Potassium-A Critical Plant Nutrient

Garden nutrients come in the form of macro and micro nutrients. Macro-nutrients include nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. This is also known as the N-P-K ratio that you are probably familiar with on the back of fertilizer bags, expressed in the manner
10-10-10. These nutrients are needed in large quantity as opposed to micro-nutrients
such as copper, iron, and boron. One of the most important macro-nutrients is potassium. This nutrient does everything from helping move other vital nutrients from one part of the plant to another to regulating chemical processes such as photosynthesis, carbon dioxide exchange, and regulating the moisture content of cells. Potassium has also been shown to assist in the creation of plant proteins which ultimately can alter the nutritional value of your organic produce. Potassium must be present in sufficient quantity for nitrogen fixing bacteria to produce nitrogen on the root nodes of legumes as well.
There are a few ways to tell if a garden is lacking in potassium. Plants with very little potassium may appear weak and diseased and fruits and vegetables lacking potassium may even taste bland or lack flavor altogether. You can alleviate a potassium deficiency by adding organic fertilizers such as greensand, wood ash, granite dust, or other mineral dusts. Greensand has the added ability of adding secondary elements like calcium and magnesium, as well as adding micronutrients. Wood ash is an excellent potassium provider although it should be added sparingly as it is more of a quick release solution and not a long term addition. Granite dusts and other rock powders provide a nice slow release of potassium and other minerals as soil microbes are able to strip these ions off of fine rock dusts and make them available to the plants roots. Organic gardeners should familiarize themselves with this macronutrient and become adept at detecting signs of deficiencies and establishing proper corrective measures when needed. For more information please visit http://www.compostingforprofit.com

Miracle in the Pantry

Have you ever seen a chile plant that had over 1000 chiles? How about Italian basil that was 4 feet tall and had a stalk over 1 inch around. Occasionally pictures of these “freaks of nature” appear on the internet and are usually accompanied by a product selling for an ungodly price. Usually this product has a “secret ingredient” and is accompanied by scientific studies about how this product is a miracle product and that nobody else can offer you a product that produces such amazing results.

Would you believe that this “secret ingredient” is not such a secret? It is not a rare chemical synthesized in a lab, nor is it an extract of a tropical herb found only in Madagascar. In fact, this secret ingredient can be found in the pantry of most homes! The answer to the riddle is sugarcane molasses.

So why is molasses so special to a plant? The answer is that it really isn’t special to the plant itself. In fact, the plant cannot assimilate the sugars of the molasses at all. The answer lies in the soil bacteria. In organic gardening, soil microbes package nutrients into a usable form so that the plant can take up nutrients in an efficient manner. Some bacteria are called nitrogen fixers. This means that they live on the rhizomes of legume plants and fix nitrogen gas from the air and package it into nitrate so that the plant may use the nitrogen. This concept is used when farmers do cover-cropping. There is a certain species of bacteria that doesn’t require legumes at all for nitrogen fixation and uses chemicals found in sugarcane molasses as its fuel. When molasses is added to a compost tea or vermicompost tea, these microbes become extremely numerous and when used as a fertilizer, this tea becomes your “miracle product” that companies sell for a fortune. So the next time you want a huge harvest in your garden, reach for a bottle of molasses before shelling out the big dollars for a secret miracle product that isn’t so secret anymore. For more information on this subject, please visit http://www.compostingforprofit.com