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Old May 1, 2013   #55
b54red
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Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Alabama
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Urbanfarmer View Post
Glad to hear you're doing well. But.......

There is already quite a bit of chelated iron in TTF, so be careful not to overdose by adding extra. My advice would be to attack the problem of ph instead. Use some ph down in your solution so that you are applying a 5.0-5.5 ph solution. This will counter your high ph soil. The iron will then become more available.

I always cringe when I see words like "seems, appears, might, etc.....". That's very hard to verify. Besides, there is already quite a bit of humic acid in TTF. Adding more throws a wrench in the machinery, although I don't see where an extra, diluted amount can do any harm.

I believe if you correct your high soil ph, everything else will fall in line. Even the best nutrients will be locked out if the medium isn't within reasonable ph ranges. The sweet zone in our experience is 5.7-6.3 for most vegetables.

Best regards,

I'm afraid of adjusting my soil ph too suddenly as I have a garden full of very healthy looking plants with the exception of a little iron deficiency showing in a few of them. I know for a fact that my soil is too high in P and if it suddenly became available I might have big problems. Since I have a very successful garden even with the higher than ideal ph I think I would be better off to gradually reduce the ph more naturally and just attend to the minor nutrient deficits as or if they appear to be affecting certain plants rather than risk an overdose on a wide scale from a sudden surge in availability of nutrients or trace elements.

The reason I say "seems or appears to" is because I am gardening in soil and many things factor in to the results I see when I use a product. If I were growing in soil-less containers or hydroponically it would be much easier to say with certainty what results came from using a specific product. I am constantly adding organic matter and my beds are full of earthworms which produce fertilizer on their own. Heavy rains also affect how things grow and how effective fertilizers are along with droughts, diseases and pests.

My tomatoes have had a dose of the your Vegetable food when they were smaller and when they started blooming I fertilized with the Texas Tomato Food and I will apply my second dose of Texas Tomato Food as soon as the rain lets up and see how they look a week later. I may add just a bit of the humic acid since it aids in absorption of minerals and wait on the iron supplement. The tomatoes are starting to fruit and are growing very well and keeping me really busy pruning and tying up to my trellises.

Thanks for the response. I'll keep you informed on the results of using your products on my vegetables, fruit trees and tomatoes as the summer progresses.

Bill
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