OCR Text |
Show Plant Foods Must Be Kept on Hand Fertilizers Are Just as Esn sential in Small Home Garden as Seeds. Plant foods, or the elements that make plants grow, are just as essential In the home garden as seeds. Nature has been very kind In that she has supplied sup-plied the most of these elements in abundance In our soils, but there are a few of them which have not been supplied in sufficient quantities to produce pro-duce good crops. These are mainly nitrogen, phosphoric acid, potash and lime. It is nitrogen that gives the plants their vigorous growth and healthy green color. Phosphorus aids the growth and especially helps in the formation of the seeds. Without potash pot-ash all garden crops would be a failure, fail-ure, but some crops, such as potatoes, beets, carrots, radishes, etc., require more potash than others. Garden soils nifty be acid or alkaline, that Is, they may be sour or they may be sweet, the tJnited States Department Depart-ment of Agriculture explains. A few of our garden crops may be grown on a sour soli, but these are very few Indeed In-deed and most of them must be planted on a sweet alkaline soil. Lime will sweeten an acid or sour soil, the amount of lime required depending upon the sourness or acidity of the BAG OF C- -QT VM FERTILIZER V j Sf2 suspended ISnT Wis I IN WATER JJJ-'Spt s PLACE ON k . PLATFORM " HIGH ENOUGH v Jto permit SPRINKLING CAN TO BE EASILY FILLED. DIAGRAM OF BARREL FOR LIQUID FERTILIZER- Liquid manure is the finest stimulant your flowers can have. It is also fine to make the head lettuces hurry up j their heads. This illustration shows a practical way for providing a supply readily accessible. Either sheep manure, poultry manure, or commercial commer-cial fertilizer may be used in the bag which is suspended in the water. The device does away with odor. If the barrel can be hidden in the shrubs, near the flower border, the task of supplying sup-plying stimulant when needed will be simplified. National Garden Bureau. soil. For example, It Is found that recently re-cently drained swamp soils sometimes need 20 or 25 tons of lime to the acre to sweeten them. This, of course, would be Impracticable and an easier and cheaper method must be followed. The most practical method is to first thoroughly drain the sour soil, then turn it up to the air and allow It to sweeten through natural processes. Even then it will usually be necessary to add some lime or other material containing lime, such as wood ashes, to help along with the natural process. Most of our garden lands need nitrogen, nitro-gen, phosphoric acid or potash. These can be supplied In the form of a mixed fertilizer containing about 4 or 5 per cent nitrogen, 8 or 10 per cent phosphoric phos-phoric acid and 4 to 6 per cent potash. Truck gardeners usually figure on about one ton of tills fertilizer to the acre each year. This would mean about 200 pounds on a tenth-acre plot of ground or 100 pounds on the average backyard garden which Is, as a rule, about 30 to 40 feet wide and GO or 70 feet in length. The fertilizer is best applied just after the ground has been spaded and well raked or forked Into the top four inches of soil. If lime Is used it should be put on either several days after the fertilizer or a week or so before the fertilizer Is applied and never at the same time as the fertilizer. Weeds chopped fine, strawy manure, or, in fact, any manure that does not contain oil from the streets, will help enrich the garden and give the soil new life, but with the present scarcity of manure, home gardeners are practically compelled to depend upon commercial fertilizers for adding plant food to their garden soils. A good plan is for several gardeners In a neighborhood to pool their order for fertilizer, buy It in considerable quantities, quan-tities, and then divide according to the needs of each. Many gardeners prefer to broadcast about one-half of the fertilizor before planting the crops, then use the remainder re-mainder for scattering along the rows during the growing period of the rrops. This means a little more work but gives the best results. Crops must bf fed Just the same as animals. |