I've treated my garden with the Mitleider protocol every spring for several years now. It involves large amounts of lime and small amounts of magnesium and boron mixed together, spread over and worked in with the other amendments I added. Keep in mind, different parts of my garden have different types of soil but have pretty much received the same basic fertilizing, etc. That includes in ground, raised bed and container. Every single area I tested was either 7.0 or 7.5, just a smidge alkaline so no lime this year.
Thinking this must be faulty, I got some gingerale and alkaline water and tested them to see if everything tests the same. The gingerale was off the chart acidic and the alkaline water was very alkaline, maybe 8.5. I've always heard you can't use too much lime in this part of Arkansas so I hope my decision to back off this year won't be one I regret
After so many years of the mitleider treatment, I thought I should test before I did it again in case it was getting too alkaline from the lime so I bought a probe and a bottle of the test strips just to see how they compared. The probe did not work at all so it was a bust. Since I've once again reworked the layout and spacing of the rows on my vertical garden, I wanted to do the testing before I start amending and planting...yes, I'm running a couple weeks late but the remodel has been overwhelming for me for some reason but it is the final one and will make it easier as we age...I've learned a lot about vertical gardening and spacing the hard way, of course lol. I made the painful decision to eliminate a row since I can't go any further left or right. I'll add a couple small rows behind my two large raised beds in another part of the garden...that may or may not be this year.
I will go ahead with a little fertilizer for everything but my sweet potato bed...it will get only azomite, bone meal and yellow cornmeal this year. I think I got my nitrogen in it too high last year and had a terrible crop. The rest of the garden will get yellow corn meal for ants and nematodes and a sprinkle of azomite for the first time plus bone and blood meal where needed and a basic fertilizer. My tomatoes will get all the bells and whistles as I plant.
My starts are begging for a bigger living space lol.
.
Thinking this must be faulty, I got some gingerale and alkaline water and tested them to see if everything tests the same. The gingerale was off the chart acidic and the alkaline water was very alkaline, maybe 8.5. I've always heard you can't use too much lime in this part of Arkansas so I hope my decision to back off this year won't be one I regret
After so many years of the mitleider treatment, I thought I should test before I did it again in case it was getting too alkaline from the lime so I bought a probe and a bottle of the test strips just to see how they compared. The probe did not work at all so it was a bust. Since I've once again reworked the layout and spacing of the rows on my vertical garden, I wanted to do the testing before I start amending and planting...yes, I'm running a couple weeks late but the remodel has been overwhelming for me for some reason but it is the final one and will make it easier as we age...I've learned a lot about vertical gardening and spacing the hard way, of course lol. I made the painful decision to eliminate a row since I can't go any further left or right. I'll add a couple small rows behind my two large raised beds in another part of the garden...that may or may not be this year.
I will go ahead with a little fertilizer for everything but my sweet potato bed...it will get only azomite, bone meal and yellow cornmeal this year. I think I got my nitrogen in it too high last year and had a terrible crop. The rest of the garden will get yellow corn meal for ants and nematodes and a sprinkle of azomite for the first time plus bone and blood meal where needed and a basic fertilizer. My tomatoes will get all the bells and whistles as I plant.
My starts are begging for a bigger living space lol.
.
