What is the best way to supplement with potassium?

[T]

and keep it organic.

Seaweed?

[fos]

wood and charcoal ash is a good source of potassium.

i use Espoma products. blood meal, bone meal and potash for NPK, and their organic acidifier to lower ph.

[T]

Thank you!

[T]

Just found out from Espoma that they no longer produce their potash

[fos]

i didn't notice it wasn't on the shelves of the retailer i purchase Espoma products at since i have enough to last a few years. wasn't looking for it. i use a lot more blood and bone meal than i do potash.

i suggest check with a local nursery. i've never been to one that wasn't happy to share knowledge even if they didn't carry what i was looking for.

[fos]

i stopped at the store that carries Espoma products last night and sure enough, there is not any Espoma potash on the shelves. i didn't see any other potassium only products either. next time i'm at the nursery i'll ask them for advice.

[songbird]

...

if you know anyone who uses wood for heating ask them to save their ashes for you. it's great to have on hand.

songbird

[fos]

i save and use the ashes from the bbq pits and backyard campfires on flower beds. i'm learning to be more scientific about growing what i eat, though. i have no idea how much potassium in the ashes. the Espoma potash had 60% potassium by weight. from soil test results and recommendations it's simple math to calculate how much to amend to the soil. not enough leads to deficiencies, too much is a waste.

[T]

What do you guys think of this stuff?

[songbird]

what problem are you trying to address?

songbird

[T]

Perfect miniature garlic. Every thing is perfect, except they are 1/4 the size they should be. 1/4 the leaves length, 1/4 the bulbs, etc. Absolutely yummy. Hard kernels. Loved the winter. Perfect, except everything in miniature.

[fos]

i still consider myself a gardening novice, been doing it for only a few years. i have a lot to learn too, am looking forward to seeing if anyone with experience contributes.

i had small garlic last year, not as small as that. this year's garlic will be mature in a few more weeks, mid july-ish. the plants are bigger and the stalks a lot thicker than the year before.

the first planting i planted too late. within a week or two the soil froze. last year, the second, i planted the garlic within days of receiving the seed garlic in early october (growing zone 6) giving the roots a chance to develop.

the first year i guessed at the soil nutrients and put some bone meal and a bit of potash in the holes when planting the garlic thinking that would help grow nice fat bulbs. last fall i picked up one of the cheap rapid test kits, checked ph & NPK and amended as recommended before planting.

this year although the plants and stalk are larger, the leaves aren't as green as i think they should be and some are showing a bit of yellow. i haven't put on nitrogen which would promote leaf growth at the sacrifice of bulb growth, but i have used fish and seaweed emulsion a few times which is higher in phosphorus and potassium than it is nitrogen.

right after i harvest the garlic this year, i'll get the LaMotte test kit out, test the soil, and amend per recommendations. then i'll mulch the bed with leaf mold until the end of september, test and amend again, and depending on how large the garlic is plant either purchased seed garlic or garlic saved from this years harvest for 2023.

am i following the right path here?

[songbird]

T wrote: ...

when was that harvested? last summer? when was it planted and how was it treated? were the starts small to begin with?

every year to replant i pick only the largest cloves from a bulb to replant. it will take three years to go from tiny starts to larger bulb sizes.

what is your elevation? i'm wondering if the sun is just to harsh for garlic there.

other than decent quality soil and enough moisture garlic is a crop i like to grow because nothing eats it and i can put it in a garden outside the fence.

i know you have a problem with soils because of your location but by now you should have some sort of topsoil built up if you've been composting and scrounging organic materials.

you can probably get by with 1/2 cubic foot per bulb if you use the valuable good soil down deeper (below where you'd plant the bulb) and then top it off with your poorer quality and sandier soil. pH probably should be 6.0 - 7.0.

bulbs should normally be planted about three times the size of the bulb deep, you can go a little deeper if you're subject to animals digging or harsher climates but i only plant garlic deeper here if i'm after green garlic for earlier harvest as that makes for more white blanched stem.

songbird

[T]

And green beans the size of tooth picks.

