first off, potassium not patassium. Thanks justaguy, I have been adding banana peels and leaves to my proposed planting site. I am new to bananas and have read fert regimes calling for su-po-mag, super phosphates, etc. Bananas are said to be very heavy feeders (water and fert)and in order to produce fruit, need large amounts of potassium. In my readings, they say organic fruit is better, sweeter than chem, but then go on to tell you what chems to use. it would make way to much sense to take a soil sample to have tested, cant have that. thanks for your input, -Ethan Alfalfa meal.....could I just take alfalfa pulverise it to a powder and ammend the soil to get the same results?

I think yours is really a two part question. If you are growing things in a container, you will need to fertilize periodically regardless of the quality or composition of the soil. Container growing is a pretty restricted environment and the frequent watering needed leaches out nutrients from the soil which must be replaced for proper plant health. There are lots of prepared organic fertilizers available, but balanced fertilizers (all 3 numbers the same) are not necessarily the way to go to encourage flowers and fruiting. Generally you will want a fertilizer with the potassium rating the highest for best flowering and fruiting. Espoma's FlowerTone or TomatoTone will work well for both flowers or vegetable crops as will similar products from Whitney Farms or Dr. Earth or other organic fertilizer distributors. Or the Alaska Mor-Bloom or compost tea should help if you prefer liquid application. BTW, you will know it is an organic product if the three numbers (NPK) add up to less than 20.

I had to bring in Dirt to my caliche heaven and I built raised beds, AND I had to build a 7'fence when the deer started laughing at me from the bushes, Then I bought freeze cloth and covered up my garden for the freezes. So much for spending money during the first year of gardening. Did I count my money as it fled my purse?? NO, I didn't. I did get much of the wood for free but the dirt was not dirt cheep. This is Austin Texas not Oklahoma. ALL said, I LOve my winter garden. I have greens and scallions, Rabe, brocolli, peas, Marjoram cilantro chervil, fennel, carrots , beets, I have a whole United Nations of greens from every corner of the world, parsnips and turnips, daikon and huge german radishes and tiny french ones.... I am thinking about getting some more dirt and compost to grow some potatoes this coming week. Not bad for the first year. garden. I have to find a place to store the freeze cloth that the mice won't find. I hope to get three years out of them. I am glad I got them because I lost nothing using them. I call it my Backwards garden because I did everything backwards. I planted seeds before I had dirt. Here is a link that might be useful: The Backwards Vegetable Garden

Fily: A question regarding to what you wrote: "I am thinking of mulching twice a year with my homemade compost and oak leaves underneath the weed barrier/lava rocks." I hope weed-barrier doesn't mean landscape fabric. Such weed-barrier blocks out rain water and hurt roses (higher demand for water than other plants). My best result is a few pieces (no more than 4) of red-lava-rock FIRST, then pile up acidic leaves & organics on top. When the leaves decay it releases acid (along with acidic rain) to break down the red-lava-rock (pH 8.2). Plants like neutral pH best. Rain is acidic at pH 5.6, same with decaying alfalfa (pH 5.8), pine bark is too acidic at pH 4, and drops even lower if soaked in rain .. so the red-lava-rocks under a layer of acidity helps to buffer and make it "neutral & safe & plus slow-released nutrients" to roots below. Here's a pic. of my experiment, taken this morning July 10. CAUTION ON GYPSUM: works great for my alkaline clay with pH near 8 ... alkaline clay buffers the acidity of gypsum well, but gypsum was harmful to Jess' acidic-red-clay, and it will be harmful to sandy soil plus acidic rain. Sandy soil doesn't have "buffer, or neutralizing" ability against acid like my alkaline clay. Dolomitic lime raises the pH too fast for Austin roses (prefer slightly acidic). The safest would be red-lava (pH 8.2) for potassium, and pea-gravel which raises the pH much slower, plus supply calcium/magnesium lacking in sandy soil. If tiny pea-gravel is not available, Azomite dust is 2nd best at VERY SMALL amount .. it's sold cheap on Amazon $10 for 5 lbs (supply potassium, calcium, plus a bit of salt). Sandy soil leaches out salt easily, so the 0.1% salt in Azomite is no problems. Re-post today's info. (July 10) in my "experiments in fungal disease" thread: Above is end of experiment, after 24 hours of soaking in ACIDIC RAIN WATER at pH 5.6, plus additives: Vase 1 has pea-gravel, leaves are firm & perky after 24-hours in acidic rain-water. Both blooms are perky. Pea-gravel is slow-released, so it neutralizes the pH slowly, yet supply needed minerals (calcium & copper) to keep leaves firm. Zinc, copper, and calcium are anti-fungal agents. Vase 2 has dolomitic lime (pH near 9) .. that dissolved too fast and made the solution too alkaline. Pink Peace (French Meilland) rose likes alkalinity, bloom looks good & more petals thanks to slower opening. But Mary Magdalene, an Austin rose, can't handle such alkalinity and wilted immediately. Vase 3 has gypsum (acidic with 17% sulfur) ... that dissolved immediately and brought the solution from pH 5.6 (rain-water) to very acidic below pH 5, which resulted in WILTING of Pink Peace, but Austin rose Mary Mag don't mind, bloom still perky. But leaves of both become limp & wilt in this acidic solution. I will keep them soaking until day 3 & day 4. Normally Pink Peace break out in blackspot if soaked in rain-water for more than one day. All leaves are clean, but I don't like how limp & wilted leaves are in the too-alkaline and too-acidic solution. Vase 2 has dolomitic lime, but calcium is NOT available due to tied-up with magnesium at high pH. Vase 3 has readily available calcium (gypsum), but the 17%sulfur component of gypsum is too acidic. Below is pic. of pea-gravel: