Plants need 16 nutrients for healthy growth.
Three are provided in the air, and make up what are called
carbohydrates - the major components of your vegetable plants.
Can you guess what these three nutrients are?
Carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, of course!
The other 13 nutrients come from the soil, and can therefore
be controlled by man. The major nutrients are nitrogen,
phosphorus, and potassium. Secondary nutrients include
calcium, magnesium, and sulfur. And micro-nutrients
include boron, manganese, zinc, iron, copper, molybdenum,
and chlorine.
Plants can only take in minerals through their roots,
dissolved in water. For your plants to be healthy they
need to continuously receive all 13 of the above mineral
nutrients from the soil.
Unfortunately, these minerals are
easily leached out of the soil by heavy rains or over-watering
and depleted by fast-growing plants. The best plant food,
therefore, must include all 13 of these mineral nutrients
in just the right amounts.
Science has discovered just how
much of each nutrient is needed, and the
Food for Everyone Foundation
now makes it easy for the small family gardener
to make balanced plant food (fertilizer mixes) for a healthy
and highly productive garden.
The Pre-Plant Mix
This mix gives your garden "the foundation of a good fertilizing program"
– calcium, supplemented with magnesium and boron.
Mix together in a clean wheelbarrow or large container:
- 10 pounds of agricultural (dolomite) lime or gypsum
- 2 ounces boron
- 8 ounces magnesium sulfate
Garden shops (nurseries), farm supply stores, and chemical shops
usually carry packaged fertilizers, including gypsum and/or
agricultural lime. Use lime if you receive more than 20” of rain
per year, and gypsum of you receive less than 20” of annual rainfall.
Boron and magnesium sulfate are frequently sold in supermarkets under
the following names: Twenty Mule Team Borax (a detergent) and Epsom Salt (a laxative).
Apply Pre-Plant Mix at the rate of 1 ounce per running foot before planting.
The above mixture will effectively treat 150 running feet of raised garden
bed (or five Soil Beds measuring 18 inches by 30 feet each). For best
results apply the Pre-Plant Mix and Weekly Feed Mix (see below) in a
2:1 ratio before planting. Thoroughly mix into the soil.
The Weekly Feed Mix
This mix compares very favorably with Miracle-Gro™ plant food
and costs a lot less. If you have a large garden and want to
mix it from scratch, here’s the recipe for 26 pounds of Weekly Feed Mix.
Mix together thoroughly in a clean wheelbarrow:
- Calcium Nitrate—CaNO3 10 pounds
- Ammonium Nitrate—AmNO3 (34-0-0) 3 pounds 8 ounces
- Phosphorus—P (0-45-0) 3 pounds 12 ounces
- Magnesium Sulfate—MgSO4 (Epsom Salt) 2 pounds 12 ounces
- Potassium—K (0-0-60) 4 pounds 12 ounces
- Boron—B (Borax) 3 ounces
- Manganese—MnSO4 2 ounces
- Zinc—ZnSO4 3 ounces
- Iron(Fe) Chelate #330 ½ ounce
- Copper Sulfate—CuSO4 ¼ ounce
- Molybdenum—Mo ¼ ounce
- Gypsum—CaSO4 1 pound
Feed your plants weekly from the time they become visible by
applying 16 ounces of Weekly Feed Mix down the middle of a 18 inch
by 30 foot Soil Bed – or ½ ounce per running foot of raised garden bed,
and continue until 3 weeks before harvest.
Sound too complicated? Can’t find all the ingredients you need?
Here are some alternatives …
- If you live near a Mittleider Magic retail outlet,
you can purchase the Weekly Feed Mix already pre-made for about 1/3
the cost of Miracle-Gro™. At the moment, however, only people living
in the Intermountain Western United States can take advantage of this option.
- The Food for Everyone Foundation offers a Mittleider
Micro-Nutrient Mix
from the Foundation’s website store
which can be easily combined with locally available fertilizer and Epsom Salt to make the Weekly Feed Mix.
The preferred NPK ratio (Nitrogen-Phosphorous-Potassium ratio) for the fertilizer is 13-8-13,
but 13-13-13 or 16-16-16 will work satisfactorily. Just mix one 8 ½ ounce package of Mittleider
Micro-Nutrients with 20 pounds of NPK fertilizer and 3 pounds of Epsom Salt and you’re ready to go. Easy!
- And finally, for a short-term substitute to the Weekly-Feed fertilizer, mix together:
- 6 pounds fertilizer (16-8-16)
- 1 pound magnesium sulfate (Epsom salt)
- 5 grams boron (Borax)
If you can’t find 16-8-16, look first for another two/one/two NPK ratio,
and settle if necessary on 16-16-16, 13-13-13, or similar.
That’s it! Now you can plant with the assurance that you’ll have an
abundant harvest! Of course, there are some other important things
I’ll be telling you in the weeks to come, so let’s visit again next week.
Jim Kennard
Jim Kennard
is President of the
Food For Everyone
Foundation, a non-profit organization with the
mission of "Teaching the world to grow food one
family at a time". You'll find many free vegetable
gardening resources, including a gardening ebook,
greenhouse plans, automated watering plans, and
a free chapter from each of the great gardening
books and software CD's Jim offers, at the
website:
www.foodforeveryone.org
