Gardening / Landscaping

[hjtrbo]

All of Perth’s food growers use alkaline bore water.

Same problem with mine. Nothing some high sulphur fertiliser can't fix.

 

[Fu Manchu]

Same problem with mine. Nothing some high sulphur fertiliser can't fix.

To an extent but the volumes of nutrient leaching into the environment is on truly staggering levels. Ultimately representing how badly our money spent on horticulture and agriculture is working for us.

The work around is to harness the soils biological life to do the job instead. Far more environmentally friendly, far more efficient, far more cost effective, less disease and far more consistent growth from the target plant/s.

Im on a board looking at ways of improving horticultural training. The unanimous view across multiple areas of horticulture is that soil microbiology is the big way forward for growing plants. The old N, P, K and pH are grossly inefficient and outdated methods of growing. Students will be learning a whole new range of methods, why we need to change and bringing balance to how we care for plants. The fertiliser industry is changing outdated products and developing huge breakthroughs in more sophisticated bio friendly products that deliver cost savings and improved results.

Troforte is one example and rock minerals. Fungal inoculations for soils is becoming a more common thing for both skilled gardeners and horticulture.

Fungi are ultimately what feed plants until humans fk it up with NPK, poorly used fungicides, and poorly prescribed outdated fertilisers. Most common fertilisers are the equivalent of giving your lawn or plants Meth to achieve performance. People wonder why they get so many problems.

 

[Fu Manchu]

Sorry. That was a ranty. A well informed rant though.

 

[hademall]

All of Perth’s food growers use alkaline bore water.

Oh okay. I just know that over three years I planted certain veggies and toms and such and they all seemed to grow fine, and then they didn’t go too well so I did some research which led me to finding out about how the bore water makes the soil too alkaline, which apparently is not good for lots of veggies. So I got a ph testing kit, and the soil read 9.5ph, so I just took it for granted that I had fecked up the soil. My you, I’m no green fingers

 

[hjtrbo]

@Fu Manchu Less N P K and more Seasol then? And other products like blood and bone and organic dynamic lifters?

Happy to learn some new methods.

 

[Deuce]

Happy to learn some new methods.

Me too.
Most of the discussion so far has been over my head or things I simply am not doing.

 

[losh1971]

I'm using molasses and watched a vid on how it helps. Going to use it once or twice more on the lawn and then dump some Rapid Raiser on it to help get things moving.

 

[ephect]

Blood and bone or urea for a feed boost.

Urea needs to be watered in well, or applied before rain, otherwise it'll burn the grass

 

[Fu Manchu]

Urea is the crystal meth of the fertiliser world. It’s unsophisticated and grossly inefficient at delivering nitrogen. Like putting out a camp fire using a lake.

It’s really old fertiliser tech. Like a HK Monaro being passed off as new car.

It’s only around 4-20% of the nutrient paid for that’s absorbed by the grass. 80% into runoff. The rest is wasted. It in particular is exceptionally good at thinning the cell walls out. That extra growth comes with enormous sacrifice to the plants resilience. You’ll greatly increase its water needs and increase unproductive growth. In other words a burst of growth That increases mowing and has knock on effects later on (months) with fungal issues of the not ok kind. Like a big night out followed by a nasty hangover later.
I used to work with people who wanted to see it’s availability to gardeners stopped.

 

[Fu Manchu]

Blood and bone is great. Seaweeds are beneficial. Molasses is a huge help. Compost teas also amazing and can yeild as good a result as large volumes of chemical fertilisers.