BALANCE OF PLANT FOODS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21668, 11 June 1932, Page 3

BALANCE OF PLANT FOODS

A KNOTTY PROBLEM. Feeding, as everybody knows, may be injurious rather than beneficial; that applies to Ourselves and our children, to the animals and birds wo keep for utility or pleasure,/ and to the plants growing in the garden or greenhouse.. To many people earful dieting is a necessity, blit, whilst some exercise,, reasonable caution in avoiding foods that induce indigestion, instead of providing nourishment, there • are those who worry tremendously over vitanyns and other strange notions that have been instilled into their minds by reading what somebody has written about scientific research. Yet the people who worry most over .dieting" never seem to enjoy the health and robust vigour of those who can always eat a good square meal. It is outside our scope to deal with the feeding of the human race, but passing reference is made for the purpose of drawing a parallel between the mysteries of dieting on advanced scientific lines and the nourishment of the soil and feeding of plants. Time mid again articles and books appear which stress the point that fertility of the soil depends upon properly-balanced proportions of various chemicals. Sometimes such prominence is given to phosphates, potash, and nitrogen, that the idea gains ground that all oqe needs to do is to apply a mixture of . these three, and make for ourselves a perfect garden soil. From other sources comes the information that iron, magnesia, lime, and a number of other substances or vapours enter into the manufacture of a complete plant food, and someone hints that the absence of one element may be enough to upset the whole larder of plant nourishment whilst excess of something else will cause an epidemic of dyspepsia among the anions or the Canterbury bells. All this is very perplexing to amateur gardeners who are not analytical chemists, but who are convinced that the only means by which they may hope to succeed in growing their favourite flowers or the vegetables of which the household requires most, is to find out which particular chemical is deficient in their soil, and apply that alone," It is a pity to fret too much over this intricate problem. Look around at the gardens; which are gayest and most, productive, and take comfort from the fact that not one in a hundred of them have been made to flourish by anything like such scientific balancing of plant foods. The majority of the most successful gardeners are content to dig in such supplies of farmyard or stable manure as they are able to secure, and to supplement these by periodica:! dressings of a good fertiliser or such simple materials ns bonemeal, hop manure, decayed vegetable matter, soot, or dried blood. VARY MANURES USED. The. wisest plan is to change from one kind of food or tonic to another each succeeding year. The earth, assisted by deep cultivation, aeration, exposure of loose surfaces to frqst, and frequent hoeing .during summer, is fairly capable of managing its own affairs in regard to balancing its plant-feeding properties. Always, and above all, it is essential to improve the mechanical condition of the soil. Do all that can be done ‘to render stiff clays friable and porous. Add to the humus contents of loose, dry sands, break up chalk subsoils, and get some shells, stones, vegetable matter, and rotted turf worked in among the chalk. Try to provide escape for surplus water. Drain stagnant, swampy subsoils by the best means at command, and try to avoid, growing the same kinds of crops years after year on the‘same patch of ground. This may be applied to flowering plants as well as vegetables, in so far a.s it is possible, when replanting beds and borders, to change the position of things, instead of always piitting the same kinds of plants in‘one particular patch of soil. Even in the use of liquid manures make changes in kind as frequently as can be arranged, and when one’s plants appear to be a bit limp and thin in texture, and of a yellowish-green tint in foliage, give a light sprinkling of sulphate of potash, or even sulphate of iron, but do not lose sleep over wondering whether the exact balance of plant food is being maintained. —-Amateur Gardening.