Question about Blood Meal
lnewport
12 years ago
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Comments (14)
lnewport
12 years agoRelated Discussions
Where do you buy bulk blood meal, bone meal, etc.?
Comments (6)According to the people that should know about these things say no. Putting blood and/or bone meal on your garden will not result in the foods grown in that soil up taking these potential brain destroyers unless you eat the soil they were grown in. Here is a link that might be useful: Prions in blood and bone meal...See MoreBulbs and Blood Meal
Comments (7)If we believe that bulbs do not need fertilizing when first planted, then putting blood meal where the bulb, when it forms its roots, will take up its heavy nitrogen content, and may force it to grow in earnest too early, bringing foliage up while the ground is still in a frost state, I'd say using blood meal is not the thing to do. Whether putting bone meal or another phosphurus adding material to the ground can help....experts say YES...helping the bulb to feed its roots is a way to improve the foliage and flower production. But it is mixed with the soil when first planted...not sprinkled on top. If a squirrel has the intention to dig, nothing short of removing its claws, will prevent it. The chicken wire, if its small enough, but large enough to allow the foliage to come through it, can work if the squirrel has a time to get by it. Sensing the soil there is soft from digging, the wire will move easily with the animals digging and probably only put up a barrier for a short time. Put a preying bird ontop of the ground, he might take a look and run for cover....or he may laugh at the silliness of the planter to think he can be fooled so easy and take a bite out of it as well. A snake of the same intent will probably leave the animal guffawing and rolling on the ground in hysterics. But, what the hey, it can be tried. They sell plastic owls in stores....but move it around, the squirrel might be fooled once.....shame on him..... but fooled twice...shame on you for not thinking of it sooner....See MoreBlood Meal (and Bone Meal) for Garlic & Onions
Comments (11)I would suspect that indeed some critter, came around and walked on your garlic trying to figure out where the good smell was coming from. I wouldn't worry about the bent over tops, those plants will go ahead and crop for you. I think they would like you to put a few sticks around them to hold their tops up, they'd feel better and maybe do some repair work. I got a little too enthusiastic hoeing out some weeds a few weeks ago and chopped the tops right off two nice plants, can't fix THAT problem, but now they have put out some new leaves and don't look all that bad. They won't be as big at harvest time, that's all. Yours may not be hurt much at all. I recently came across some notes from a garden lecture that said the alliums like lots of minerals, so I went out and sprinkled some Planters II. I usually give my garlic and also my brassicas some sulfur, since it tends to be a bit short here, and I like these foods to have a good bite to them. And one thing you may not be able to do, but it's saved us from low nitrogen situations, is use diluted urine. I can guarantee it won't bring cats around! Our garden is way out in the sticks, we have no plumbing out there, so we have a pee bucket. In winter it goes on compost heaps, but in summer it goes on anything I think needs a boost of nitrogen. I did it in town too, but discretely, after we had two dump trucks of leaves plowed into our garden and wound up with a terrible N deficiency. Everything I planted just turned yellow and sat there till they got some nitrogen. They'd turn green for two weeks and grow, then I'd have to dose them again. We got through that summer without having to use any chemical fertilizer (some 6-6-6 would have fixed the problem immediately) and the next year we had the most beautiful black dirt and the nitrogen was available again....See MoreMistake - blood meal instead of bone meal
Comments (9)If you ask a person how they do something they've done successfully for a long while, or even a short while, you're going to get vast and divergent viewpoints on what practices led to their success. So I just read and take into account different climates, soils, and all the variables and just end up doing what works for me. What else can one do? Sift through the available info, trial and error, and do what works for you in your area. PD: Regarding the fertilizer-- the article mentioned 'time- released' which I have used many years and it specifically needs to be in the uppermost layers of soil to be activated by warmer temps. So 'on top of the tuber' makes perfect sense to me. I would say 'on top of the root zone' is more apt, but the writer doesn't know dahlias. Russ, regarding the verbage about 'cutting before the frost' one would have to be Kreskin-esque to pull that off, I agree! I pass that commentary off to creative license by the writer, not the grower. My DH and I often giggle and guffaw when we read newspaper articles written by a layperson about subjects they cover familiar to us but not them, and they just muddle up completely at times. So a grain of salt is advised when reading a casual source such as HGTV or any other topical source including magazines. If you want to get the scoop on doing dahlias, stick with the ADS or dahlia societies' guidelines for your area, and even then you're likely to get many different opinions and ideas. That's the fun of it: what will work best for you in your area?...See MoreKimmsr
12 years agodavid52 Zone 6
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12 years agogardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
12 years agolnewport
12 years agolnewport
12 years agoKimmsr
12 years agolazy_gardens
12 years agodchall_san_antonio
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12 years agotsugajunkie z5 SE WI ♱
12 years agoJessica Carter
2 years ago
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