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Posts Tagged ‘garden’

Questions and Answers on Gardening

Question #1
How to Test Soil For Magnesium Level

This question is in response to last month’s emailed gardening tip. You mentioned to make sure to do a soil test to see what your magnesium level is before adding any Epsom salt to outdoor plants. You said, “Without knowing your current magnesium levels, you shouldn’t apply Epsom salt at all to outdoor plants. Many areas have almost toxic proportions of magnesium present in the soil, and continually adding more will end up poisoning the plants and the soil.” That’s great, but how do I test for Magnesium levels?

Jim Trueman, UK

ANSWER:
Hi Jim! Great question. Since most home “do-it-yourself” soil testing kits only test for pH, Nitrogen, Potassium, and Phosphorous, in order to find out your calcium and magnesium levels you’ll have to take a sample to a local soil testing lab. Every county has one, and the cost is usually around $10 (£5). It’s fast and very accurate.

The weekendgardener…

Question #2:
Out Of Control Weeds

We have recently moved into our house, and the gardens are full of weeds. We have tried pulling them out, we have tried both chemical and organic weed killers, and tried solarization. Is there any other way. We just can’t seem to contain them.

Brad Martin, Lismore, NSW Australia

ANSWER:
Hi Brad! I can hear and understand your frustration. Nothing is worse than a battle of the weeds. Unfortunately, the best advice I can give you is diligence, and try mixing up your techniques a bit more.

The problem with a lot of chemical weed killers is they do a great job of killing what’s there, but if you simply leave that area bare, and don’t do anything else, new weed and grass seeds can blow in and take root in the now clean and open area.

You also have to realize there are perennial and annual weeds, which means that at any time of the year, some kind of weed will be growing. The trick is to keep after it year-round and in a season or two, you will see a huge decrease in the problem as you kill each weed’s growing cycle and start to get the upper hand.

So what I would suggest is to pick a general weed killing method, I like solarization because it’s chemical free, but many people opt for RoundUp or another systemic weed killer.

Once you have killed everything back, come back in and put down some corn gluten, I mentioned this up on question # 6, see above if you didn’t read it.

Corn gluten is great because it will keep any new seeds from germinating. Keep in mind, it will keep all seeds from germinating, so if you are planning on starting a vegetable garden from seed, this will be a problem.

If that is the case, and you can’t put down a pre-emergent, put down a good layer of mulch, 2 to 3 inches (5.1 to 7.6 cm) to keep any new weeds smothered.

Hang in there, you have the right idea, and in time, your garden is going to look great.

The weekendgardener…

Question #3:
What Is Heavy Soil

I want to start a water garden. I went and bought a Papyrus plant. I was told to repot plant and to use “heavy soil” and water plant fertilizer. Can you tell me what “heavy soil” is? And what type of fertilizer to use that can be used with fish in pond?

Ramona Diorec, Honolulu, HI, USA

ANSWER:
Hi Ramona! Good question. Soils come in various “textures” meaning there sandy, loam, and clay soils, which some people can refer to as light, medium, and heavy soils.

Heavy soils (the same as a clay soil) are called that because they contain more clay, are sticky, and have little pore space, drain slowly and retain water and nutrients longer, which tend to make them more fertile than other soils, and are ideal for pond plants.

A medium soil (the same as a loam soil) which is considered the ideal garden soil (not for pond plants, but general gardening), because it has a nice balance of 3 particle types, clay, silt, and sand, giving it a combination of large and small pore spaces allowing it to have air for healthy root growth, and to drain well and lose nutrients at only a moderate rate.

Lastly, a light soil (the same as a sandy soil) contains particles that are fairly large and irregular, and have large pore spaces between the particles giving the soil lots of air, which drains very quickly losing nutrients and water. That’s why plants in sand need watering and feeding more often.

In your situation, you will want to use a heavy clay soil, and there are such soils packaged specifically for aquatic plants, so ask for that. In a pond situation, using the wrong type of soil can cause numerous problems, so start your plants out correctly with the right soil.

Now, just a few extra tips for you. One of the problems with ponds is that they can get a brown tinge to the water. This is because the soil has come out of the pot, which can happen in a high wind when the pot blows or falls over spilling soil into the water, or the soil washes out of the bottom of the pot. To avoid this problem here are a couple of things you can do:

1. Use a shorter wider pot (sometimes called a “pan”) because it is less likely to blow over than a taller pot, especially if it is a taller growing plant (like some Papyrus); and make sure that you add some medium sized stones on top of the soil to keep the soil in the pot. The stones will also add extra weight which will keep the pot from tipping over in the pond in the wind.

