Ok, so I have a plot of land and I've done some research on what puts specific nutrients into the soil and what takes specific nutrients out of the soil.
I know that Legumes such as beans put nutrients back into the soil that Solanums such as tomatoes need for optimum growth.
Now my only problem is that I don't know how to tell the difference between a Legume and a Cucurbits and a Solanums. Anyone want to help me out there?
Before you get too excited, almost all garden use of legumes will not put noticable nitrogen nutrients back into the soil. They are not the right kind of legumes, they are not planted densley enough, and harvesting the crop removes alot of the nutrients.
Legumes are such things as beans (green and dry-kidney), peas, alfalfa and soybeans. Legumes will only start to fix nitrogen after the soil is depleted of that nutrient, and that is not very common in gardens. Beans are very poor at fixing nitrogen in the first place. Alfalfa is good at it and is planted very densely as a cover crop, let grow for a year or two and then plowed under. This will provide enough nitrogen for a heavy nitrogen crop such as corn. Soybeans (unrelated to greenbeens/kidney beens) fix a good deal of nitrogen, but much of that is taken away when the beans are harvested so when you plow under the crop residue the soil breaks even (very little nitrogen gain, or loss).
The best thing you can do with legumes short of planting a cover crop for half a season is to put the plants in the compost pile at the end of the season and then use the compost anywhere in the garden.
Solanums are Tomatoes, Potatoes, peppers, eggplant
Cucurbids are cucumber, melons, pumpkin/squash/zucchini
Alliums are onions, garlic, chives, shallots
Legumes are such things as beans (green and dry-kidney), peas, alfalfa and soybeans. Legumes will only start to fix nitrogen after the soil is depleted of that nutrient, and that is not very common in gardens. Beans are very poor at fixing nitrogen in the first place. Alfalfa is good at it and is planted very densely as a cover crop, let grow for a year or two and then plowed under. This will provide enough nitrogen for a heavy nitrogen crop such as corn. Soybeans (unrelated to greenbeens/kidney beens) fix a good deal of nitrogen, but much of that is taken away when the beans are harvested so when you plow under the crop residue the soil breaks even (very little nitrogen gain, or loss).
The best thing you can do with legumes short of planting a cover crop for half a season is to put the plants in the compost pile at the end of the season and then use the compost anywhere in the garden.
Solanums are Tomatoes, Potatoes, peppers, eggplant
Cucurbids are cucumber, melons, pumpkin/squash/zucchini
Alliums are onions, garlic, chives, shallots
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rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
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Hi and welcome to the Forum! I grew up in Orange County (Anaheim), but haven't been back in a long time... Fond memories of lots of sunshine, though!
Best thing you can do to get started is start a compost pile. Your homemade compost will add all the fertility your soil needs in a form the plants can use. Rather than trying to add specific nutrients for specific plants, IMO it makes sense to make sure the soil has everything needed and let the plants take from it what they need.
Best thing you can do to get started is start a compost pile. Your homemade compost will add all the fertility your soil needs in a form the plants can use. Rather than trying to add specific nutrients for specific plants, IMO it makes sense to make sure the soil has everything needed and let the plants take from it what they need.
I couldn't agree more. I used think in terms of nutrients and what plants like what, but after I got a good understanding of soil boilogy ("Teaming with Microbes" is a great book to learn about this, there's a discussion about this book going on in the book club forum), the more I saw that I'm adding microbes that the plants will be able to use to get the nutrients they need.rainbowgardener wrote:Hi and welcome to the Forum! I grew up in Orange County (Anaheim), but haven't been back in a long time... Fond memories of lots of sunshine, though!
Best thing you can do to get started is start a compost pile. Your homemade compost will add all the fertility your soil needs in a form the plants can use. Rather than trying to add specific nutrients for specific plants, IMO it makes sense to make sure the soil has everything needed and let the plants take from it what they need.
Good luck with your garden!