Tag: Fertilizer

Strawberries Revisited

Strawberry runners transplanted in August. Roberta Bailey photo A thick patch of strawberry plants at the end of the second summer, ready to be tilled under as weeds are encroaching. Roberta Bailey photo By Roberta Bailey We all want to grow strawberries. Who can resist the allure of a basket brimming with fat, red, juicy

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Grow Your Own Fruit Trees

By Roberta Bailey Planting fruit trees can be a big step, a commitment to a place and to one’s self. Some people plant trees as soon as they settle on a piece of land, knowing quite a few years will pass before they see fruit. For others, that same knowledge keeps them from planting. The

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Nitrogen Fertilizer

By Eric Sideman, PH.D. Ever since humans began to cultivate food, nitrogen has been the most common limit to crop yields. Modern agriculture has answered this limit with synthetic production of nitrogen fertilizers, which has greatly increased global food production and has supported an astonishing growth in the world’s population. However, the environmental problems are

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Compost Tea

By Eric Sideman A book from the 1950s by J.I. Rodale called the Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening refers to ‘compost water.’ “It is no trouble to make,” writes Rodale. “All you have to do is fill a sprinkling can half with finished compost and half with water.” Rodale points out that some of the valuable

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Biosa

Erik Nielsen, third from left, with some of the Biosa team in Frederiksvaerk, Denmark. Story and photos by Ron Rosenthall North Americans may soon associate Denmark with more than Hamlet, blue cheese and the Little Mermaid: We may add products from Biosa Danmark ApS that could improve the well-being of farm animals, the yield and

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Using Cottonseed Fertilizer

Far Better Options Exist by Alex Owre High-nitrogen content (6-2-2) cottonseed meal is an organic fertilizer that lowers the pH of soil, poses little danger of burning plants, and provides nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium as well as many minor plant food elements. It is cheap and readily available. In some states, however, cottonseed meal is

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Basics of Organic Soil Fertility

By Eric Sideman, Ph.D. Copyright 2006 In 1648, Jean-Baptiste van Helmont did a great experiment and had clear results, but he drew the wrong conclusion. Still, he was among the first on the path to understanding the role of soil in plant nutrition. He placed 200 pounds of soil in a pot and planted a

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Duckweed Tilapia Vegetable Cycle

A Duckweed-Tilapia-Vegetable Cycle Grows in Washington, Maine From the outside, the garden and greenhouse at Home Grown look just like those at any other small farm enterprise. The ordinary exterior hides a unique self-sufficient system of raising large quantities of fish and vegetables in a small space. Alice Percy photo. by Alice Percy On a

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Let Leaves Feed Your Soil

By Jean English Copyright 2008 Looking for free “fertilizer” for your lawn or garden? Look to leaves! Leaves that drop in the fall can supply all the nutrients needed in a vegetable garden. They’ll even supply a wider range of essential nutrients than a bag of 10-10-10 synthetic fertilizer, because tree roots draw over a

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Hydroponic

By Eric Sideman, Ph.D. In the late 1960s I watched a play by Megan Terry called Home: Or Future Soap on public television. The set was a single room that had no view of sky, ocean, sun, snow, hills or rivers. People lived their whole lives in this single room; never left their rooms; and

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