2. Line the pot with burlap, weed barrier mat or a few layers of damp newspaper. After the bottom of the pot is lined then add your soil and plant. This helps keep the soil from washing out the drainage holes into the pond. Once the plant is potted up, soak the entire pot in a bucket that is large enough to cover the top of the pot for about 24 hours. This will allow any loose soil to be washed off into the bucket of water and not in your pond.

3. When you are putting the plant in the pond make sure that you slowly lower the pot into the water rather than just plunge the pot into the water. By lowering the pot slowly this will keep the force of the water from washing the soil out of the pot and into the water.

The final part of your question was about fertilizer. There are many made especially for ponds, just ask for fertilizer for Pond Plants. It will be safe for all aquatic life, and it won’t turn water green from algae growth.

The weekendgardener…

Question #4:
Leafminers on Tomatoes

I have 5 pots of “patio” tomotoes growing in large pots on my balcony. All 5 plants have tan “schrigely” marks on them, as you can see in the picture. Not all leaves have these marks. Also, the newest growth leaves on top of plants do not have these marks (yet??). Any suggestions as to the problem? Thanks.

Bob Coyne, FL, USA

ANSWER:
Hi Bob! First of all, thank you for sending a picture with your question. It always is so helpful to be able to see exactly what you are talking about.

What you have are called Leafminers. They like to feed on bean, beet, cabbage, chard, lettuce, pepper, tomato, and other vegetables; also many ornamentals, especially chrysanthemum and nasturtium.

The larvae tunnel through the leaf tissue making hollowed-out, winding mines. They can kill seedlings, but the good news is that on older plants, such as your tomatoes, the larvae are more of a nuisance, and a cosmetic issue, than a serious problem.

There are a few things you can do:

1. Handpick and destroy mined leaves.

2. Remove any egg clusters you may see on the undersides of the leafs as soon as they are visible in the spring.

3. You can also spray neem oil. Read more about neem oil.

The weekendgardener

The backyard in itself is a pleasant place. But no garden is ever so perfect without a water fountain. They add beauty and serenity to you’re garden The sound of the water will give you much relaxation.

The kinds of water garden fountains

There are a lot of different garden fountains You have them in all kinds of sizes, for instance you have wall fountains that are installed on the wall and are mostly used in small gardens or patio’s and you have pond fountains that are used mostly in the bigger garden,but there are pond fountains special build for smaller gardens.

The materials used to make garden fountains are: stone, ceramic, wood, copper, concrete, and I have also seen some beautiful old bronze garden fountains, though they are really expensive and much harder to maintain, the best materials for a fountain would be concrete and ceramic, those materials are low maintenance and have a long durability.

Garden fountains with sculpted carvings are adding to the beauty and serenity of you’re backyard, choosing the right kind of garden fountain is a important decision, you need to think of a view things like: budget, how much is this going to cost me, where in the garden am I going to place it, where do I get my water and electricity from, this take’s up a lot of planning, I would recommand to get some professional advice about all this stuff.

Maintenance

There are some things that you need to think about when maintaining your garden fountain.
-Fist when you have your water fountain in the garden you need to make sure that you clean in on a regular basis, because if you don’t do that on a regular basis the water will be populated with algae and turn into a green dirty slum, and you don’t want that do you?

-Use a algae treatment that is save for the environment, it would be a shame if you cleaned out your fountain and all of the sudden all the wildlife in you’re garden go belly up, there are a lot of greet products that are completely save fore the environment to use.

The right planning is the main requirement to install, maintain and own a garden fountain, there are a lot of recourses on the internet and in magazines that you can use to plan and designing your garden with a fountain, belief me there if no better way then to relax in your own backyard with sparkling fountain

The Japanese refined and developed Bonsai techniques and evolved the art form it is today. For the Japanese, bonsai represents a fusion of strong ancient beliefs with the Eastern philosophies of the harmony between man, the soul and nature.
The major aspects of Japanese bonsai, has not changed significantly over time.

Bonsai initially originated in Egypt thousands of years ago and moved to China. From China bonsai moved to Japan. Where the Japanese perfected the art of bonsai.

Japanese use azaleas to create magnificent bonsai following years of pruning, wiring and careful attention. The Japanese art of bonsai, and its precursor, the Chinese art of penjing, are rooted in the traditions of Asian culture.

The art of raising bonsai dwarfed potted trees has enabled the Japanese to admire nature in an indoor setting. The art of bonsai, as developed in America, is much freer in concept and style than Japanese bonsai.

