Too many backyard gardeners do not realize the frequent necessity for continued applications of fertilizer.
They are content with adding fertility in the early spring before or at planting time but do not realize that increased yields are often hard on most crops by using a starter or nutrient solution.
A starter solution is advantageously applied when transplanting. A dry commercial fertilizer mixed with water is one type of starter solution, says one tablespoonful to a gallon of water.
There are also several concentrated package-form starter solutions with many-element fertilizers.
Nutrient Solution
A teaspoonful of borax may be added to the ordinary commercial fertilizer in the water to improve the form and quality of beets, carrots, turnips, celery, and certain other crops.
A nutrient solution is applied during the growing period. If, for instance, you want to raise Rutgers tomatoes, you probably would go rather light on nitrogenous fertilizers (which produce vine growth and delay maturity) at the start.
Still, in midseason, you would add considerable nitrogenous fertilizer to the soil to prolong the growing season.
Some gardeners, who have read that beans will grow in poor soil, might want to add some fertility to the pole beans that in poor soil have made inadequate growth!
Those who complain that tomatoes and cukes grow for a short time and then seem to quit, granting that adequate water has been supplied, should add fertility in midseason.
Grocery Store Mixture
There is a “grocery store mixture” of one teaspoon each of baking powder and Epsom salts and one tablespoon each of saltpeter and washing ammonia added to a gallon of water.
Ammonia is a nitrogen source and is particularly helpful to lettuce, cabbage, and other leafy crops.
The nutrient solutions are applied near, but not on the plants and preferably are applied down below the surface (by running a furrow around the plant).
Hen Dressing
It is possible to apply manure mixed with water. A fertilizer too little appreciated is hen dressing. This will probably have two or three times as much nitrogen and potash content as horse or cow manure.
To make it a “complete” fertilizer, however, phosphoric acid is needed as a supplement in the dressing, which is usually added as superphosphate.
Superphosphate usually costs about half the price of three-element commercial fertilizer and is available in 100-pound bags.
A little borax added to fertilizer may help root crops that in previous years have grown with cracks, hollow hearts, or have made weak growth.
Lime may also be needed, but it is better to have a soil analysis before applying lime indiscriminately.
Many backyard gardeners seem to think that growing fine vegetables in poor soil is impossible. However, fertility and humus, if needed, can be added to make soil productive.
44659 by Harry A. Nickerson