I understand what you are saying sunnibel but the point was never "good enough". It was relevance to this forum. And any member is free to express comments on inappropriate use of the forums at any time. The forum focus is well defined: This forum is for the discussion of issues involved in the growing of vegetables--choosing varieties, methods of planting, maintaining plants, etc. The focus here is growing vegetables, vegetable gardening. It isn't a health forum, it isn't a healthy eating forum, it isn't a natural health food website or a medical forum. Those exist in great numbers but this isn't one of them. So since you clearly share this individuals interest in these topics, why not go discuss those issues on those forums where it is appropriate rather than here? Not only do relevant topic discussions get bumped off the forum with each of these posts but someone new to the forum looks at the front page and sees all these posts on controlling your cholesterol, diabetes, and lowering your blood pressure, etc. rather than posts about vegetable gardening. And if quality and accuracy of of the linked websites posted, as Flora mentioned, isn't relevant, then what is? Dave

yes to what Byron says, if the plants are blooming and setting fruit reasonably, you don't need to "force feed", especially that often - many of the foods we eat are good sources of P and K, so food waste compost provides everything any growing veggie needs - greensand is also high K - if you've limed recently, the calcium may be preventing K uptake, but if not, there isn't usually a problem in a decent garden soil w/ lack of K Bill

Relax. There is something you can do about this problem. Check out the link below. It is well known that 'weathering' will lower soil potassium. You can speed that up by leeching the soil yourself. Please check link. I know this works because I've done it myself. You should also understand that there are 3 kinds of potassium found in the soil. Two of them are available to the plant, and the third is 'bound' to another mineral, like clay, mica, etc. This bound form of potassium is not available to the plant until natural weathering breaks it down and unbinds it. Since you are having problems, it's obvious that the potassium level is too high. You should know that labs are highly variable when it comes to potassium levels. If the lab shows a high potassium level but your plants aren't suffering, it may be the lab. The next time you do a soil test, make sure that you give them lots of samples from a variety of sites. Also make sure that you do 'core' samples, which means you're not taking the soil right off the top 3 inches, which are the most variable. Also make sure that you are taking the samples from a uniform depth around the plot. Go down until you are essentially taking samples that are near the root system. This is the potassium level that will most affect your plants; and as I said, work hard to get a uniform depth. There are other ways to reduce potassium over a season, and that is to plant cover crops that 'suck up' a lot of potassium. Alfalfa is a good example, although it does take micronutrients with it. This shouldn't be a problem with your highly enriched soil. Another suggestion would be grass, which needs a lot of potassium. Keep the grass going strong, clip it regularly and make sure you don't allow the clippings to stay on the soil to decompose. In these cases, you may need to add nitrogen to keep the cover plants growing strong, especially with the grass. Both of these cover crops will utilize a lot of potassium. But beware! If your soil sample was off the surface, your nitrogen may be a lot higher just a few inches down! Might want to recheck that before adding nitrogen. My motto is to always go low and slow, especially in gardening. It is much easier to ADD nutrients to the soil, and adjust levels, than it ever is to reduce levels in the soil. For instance, if you actually need nitrogen, plain Blood Meal is just the ticket. Check container for its specific dispersion rates. I'm sure there are other cover crops that might be more acceptable to you in terms of what your garden looks like, or what wil grow well in your area. Off the top of my head, I'm blanking on those, but they are easily 'googled'. Or perhaps it's enough just to know you only need to put up with a cover crop for one, m-a-y-b-e two seasons to achieve your desired goal. I did note that your soil is alkaline, and I don't know if that's typical for your geographic area (it is in mine), but you can use sulfur to make it reduce pH. Again, check the container instructions for rate of dispersion. Just as a note, I tend to use less than the container says - perhaps a third less - and then retest and repeat if needed. Please let us know how you do! Here is a link that might be useful: How to lower soil Potassium.

Oh boy, Judy, good luck. First, I'm going to tell you that I use the websites of Cooking Light, Eating Well and Diabetic Living. Yes, I knowk we're not talking about diabetes, but they have a lot of low fat/low carb dessert ideas. Side dishes? Well, vegetables are the easiest and healthiest, without a bunch of added fat, of course. I like roasted vegetables so I'll do a big sheet pan of whatever I have. That ould be potatoes, sweet potatoes, winter squashes, green beans, cauliflower, tomatoes, carrots, celeery, onions, nearly anything. Drizzle with just a little olive oil and some salt and pepper. Mixed herbs if you like, I like fresh ones but have been known to use an Italian blend or Fines Herbs, etc. Quinoa is good and low in fat, as is brown ricePIckled things are good too, like three bean salad. Baked beans, scalloped potatoes made with skim milk, make mashed potatoes with skim milk or with some chicken broth. You can make a passable gravy with broth too, although I avoid soup bases because of the sodium. If you stay away from the creamy/cheese/mayo based salads and vegetables, you'll be good to go on that. For dessert? Grandma's Blueberry Crisp, so darned healthy you need ice cream. Low fat ice cream, of coure. Baked apples, fruit filled crepes, the less crust the better. Phyllo/filo dough can be good for desserts, if you stay away from the butter layer. Chocolate pudding made with skim milk and dark chocolate is a possibility too. So, here's the dessert recipe to get this started. Heck, I found this posted in 2003, was it THAT long ago? Wow.... Blueberry Crisp ================ annie1992 (My Page) on Sun, May 25, 03 at 1:50 Cindy Mac, this is the only blueberry crisp recipe I've ever used, the one my grandmother used. It's not very sweet, which I like because I like the flavor of the berries better than the flavor of the sugar, LOL. It's really good warm with vanilla ice cream, but it's also good cold for breakfast (it's a FRUIT, Mom). Blueberry Crisp 3 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen, unsweetened 2 tbls lemon juice 2/3 cup brown sugar 1/2 cup flour 1/2 cup quick oats 1/3 cup butter, softened 3/4 tsp cinnamon 1/4 tsp salt Heat oven to 375. Arrange berries in ungreased square baking dish (8 inch) and sprinkle with lemon juice. Combine remaining ingredients until crumbly. (I use a pastry blender, grandma used two knives). Crumble topping over berries and bake until topping is lightly browned and berries are hot, about 30 minutes. Makes 4-6 servings. I double this and it still comes out good. Plus blueberries are low in calories, have lots of fiber and no fat, contain antioxidants C, E and beta carotene and have been found to be as helpful in urinary tract health as cranberries. That's why I need ice cream with them, they are just too darned healthy! Meringue type cookies and biscotti are pretty low fat too. Annie