Fertilizer

  With all the rain we're having,  I'm noticing a definite lack of color on a few of my plantings. Although I typically fertilize mid season on the peppers and eggplants, this year the beans, squash, and cucumbers look like they could also use a feeding. Nitrogen never stays in the soil, it gets used by the plants, volatizes into the atmosphere or likely for us this year we're losing nitrogen through leaching. The rain is literally stealing our nitrogen and washing it away.
  So this week I'll spread a bit of blood meal around the garden to give the plants a quick feeding. Blood meal is a fast acting nitrogen and we'll see the plants green up over a week or so. It may be subtle but noticeable if you watch closely. On some crops, I'll make a spray and foliar fertilize, plants will pick up foliar feeding much faster than a ground feeding.
  As an aside, I heard today from a gardener that someone had recommended Epson salts for the garden. Epson salt is Magnesium Sulfate so when you use Epson salt you're getting both magnesium and sulfur. This combination is pH neutral so that's not a problem. However....here's the rest of the story. As Nitrogen leaches from the soil it never leaves alone, most of the time it takes calcium. As we lose calcium, the ratio of Ca. to Mg. goes more towards the Mg side of the equation. The more Mg you get in the soil, the harder the soil will get and the less water will drain through the soil. I attribute the drainage issues we have in parts of the garden to an excess of magnesium in the subsoil and when folks use Epsom salt in their beds the extra Mg adds in a small way to our drainage issues. So...don't use Epson salt unless or until our soil test says we need it. Thanks.