A single bell pepper the size of a peanut.

Two cucumbers per plant

[T]

These are them:

Late May after the tops all went yellow and fell off

In early October. First frost was late October

With love and care!

Dumped a bag of fertilizer on them before watering them in. Burpee organic for tomatoes. 5 lb.

They came up in about a week.

Yes. They grew to about six to seven inches and stopped. Stayed beautifully green all winter.

My green onions got to about 2 feet tall over winter

4800 feet.

The sun in low in the sky all winter. We only get a ton of UV light in the summer when the sun is high. I sun burn in about 20 minutes. In the Winter, no sun burn issues. And my garlic went yellow in May at the first hot days. Not a lot of UV in May.

I watered about four times in the winter. My berry plants will die if I do not.

Our winter was a dry one this year.

YOU WOULD THINK !!

I did.

And every think came out perfect, except miniature.

The only thing I did different was cut back on the constant fertilizing as we are in a deep recession since 2021 and business is really bad and I can't afford s***.

I really want to test my soil, but can't afford that either.

[songbird]

[e-mail] wrote: ...

that's progress! :)

don't put amendments in the hole, but mix them througout the soil area that the garlic cloves will be planted into, you can use poorer quality soil on top of the cloves because most of the roots will not grow upwards that much.

mainly after that you don't want it to dry out completely until the next summer. when frozen outside you don't need to water at all until the snow melts or if you somehow get an extended dry and warm spell during the winter.

keep weeded. fertilize only when actively growing.

songbird

[songbird]

...

hmm, out of time for this morning will get back to reading through this and replying later today.

songbird

[songbird]

did you take the picture down? i can't see it any longer.

note that the garlic says it is grown in the NW of Oregon which is not going to be at all similar to your climate and soils. it may not be adapted or even adaptable to someplace that different. i'm not sure.

is what you harvested is bigger than what you planted?

dumping fertilizer on top without mixing it in the soil isn't really all that great a method of planting.

considering your soil is generally alkaline i'd have used fertilizer for acid loving plants. the issue with fertilizers for bulb crops is going to be that you want one which is not as high in N.

you can make a pH indicator out of red cabbage. check youtube how to do this.

they will stay green under the snow here as long as they don't super freeze or really dry out.

what i meant though was how big were the cloves you planted? what size? in cm or mm or inches.

that's good. mine did about that.

i would guess that is the biggest factor if everything else was ok.

an extended dry period would signal the plant to finish and go dormant earlier than otherwise. i still have a hardneck garlic growing here and it's putting on scapes. did you see any scapes at all?

you need to water about an inch of moisture a week if your soil is average. if you have drying winds and full sun you might need to water more than that. mulch would help once the plants are up and growing.

if your green onions did ok i'd guess it was more likely an issue of variety not being adapted to your conditions than anything else. bulb plants will react to hot and dry by going dormant - that's what they do.

songbird

[fos]

i hope so. after eating home grown garlic store bought garlic doesn't taste like anything. am growing romanian red.

this i need to keep a closer eye on in the winter. i never considered it.

our winters (western ny) are about 5 months long. does testing and amending nutrients before planting in fall and again at the beginning of spring growing season sound like too much? organic material is amended before planting.

[T]

I an still see it. Hmmmmmm ....

Zone 6B. And 10 miles away, the farmers grow garlic like crazy

What I planted was normal sized. I planted the largest cloves.

I do both. Depends if a plant is already growing there. I turned the soil over after dumping a 4 lb bag on the trough before planting the fingers

4-4-6 organic.

Interesting. Will have to find some red cabbage. Will meet my budget too!

I would say the cloves I planed were about 1-1/4 to

1-1/2 inch long

None, but I am not sure this was hard neck.

Okay.

I water between the raids and snows. Probably did not do enough.

Not a single onion seed came up.