produce wood products, habitat destruction, top soil erosion, ground (and drinking) water contamination, etc. They even have a new harvesting technique, vastly different from clear cutting. They leave one tree per acre to reseed. Although I wouldn't spend much time looking for that tree. Without the support of his brothers, he rarely lives out the year.
http://bangordailynews.com/2012/09/01/news/down-east/more-and-more-oceanfront-property-owners-opposing-down-east-seaweed-harvest/
When I do my pre-season soil amendments for each year I add in powdered eggshells that I've collected from the previous season. This year I had just over 5 pounds of ground eggshell to add to to my small (20'x20') garden. I know that the bioavailability of eggshell to the plants can take time but I've never had any issues with BER and have not ever needed to use a Cal+Mag product.
ColdSmoke said:
FWIW, I've settled on white limestone and vinegar. The mineral is used as ground cover and can be found in many yards, (or purchased for next to nothing at a landscape store.). Toss a handful of small rocks into a cup or so of vinegar. (I like to smash the bigger ones to 1 inch or so.) Let sit for a few days until the vinegar evaporates, leaving the rocks covered with calcium acetate crystals. About once a month I toss 1 fuzzy rock into a 3 gal container, let sit a few minutes to dissolve the Ca, then water. Or scrape and collect the crystals and add a pinch... The CaAcetate is highly water soluble and immediately available to the plants.
Calcium Chloride is widely available as a cheap ice melting agent. Ca Nitrate is also also fairly common as a N + Ca fertilizer.
Yeah, I've been hoping to find an amendment of any kind that I could work into the soil prior tp plant out, one that would supply adequate calcium the entire season. This season, about 6-7 weeks prior to plant out, I worked in both bone meal and lime, along with alfalfa meal and feather meal. I just picked a chile chilaca pod the other day with BER. Back to cal-mag for now, I guess.
Not since putting the plants outside. In another thread, I had some questions w/photos showing how my plants were suddenly yellowing after being put outside to harden off. With all the calcium-based NFTG products that I had been pumping into them, I started to lose confidence in the product when I saw this sudden yellowing. Scott Ostrander said my plants required even more calcium now that they were in the sun. He even thought the NFTG nutes had lowered my pH to the point where the plants weren't able to uptake the calcium adequately. My pH meter exposed that buffoonery. The pH was in the mid 6s. I had been using both the NFTG liquid calcium phosphate, and their liquid bone meal regularly up to that point, so I started to wonder...ColdSmoke said:
I switched back to cal-mag because I knew it would work, and the plants started to green up again. I've since switched to Dynagro now that the plants are in ground. I may even alternate that with fish emulsion. I just need to get a handle on this calcium problem. If I could just get a source for ramial chipped/shredded wood like windchicken, I could say goodbye to all the nutes, and amendments. I find his system to be the best. Just my opinion on that.
alkhall said:
Last year was the first year ever when I didn't have even a single paste tomato with BER in a certain garden plot. The only thing I did differently last year was add a handful of gypsum while planting each plant. I did the same thing this year, so we shall see if it works again...
My own unscientific thoughts on this would be that you should add calcium AND magnesium together when amending your soil. Adding one without the other may create an imbalance between the two potentially leading to a lockout. Lockout signs are similar to lack of. It seems to be a ratio of 2 parts cal to 1 part mag. Though some companies mix as much as 4-1
Neil
Neil