Feeding the Vegetable Garden
Many folks have the wrong idea about fertilizing the vegetable garden. In fact probably the majority of the American population assumes wrongly that twice or three times a year you put some fertilizer around your vegetable plants and that takes care of their nutritional needs for the season; and you do this again year after year. And that is how most vegetable gardens in America are managed.
Our way of thinking about feeding the vegetable plants is combining the use of some slow release granular organic fertilizer with the effects of managing the soil with organic matter and some compost. Then we supplement those steps with one or more bio-activator products. Soil containing plenty of organic matter has a robust population of microbes and other soil creatures whose job is to break down that organic matter into its various chemical components. Those chemicals become food for the plants.
So when we think about feeding our garden, we think about adding organic matter first and then think of fertilizer as being a supplement, at least until after four or five years of adding organic matter. At that time, we can probably stop using any general purpose fertilizer. The soil food web provides all of our vegetables with as much food as they need without the help of additional fertilizer.
So there are four components to any feeding program for your vegetable garden.
Not Optional - There is fertilizer, organic granular and liquid
Not Optional - There is organic matter added to soil as mulch
Optional – Add Myke when planting
Optional - There are a number of products containing beneficial soil microbes that help plants thrive and be extra productive.