Imafan26 2016 garden

[imafan26]

Its a little late but I finally have something to show for 2016
I did soil tests on my gardens. The last one was in 2013
My home garden got more acidic pH 6.4 down to pH 6.0 Phosphorus has decreased but calcium is up. I amended with 2 bags of Enrich compost, 1/4 cup dolomite lime, and about 10 lbs of chicken manure on about 100 sq ft of garden space. I am still pulling nutsedge.

My communty garden got a litlle more alkaline. pH 7.4 to pH 7.7. I added peat moss and sulfur. The phosphorus dropped to about 150 but I still only need 37 ppm so I just used citrus food as a starter.
I have gourds in flower now, pak choy, zucchini, beets, and chard ( and a whole lot of weeds). I pruned the pear tree and I am harvesting chayote and calamondin almost always has fruit. I did some pruning of the Satsuma mandarin, but it still needs thinning.

[applestar]

Ha! I love the similar/contrast between the Swiss chard and Pakistan choy.

And the gourds! I love growing gourds when I have the room to give to them -- thick velvety leaves and the white flowers. _- only problem is I think I had more hornworms when I had gourd growing nearby.

It's interesting that you have such big pH difference in the two gardens -- is it related to volcanic activity or something? At least you can allocate to grow things that prefer those extremes or "a little more" acid or alkaline than neutral in those two locations. I've often considered selecting one or two beds and amending with way more lime. It would add another variable to my rotation plans, though.

[imafan26]

That is what I do. Leaves grow well in both gardens but my acidic home garden is better for tomatoes and cabbages and I grow onions in pots.

The community garden has a lot of diseases because, no winter means if people do not get rid of their sick plants, the diseases will persist.
I cannot grow onions and beans well at the community garden because of rust unless the varieties are resistant. There is also black rot in the soil at the community garden so the heading type cabbages will get it. The fungus persists in the soil for years, so the only thing to do is avoid it. Chayote likes the higher elevation and it needs space. I can grow papaya in Wahiawa only if I use the papaya ringspot resistant varieities that carry the GMO gene. At home, I can grow the non-gmo as long as my neighbor's trees are healthy.
The bananas in the back belong to another plot. They are lady fingers and get about 25 ft tall. The root crops like the daikon, beets, carrots, and tapioca do better in the Wahiawa garden because it is more alkaline and has less nitrogen. The plants are smaller than my home garden. There are more cabbage butterflies in the Wahiawa garden.
My home garden has taller corn for the same variety and larger ears. The greens are very large. I have cut down on the nitrogen but it still needs to be cut some more. The addition of the organics and some of the slow release nitrogen fertilizer has decreased the requirement for nitrogen over all. I have good tops but very small roots on onions, garlic and root crops. The beet that grew in the aisle was bigger than the ones in the garden. I have to grow root crops in tree pots where I can control the acidity by using potting soil to get good root production. Tomatoes grow better in my home garden and grow very poorly at Wahiawa. I can grow beans and peas at both places but I go to the community garden a couple of times a week unless it rains and beans and peas need to be harvested every day or two. Plants that need to be harvested frequently, I try to grow at home. I have more snails and slugs in the Mililani garden but more fruit fly at Wahiawa. Broccoli and cabbages in Mililani aren't really bothered by cabbage butterfies. I only had one butterfly come around. I think they haven't found my cabbages because I don't grow them year round and the geckos eat them.

Both gardens are Wahiawa series oxisols. The difference is that the Wahiawa garden had about 2 ft of soil imported and for many years compost and chicken manure was added making it alkaline. It also gets less fertilizer. I feed the citrus trees twice a year. My home garden behaves more like an oxisol. It is acidic and I use sulfate of ammonia because it is easier to find than urea. I would have to buy urea in 50 lb bags at the agricultural supply and I need to use even less of that. I empty the soil from the potted plants into the garden and I do add about 6 inches of compost. I have been using steer manure. This is the first time in years I have used chicken manure in the Mililani garden. The pH was 6.4 three years ago so it did not need correction. My soil test does not recommend a correction now since pH 6.0 was expected for my soil type. I added the dolomite and manure since I don't want it to drop further and my usual fertilizers sulfate of ammonia and citrus food both contain sulfur. It also explains why the beets did so poorly, they don't like acidic soils.

Pak choy is white stem cabbage or Pechay (Fililipino). We call the green stem cabbage Bok choy and Napa Cabbage Won Bok. They are all Asian greens from China. In some catalogs the white stem and green stem are both called bok choy.