Sassafras Foliar Peculiarity
maackia
15 days ago
last modified: 15 days ago
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bengz6westmd
15 days agolast modified: 15 days agomaackia
15 days agoRelated Discussions
Nitrogen in fertilizers and the truth about Urea
Comments (33)No worries John, I feel no hostilities from you or frostiness. Just inquiring minds want to know. I will repeat though "The source of nitrogen I think is not of great importance compared to making sure the fertilizer you use has all the micronutrients plus calcium and magnesium. The purpose of my original post was that someone should not worry about whether the fertilizer they use has urea or not." I think people look at fertilizer as a quick and easy thing that they can change and feel like they are doing something to help their plants. Things like adding more light throughout the year, increase humidity, better control of temperature, regulating ph take more effort and/or cost more. Jane is on to something when she says "The biggest change I've seen in my growing conditions would be increased light over winter. I'm getting blooms on plants I've had for years without blooms." and Jan when she says "Now to figure out how to get my city water with a pH of 9.0 to a level to make better use of all those delicious trace elements!" One thing everyone can do that is not expensive is get a water quality report from their municipal water district. This should be free. Some cities require them to be given to customers. San Francisco customers get a water report twice a year. The reports maybe online. The report will tell you things like ph, hardness, and about minerals and pollutants in the water. These can vary from spring to fall. I suspect with Jans tap water ph of 9 that her municipal water source comes from a river that flows through limestone, maybe like the Colorado. She may find she gets plenty of calcium and magnesium in her water and doesn't need it in her fertilizer. As far as nitrogen forms in fertilizers, it maybe good to cover your bet with all three as they have varying times of utilization, but I think over time it doesn't mater. I think the different nitrogen forms are present in the potting mix after each fertilizing and get used the next time, washed out, or help break down your potting medium. John to help you search for a holy grail in fertilizer you may look at these: 1 Simple sugars after all that is a big part of what the plants are making. Jerry Grow- no longer made as far as I know - exploited this. Works better in highlight and warm to hot weather. Needs more scientific study. 2. Nickel as a trace element. It is use by plants as a catalyst in urease enzyme so it is never used up, but plants grow. I have only seen one fertilizer that had nickel in it made by Hydrofarm. I have no idea if they still make it or not. I do think you can grow orchids fine with urea free fertilizer relying on ammonical nitrogen and nitrate. I will mention two things that havent been mentioned so far and are needed in the break down of nitrate to ammonia to be use by plants. Two enzymes are required. Nitrate reductase involving two electron reduction of nitrate to nitrite. The other enzyme nitrite reductase involving a six electron reduction to transform nitrite to ammonia. As you can see there are a lot more steps to get from nitrate to ammonia then with urea. Cheers, Mark Sullivan...See Morethis is not hvx.
Comments (14)The most dangerous HVX infected hosta is the one that shows no indication at all. A hosta can look perfectly normal and be infected and certain to transmit HVX if both the infected and new host hosta have their juices come in contact. Sanitizing tools and assuming every hosta may have HVX is the best and only way to almost surely prevent spread. Other virus, that can be transmitted by insects, are far more susceptible to spreading throughout a garden. Testing negative for HVX can give a false sense of security as it only tells you that the hosta doesn't have HVX and it could have something far more contagious. Indications of HVX wouldn't cause me to be alarmed. If it clearly matched the photos available in the Hosta Library, I would simply kill it and ensure the roots were dead before doing any digging (3-4 months would be reasonable) If the indications looked like another virus I would religiously spray to keep spreading by insects and 'Roundup' the plants if I was convinced it was a virus. If you are aware of how HVX spreads, there is no reason to panic and digging it up without killing it is a mistake...in my opinion. Others may have differing opinions, but they are wrong. Jon...See MoreWhat's Blooming in your garden - a photo thread - July 2013
Comments (88)Dee No worries about your review of the URI article. I was a bit put off by the lawn/imidocloprid thing myself. Usually the URI entomology articles are quite good, but that one wasn't. I did however, find a link through that article to Arbico Organics that sells a variety of different kinds of beneficial nematodes. I've been looking for Steinernema Carpocapse for some time. Not only does this nematode control grubs, it also is the only beneficial nem that will control foliar nematodes. Foliar nems are a real problem in Hostas and are hard to control. The link is below. Thanks for the Prarie Sun ID. Lost the tag on that one. H. Cracker Crumbs is a mini. I little bright gold thing. Bella Anna is always pink, regardess of pH. The only drawback is that it flops like Annabelle does. I need to get some Peony supports for it. I bought that one for $5 at Weston Nurseries in November after the pallet sale broke up. It's grown well. Enjoy the weekend. It's going to get hot next week. Remember, nothing lasts in the garden. Steve Here is a link that might be useful: Arbico Organics...See MoreJuly Tomato Report