The quality of a bonsai tree is measured on how well it portrays nature in miniature form. A bonsai should have a well tapered trunk and have branches all around the tree to give the bonsai visual depth. The art of bonsai involves the bringing together of tree and pot in visual harmony. “Bonsai” simply means “potted tree.” But many of the really fine specimens have been pruned for more than 100 years.

Requiring many years of devoted attention and care to produce, the bonsai extends beauty and expresses the significance of life. The care involved in creating and shaping a bonsai is considered a form of meditation in and of itself.

Over time, bonsai began to take on different styles, each which varied immensely from one another. Today, hardy as well as tropical indoor bonsai are trained in classic styles, including windswept, slanted trunk, rock clinging, and forest.

Bonsai are highly regarded as a symbol of Japanese culture and ideals. Contrary to popular belief, bonsai are not tortured trees. A bonsai may have areas of dead wood to give an impression of age. There are several techniques available to the bonsai grower to increase the apparent age.

No longer exclusively an oriental art form, today bonsai is practiced by thousands of people around the world, on every continent. The art of bonsai is the art of imitating the spirit of nature. A bonsai industry of considerable size exists in certain sections of Japan.

He unabashedly begins his stories in newspapers, magazines and online by proclaiming, “This will be the most phenomenal article you will ever read.” He claims to have cured his own cancer, to have removed his own warts and to be the most robust 82-year-old on the planet – ever since he discovered the miracle solution known as hydrogen peroxide.

Bill Munro immediately grabbed my attention with a story titled “Gardening with H2O2″ in Acres U.S.A., the highly respected farming journal from Austin, Texas. In 13 years of applying hydrogen peroxide to his gardens, Munro said he has experienced better yields, faster seed germination and far fewer insect infestations.

“Try it,” he said during our phone interview from his home in Michigan. “The peroxide will change the way you garden forever. If you let it, it will even change your life.”

If you type the phrase “Bill Munro peroxide” into Google on the Internet, you’ll quickly come up with all sorts of articles that talk about his experiences curing his cancer by inhaling hydrogen peroxide several times daily. He cites a book titled Hydrogen Peroxide: The Medical Miracle by Dr. William Campbell Douglas, and offers detailed instructions for using this commonly available liquid to improve your health. Much of the traditional medical community doesn’t seem to put much stock in hydrogen peroxide as a health aid except as an antiseptic, but it is known that white blood cells do produce small amounts of hydrogen peroxide in our bodies to help fight infection and disease. Even the skeptics say inhaling hydrogen peroxide probably won’t hurt you if you decide to give it a try.
For our purposes, however, we were most interested in Munro’s gardening claims, all of which appear to be true.

Extra Oxygen Makes Magic

Readily available in drugstores and supermarkets in familiar brown bottles that block light, hydrogen peroxide is simply water (H2O) with an extra oxygen molecule that is loosely attached to form H2O2. That extra oxygen is highly unstable in the solution and vaporizes easily upon contact with other substances, thereby accounting for the fizzing that occurs whenever hydrogen peroxide touches your skin. The 3 percent solution most commonly sold in stores is widely used to clean cuts and abrasions in pets and humans, and for numerous other cleaning and sterilization applications around the home. The federal Food and Drug Admini- stration has approved hydrogen peroxide to be used for “aseptic” packaging in the food industry, and many people use H2O2 as an environmentally friendly alternative to chlorine in pools and, especially, hot tubs.

That same oxidation action that keeps water clean apparently also has a positive impact in horticulture. Numerous hydrogen peroxide manufacturers recommend soaking seeds in H2O2 prior to planting to speed germination rates. Watering with hydrogen peroxide is also recommended to help keep fungal and bacterial diseases at bay. Most instructions call for diluting the 3 percent solution to a few tablespoons per quart of water prior to soaking your seeds or spraying your plants.

Munro’s instructions are quite different. He uses an 8 percent solution, which he produces by diluting the 40 percent solution that he purchases at hair-salon supply stores.

“This was just trial-and-error on my part,” he said. “Having no prior knowledge of what strength to use, I started my experiments with 8 percent and the plants didn’t die. I’ve stuck with the 8 percent ever since. At some percentage, I’m sure, the peroxide could burn the plants, but I can assure you that at 8 percent it doesn’t.”

Munro said he soaks many seeds in peroxide prior to planting and has found germination rates to be as much as 50 percent faster. Depending on the seeds, he’ll soak them anywhere from a few hours to overnight. He said he sprays all seedling roots and their planting holes, and also sprays all trees, shrubs and his lawn. He said his only fertilizer is the ash from his wood stove, and his water is from his own well.

The seed soaking doesn’t work for everything – especially beans – but he said it works really well for potatoes, corn, squash, cucumbers and radishes.

