WALKING THE ROWS

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However, with a lot of thinking and some reading and some more thinking I think I have a solution. My guiding premise is always "healthy plants in a healthy soil don't attract insects or diseases:' Whatever it is that is cutting back my harvest so severely, its cause must be a soil imbalance. But why is there only one crop that has a problem, Sherlock Holmes?

You see my dear Watson, I rely on natural fertilizers in my soil which are largely insoluble. For these fertilizers to become available to my plants they must be con verted to a soluble form, which is what happens when the soil microorganisms break down organic matter. Over winter the soil microorganisms become inactive. To make the problem worse, winter snow and spring rain draining through the soil carries the soluble materials away. This is called leaching. Come spring, nutrients are proba bly pretty scarce, especially nitrogen, unless fresh manure has been spread. I have been fertilizing my garden with low nitrogen materials through the summer, expecting that the garden would always be ready to grow more wonderful vegetables. Spinach needs a lot of nitrogen.

But, Holmes, you never have any problems with peas and they grow even earlier in the spring. Don't they need nitrogen?

Ah yes, but peas are legumes and have the ability to fix nitrogen from the air. The next time I plant spinach I am going to use a naturally occurring water soluble high nitrogen fertilizer like dried blood or manure tea. Blood is expensive but I will be limiting the use to just the spinach rows mixing it in just before planting the seeds.

You may have gathered that I don't like to use soluble fertilizers even if they are organic and you are right. Too much rain will simply wash them away. What a waste not to mention the damage they may cause in the water. If you are having trouble grasping the solubility issue, try this experiment. Put a tablespoon of salt and a tablespoon of flour in a coffee filter. Pour water through the filter. If you catch the water and taste it you will taste salt. Eventually all the salt will be gone but the flour will remain in the filter. Now put the filter in the compost pile. Depending on the microbial activity, the filter and the flour will be gone in a couple of weeks to a few months.

As you can see, there are times when a detective's sensibility appeals to me, and without regular visits to gather clues, I'd still be scratching my head and offering eulogies to my wilting food.

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