Comments (13)Annie, I think we are only the tiniest bit hotter, but y'all are probably usually more humid. (On some days, I'd think the higher humidity would feel great, but on other days it would push the heat index into the stratosphere!) We have limited protection from south and north winds, but not so much from the west, and none from the east. Our clay holds too much moisture when it rains and not enough any other time, but it is great when well amended. We have one narrow band of sandy soil between the house and garden and that is where the guinea coop and chicken coop are, there under the shade of the big pecan tree. I have cannas and 4 o'clocks and rough-leaf dogwood under that pecan to help shelter the poultry from the predatory birds that like to eat them. Unfortunately, the soil amending has to be ongoing....year around, year in, year out. I am "only" 49, but wonder how many years I'll be able to garden at the current pace. Already, the heat bothers me so much more than it did 5 or 10 years ago. The garden gets a little shadier as the trees on three sides of it get larger, but I have to worry about their roots encroaching too. Our soil leans towards being neutral, around 6.8 to 7.2, as long as I keep it well-amended. I had alkaline soil (around 8.0) in Texas, and it was a struggle to lower it any at all. Unfortunately, our place here was once a farm where cotton was one of the crops raised, and there is cotton root rot in the soil. That gave me a lot of trouble in the early days, and there really is no "cure" for it, but I find that the more I amend and improve the soil, the less trouble I have with cotton root rot. Unfortunately, two or three thousand plants are susceptible to it, so I have to watch what I plant. I don't garden on most the land we have because the clay is like red concrete. Only about a acre or acre-and-a-half of it is tamed, about 3 acres are pastures where the wildflowers and grasses nurture the wildlife, and a little over 10 acres is forested and full of deer, bobcats, foxes, ringtailed cats, ferrets, snakes, snakes, snakes, and tons of other stuff, including possums, armadillos and skunks. We do mow 10' wide paths through the pastures so we can walk through there without stepping on copperheads (been there, done that, didn't care for the experience, but didn't get bitten either). I love, love, love living and gardening here, but I miss the longer growing season we had in Fort Worth, where the last spring freeze was often in mid to late-February and the first one often didn't hit until mid- to late-November. Still, I do like Oklahoma better even if it took me 39 years to get here! I envy the rainfall y'all get up there....in a GREAT year here, we'll have 30 to 34" inches and we'll be astounded that we got so much! I can't imagine routinely getting 35" or 40" or more. I'd sure like to try it for a year or two though! Most years since we've been here, it's been more like 26" or 28" or maybe 30" of rain, but one year it was 21" and another it was 24". In a year like that, it gets to where all you can do is water enough to keep the foundation from cracking. So, in a "good year" we STILL have drought here, and in a bad year it is unspeakably bad. I guess it is probably pretty much the same all over Oklahoma....is there ever really enough rainfall in June, July or August (well, maybe at Scott's! LOL). Our 17 keats have survived their first month and we've only had to kill two black snakes that were after them, although our predator-snake problem is usually the worst in July and August. DH keeps wanting to let the keats out of the brooder cages, but the last two times we did that when they were this old, something got them all, so they are staying in the brooder a while longer. I think the guinea coops is about 95% snake proof, but I am not convinced it is 100% snake proof. Our bunnies are disappearing, but I haven't heard the coyotes howling at night yet, so think they are still denned up with their young. A neighbor says a friend of his is seeing a cougar occasionally, but I haven't seen any signs of one near us for a couple of years, I think. Maybe it is the bobcats getting the rabbits. It has been such a great rabbit year, but I know it doesn't last long. The turtle eggs laid in the shrub bed (clay highly amended with compost) have hatched and we have little baby turtles everywhere, and we've had a huge population explosion in the hummingbird gang this year--ruby-throated, black-chinned, and rufous. Life is good! (Hot, but good.) I am very careful about exposure to the heat and sun. I don't wear sunscreen as often as I should (but I'm better than I used to be), but I always wear hats and, more often than not, I wear long-sleeved cotton shirts in the summertime. All the ranchers and farmers here do that to protect their skin, so at least I don't look like an oddball. (Being an organic gardener in a pretty non-organic county makes me enough of an oddball as it is! Not that I care. I wear my oddballness proudly!) Dawn...See Moretsugajunkie z5 SE WI ♱
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