Tips on Soil & Fertilizer for Spring

Tips on Soil & Fertilizer for Spring

• Test Your Soil
• Use a home soil testing kit or send a soil sample to a testing lab. Amend soil as necessary to achieve the ideal pH balance. Most plants in our area thrive in slightly acidic to neutral soil (anywhere from 5.5 to 7.2 pH). However, the requirement is different from one plant to the next, and some can even survive outside the normal pH levels. Learn what the ideal soil pH is for each plant. You may need to add amendments to help achieve the ideal pH. There are many methods to raising and lowering the pH. Lime comes in many forms, and is the most commonly used to increase the pH. Various forms of sulfur are most commonly used do decrease the pH.

• Add a Soil Conditioner
• Replenishing lost nutrients in soil periodically is recommended.
• Spread layer of compost, several inches thick, over existing soil. Add in any amendments or pH adjusters, then mix and work compost into the bed about a foot in depth.
• There are many types of compost to choose from. Knowing what your expectations are is important before you try to make your selection.

·        For clay soil, use a cotton burr compost to help break down clay, add in organic materials and allow for adequate drainage.

·        For organic gardening, use organic composted manure, such as turkey or cow, mushroom compost, or one of our favorites, earthworm castings.

• Fertilize
• You can apply an all-purpose fertilizer just about anywhere. There are specific fertilizers recommended for each plant. Here are a few things to think about before choosing the best fertilizer for your needs.

·        Most fertilizer types and brands have an all-purpose formula available. Rose, flower, vegetable garden, and acid-loving, are just a few of the hundreds of plant specific fertilizers available.

·        Plant specific means that the nutrients found in that fertilizer are designed to meet the exact needs of that specific plant.

·        If you don’t mind feeding plants weekly or biweekly, then a water soluble fertilizer is ideal. This is usually a powder-like substance that is soluble, or dissolved, in water. Add the fertilizer to a watering can for small areas, or use a hose attachment that mixes the fertilizer with the water as you spray, which is ideal for larger beds and lawns.

·        A granular fertilizer allows you to space out feedings on average, for 1-3 months, depending on each brand. However, some fertilizers can feed up to one year. Generally, toss granules evenly over the area, or apply along the drip line (depending on the plant and fertilizer), and water in. This can also be mixed in with the soil when you are planting.

·        If you want something to throw down and forget, we recommend a polymer coated fertilizer. Most of these fertilizers will have continuous, slow-release formula that lasts around 6 months, depending on the brand. It is recommended to mix this in with the soil when planting.

·        As organic gardening demands rise, organic fertilizer selection correspondingly grows. Fish emulsion, kelp seaweed, earthworm castings, organic manure, blood meal, bone meal, humic acid, peat moss, bat guano, cover crops, and homemade composts are just a few of the available organic fertilizers.

This article was written by Brittany Dickinson on January 22, 2014. 
 © 2014 Riddle Plant Farm All Rights Reserved

Organic Grasshopper Control - Part I

Organic Grasshopper Control

Part I

While there are many solutions to insect control, a lot of our friends and neighbors are finding it a bit difficult to find an effective, organic method to not only kill, but also repel, GRASSHOPPERS! With the interest in organic gardening picking up steam this season, our staff is constantly researching new ways for us to approach age-old problems. Records indicate grasshoppers have devastated crops as far back as biblical times. Why is there no sure-proven solution to their over-population? Grasshopper "plagues" come in waves. Which means we could lose all of our crops this year to an infestation, and next year not see a single grasshopper. If there was an easy solution to this problem, it would be public knowledge. Unfortunately, grasshoppers are one of the most difficult pests to rid your garden of. 

Grasshopper 101

In order to effectively wipe out the population of grasshoppers, you need to first learn the basic facts of their biological cycle. Grasshoppers have 3 life stages; egg (pods they lay directly on the ground), nymph (adolescent without wings) and adult (fully grown with wings).   It is most effective executing your chosen control methods in the egg and nymph stages. The female grasshopper will lay her eggs about an inch to two inches below ground in mid-summer, where they will remain dormant until spring, when they begin to hatch. As with most insects, if we see an early spring, we will see an earlier arrival of grasshoppers. After they hatch, they go through several molting stages for one to two weeks, a couple more weeks to develop wings, and then they finally become adults. After which, they live approximately one month. This means they have a total life span of one full year. 

Deciding what method is best for you

It is ultimately you who decides how to approach organically controlling grasshoppers. Although using one or two of the methods listed in this series will help, using a thorough, combined method would be most effective. Now that we understand the basics of the life cycle of the grasshopper, we know when it is most critical to take corrective action. We need to eradicate them before they mature into their most destructive phase: the adult. 

1.      Introduce predatory animals & insects

One of the top natural ways to reduce your grasshopper population is to introduce predators. However, you do not want to create a new problem, so research a little on each creature to figure out if it is the right one for you. For example, snakes are natural predators to grasshoppers, but you don't want to introduce a hundred rattlesnakes in your backyard and create a whole new set of problems. Here are just a few predators that are easy to introduce, and are known to be top predators of grasshoppers:

·        Snakes, lizards & toads (not only eat the adults and nymphs, but consider eggs a tasty delicacy as well)

·        Birds! (All kinds of birds! Some birds consider grasshoppers not only their favorite dish, but their regular source of food! Bluebirds, cardinals, brown thrashers, crows, hawks, mockingbirds, meadowlarks, woodpeckers, sparrows, chickens, ducks, Guinea hens)

·        Bats, flies, wasps, & spiders (they DO serve a purpose!)

·        Mice, rats, skunks, raccoon, armadillos, opossums & other rodents and marsupials (highly effective in digging up and eating egg pods)

·        Koi fish, cat fish, gold fish, and just about any fish you could stock a pond with. (Throw a live grasshopper in your pond and watch the fish fight over it!)

Research each predator on exactly how to attract them in your yard. For some, it is as easy as hanging a bird feeder stocked with seed that is designed for that specific species of bird, or just adding a decorative bird bath to your yard.

This is just a tiny step towards controlling grasshoppers organically, but as we mentioned earlier, ridding your garden of grasshoppers is not an easy task!  Stay tuned for Part II, where we discuss what organic products work best!

Now let’s discuss today’s Part I!

Does anyone have any suggestions, additions, or corrections that go with today’s article? Anything work particularly well for your grasshopper infestation management? If so, please share with us!

To comment, you can either sign up for your own blog, or comment anonymously.

This article was written by Brittany Dickinson on July 29, 2013.

© 2013 Riddle Plant Farm All Rights Reserved

© 2013 Brittany Dickinson All Rights Reserved

Almost Here!

Monday we will be unveiling our new community collaborative blog that offers advice and tips from Riddle Plant Farm experts. In the gardening world, not one single person or entity could possibly have all of the answers, which is why we are enabling the blog for commenting and advice from our readers as well! Advice is encouraged from all level of gardeners; from first-time-gardeners to the professional farmers, there is something we could learn from one another. A joined effort and collaboration of gardeners’ advice from our own community should help each of us enjoy gardening a little more each day by always having solutions that rid us of our constant gardening dilemma headaches! After all, gardening is supposed to be fun, remember? Here’s a sneak peak of our first topic:

Organic Grasshopper Control

While there are many solutions to insect control, many of our friends and neighbors are finding it a bit difficult to find an effective, organic method to not only kill, but also repel, GRASSHOPPERS! With the interest in organic gardening picking up steam this season, our staff is constantly researching new ways for us to approach age-old problems.……. To Be Continued.

Tune into our blog Monday, July 29th, for the rest of this Riddle Plant Farm article!