“I’ve got one of the best gardens around,” he said. “You can ask anyone who has seen it.”

Munro has plenty of fans, including Acres U.S.A. founder Charles Walters and online journalist Joyce Morrison, author of the web site http://NewsWithViews.com.

“Although we have never met in person, Bill Munro and I have talked over the phone and e-mailed for several years, and I have never known Bill to tell me anything that was not well-researched,” Morrison said.

Recent experiments conducted in Australia also support some of Munro’s theories about hydrogen peroxide. Researchers reportedly included peroxide in the drip-irrigation systems for crops of zucchini, which in turn produced 29 percent more fruits weighing 25 percent more than the fruits produced without hydrogen peroxide treatment. Yields of soybean pods increased 82 to 96 percent compared to crops that were not treated with hydrogen peroxide.

Fewer Insects in the Garden

Yields and germination rates aside, Munro’s most compelling claim about hydro-gen peroxide in the garden concerns insect infestations.

“I started spraying just about everything that was green in my yard with the peroxide, and the results were a huge surprise to my wife and me,” said Munro. “We had no mosquitoes or other flying bugs in our yard. There were a few ladybugs, but they were few and far between. I don’t think the peroxide did any harm to the ladybugs, but since there are so few other insects for them to eat, the ladybugs just don’t come around.”

According to Rene Larose, a retired microbiologist from Manchester, Conn., hydrogen peroxide does reduce insect populations – not by eliminating adult insects, but by oxidizing and killing their eggs and larvae. Larose developed and owns U.S. patent 6455075, defined as “a method for control of insects on plant tissue, which includes applying a solution that includes hydrogen peroxide to the plant tissue.”

The hydrogen peroxide in Larose’s formulations has a concentration of 0.05 to 3 percent and includes other proprietary ingredients such as acetic acid and phosphoric acid.

“These other ingredients add to the efficiency of the hydrogen peroxide,” said Larose, who formed a company in Glastonbury, Conn., known as BioSafe Systems LLC that is now run by his son, Robert. “Hydrogen peroxide is capable of doing everything (Munro) said it can do. Our products simply increase the efficiency. I can tell you that it’s not snake oil. It’s just as good as it sounds.”

BioSafe produces several products for the horticulture, farming, turf, food and sanitation industries. All of the products are billed as environmentally friendly and many are certified as organic by the Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI), which now sanctions most mainstream organic lawn and garden products. Oxidate, for example, is sold as a broad-spectrum bactericide and fungicide, but the peroxide-based product also has the side effect of adding oxygen to the leaves of plants and to the soil.

“We don’t really talk about the beneficial side effects of the products, because the FDA is very strict about what claims you can make,” said Larose. “But everything grows better in the presence of extra oxygen. That’s basic botany. In Latin America, farmers spray this product from airplanes as a fungicide on crops, and they can stand in the field while the plane passes overhead. They aren’t using any pesticides and their yields are greatly improved.”

Where Has This Been All Our Lives?

The question, obviously, is that if a product as common as hydrogen peroxide offers so many benefits in the garden, why hasn’t everyone been utilizing it for years? Why isn’t BioSafe a household name brand after 11 years in the marketplace?

“That’s what we want to know,” said Larose, with a laugh. “I can tell you that the EPA loves us because the products are 100 percent, absolutely safe alternatives. I can tell you that science gives you perfectly rational explanations for how this works. But I can also tell you that the chemical companies don’t like this because of course it cuts into what they’re doing. The universities don’t like this because they didn’t develop the concept.”

Munro agrees. He theorizes that in a world driven by profit, the economic powers have little motivation to promote something as inexpensive and commonplace as hydrogen peroxide.

Our disclaimer is that we don’t have any personal experience with peroxide in the garden. We’ll be trying our own dilutions of H2O2 as well as some of the BioSafe products this season right along with many of you, and we’ll report back to readers in a future issue. We’ll experiment with different percentages of peroxide in seed soaking and also spraying of plants, and we’ll compare the results with seeds and plants that are not treated with peroxide. We also hope to hear right away from anyone with personal experiences with peroxide and related products.

It is important to use hydrogen peroxide with caution, testing it on limited crops prior to spraying the entire yard and garden, and to only use pure H2O2 or “food grade” formulations. Some brands of peroxide may contain harmful byproducts.

Another important consideration is dilution of the peroxide when the percentage is higher than 8 percent. Concentrated peroxide of 35 or 40 percent is highly corrosive and would certainly be harmful to plants and soil.

“Anyone ought to see what works for him or her,” said Munro, the outspoken octogenarian whose instructions can be found all over the Internet. “I think people need to see that this works for themselves.”