[CH] Nitrogen Deficiency
T. Matthew Evans (matt.evans@ce.gatech.edu)
Thu, 30 May 2002 10:38:57 -0400
Hi All --
My garden is off and running -- modest by the standards of most list
members, but much larger than my wife or I has ever grown on our own (our
parents' gardens still absolutely dwarf ours). We have about 40 tomato
plants, 40 chile plants, assorted herbs, squashes, and cucumbers, gourds and
pumpkins, and 15 chiles in containers. At any rate, here is my issue -- our
garden is bordered by lawn on all 4 sides. Because my lawn is mostly weeds,
we can have a weed problem in our garden. So, once the plants get to be 6
inches or so, we mulch the entire garden with shredded pine. This spring, I
simply tilled last year's mulch into the ground. Now, I know that this can
cause nitrogen deficiency, but I took steps to alleviate this problem when
preparing my ground this spring (or so I thought). The "new" garden area
(that had no mulch last year) is growing much better than the "old" garden
area this year, leading me to believe that I still have a nitrogen
deficiency in the "old" garden area from turning under last year's mulch.
The plants are healthy, disease free, and have no bug problems, but they
just aren't as big and green as those in the "new" part of the garden.
I've got some ideas about what I will do for next year (manure, compost,
etc.) to prevent this problem from happening again, but what can I do for
this year's crop? Can I just top dress with bloodmeal or urea or something?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I hope all of your gardens are doing even better.
Matt
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T. Matthew Evans
Graduate Research Assistant
Geosystems Group, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
URL: www.prism.gatech.edu/~gte964w
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