Canada^2 and Nitrogen in the garden and orchard

 

Isn't Trudeau getting exactly what he asked for? Truckers who are not vaccinated are not working.

About the hundreds of unmarked graves in Canadian boarding schools for Native-Americans:

Ground penetrating radar which is used to find variability in the soil found "anamolies" near historic, Canadian schools where Native-Americans (aka, formerly known as Indians) were educated. This was widely reported as the discovery of hundreds or even thousands of unmarked graves.

To date, researchers found...tree roots. But not before carpet bombing the media with allegations against the Christian denominations that ran the boarding-schools on behalf of the Canadian government.

If any readers know of any credible discoveries of human remains (i.e. verified by DNA) I would love to know the details.

Stretching your Nitrogen fertilizer

The single best thing you can to to stretch your nitrogen fertilizer is to control your weeds.

If you are growing fruit trees and have grass-aisleways, consider reducing the width of those alleys. Grass is extremely competitive at scrounging for nitrogen. Killing the some of the grass strip closest to the trees with herbicide, tillage or mulch not only reduces the competition but frees up the nitrogen the sod sequestered in earlier years.

The second thing you might consider is paying closer attention to your irrigation. Too much water will leach it away. If the weather guessers are predicting more than an inch of rain in the next three days, consider not irrigating. On the flip side, nitrogen is water soluble and the plants cannot access it if the soil is dry because it cannot diffuse from the soil to the surface of the root because the droplets in the soil are discontinuous.

Consider foliar application of nitrogen if you need to give your plants a boost. A foliar application of N gets the nitrogen inside of the plant RIGHT NOW.

A word about organic sources of nitrogen

Organic sources of nitrogen also bring potassium and phosphorous with them.

As nutrients, potassium and phosphorous are far more likely to be retained by the soil while nitrogen comes-and-goes in a heated rush. 

Generations of fertilizing the same garden patch with organic sources of nitrogen can result in very high levels of potassium which will interfer with calcium and magnesium uptake. While your soil might have plenty of calcium and magnesium, your plant's roots might be overwhelmed with K. Once again, a foliar spray might be your best option for addressing the problem although I cannot state whether Epsom Salts or Calcium Nitrate or Chloride are approved for "organic" production.

Grow the roots first

Larger plants seem to do better than smaller plants in nitrogen poor soil. Larger, more mature plants simply have more roots and can mine the soil more effectively.

For northern gardeners, there is much to be said for getting a jump on the season: Wall-o-water, using cinderblocks as reflectors and so on.

If you are not adverse to chemical fertilizers, a small jolt early on can make a big difference over time because of the compound-interest effect of bigger roots.

Do not till too deeply

The top two-to-four inches is the richest, most biologically active layer of soil. Tilling deeply kills the roots in that zone and slows down the diffusion of N to your plant's root.

That is probably one reason why a natural rainfall seems better at stimulating growth than the water you add to the plant's basin or a trickle emitter. Natural rainfall wets all of the top layer while spot irrigation only wets some of it.