Toil
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Joined: Tue Jan 05, 2010 4:18 pm
Location: drifting, unmoored

Gary350 wrote:I tried a 50/50 mix of compost and soil last year for my potatoes. I also applied some Murate of Potash and some Super Phosphate. My potatoes didn't grow any better than they have in the past. The plants looked great but the potatoes were the size of golf balls and some smaller. I have better luck with red potatoes than white potatoes I think it is too hot and dry in TN to grow good potatoes.

This year I am doing an all compost potato bed. I planted 3 types of potatoes so we will see what happens.

I use my home made compost in plant trays to sprout seeds. The seeds sprout but the plants don't grow. The only way I can make the plants grow is miracle grow plant food or I mix dirt with water and use the water to water my plants.

I save my wood ash from the wood stove and add it to my compost to increase the potash. I think compost is pretty low in potash, phosphate, nitrogen so it needs all the help it can get. Manure or urine adds nitrogen. I'm not sure how to add phosphate to the compost other than super phosphate.
if your compost lacks nutrients it is likely not compost but a single rotted food source.

All those microbes are made of C, N, P, K, and the rest of the alphabet. Diverse food therefore makes diverse nutrients because it makes diverse microbes.

Just don't look for them with a soluble nutrient test.



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