Organic Gardening Info from Peaceful Valley

If you haven’t gotten your potatoes in the ground you’re late. I always have the last of them in by Passover. Here’s the quick fix. Lightly till a patch of ground, spread out some bone meal or soft rock phosphate in spots about 1.5 ft. apart, sprinkle some Biozome to decompose things quickly, set potatoes on those spots, cover with compost and soil and sprinkle with Nutri-Rich.

I bury mine 8-10 inches but this time of year you may want to do that in stages so the soil warms more quickly at the seed point, then run a line of soaker hose. As plants emerge begin covering them with straw until you have a good six inches of straw mulch. The little spuds will grow in the straw with just the right amount of moisture (not too soggy) at the seed potato. Never let the new spuds see the sun. They turn green and un-eatable.

And if you want your long season heirloom tomatoes to come in early get them in the ground now with Walls O’ Water. You’ll be amazed.

Stay tuned for the 2009 Chicken Watch updates.

Read our “How to grow potatoes” page here.

We are growers of herb and vegetable starts, in business since 1988, and wanting to change to all organic. For years, we’ve been producing our starts with triple-20 at a ratio of 1:200. This works quickly (we produce a saleable 4″ well-rooted plant, in most cases, in 8-10 weeks). Do you carry a product that would replace the chemical fertilizers but maintain the same production schedule? Or maybe there is a combination of organics that would helps us make this change. Please advise.

Whitney

Hi Whitney,

First of all, congratulations on your decision to go organic! It is definitely a good one! You will learn that organic fertilizers don’t have numbers as high as conventional. However, 8-10 weeks is a reasonable time to expect well rooted plants if conditions (temperature, moisture, etc.) are optimal. In your soil mixture, you might consider adding our Rose, Flower & Bulb mix (Item F064-25lb bag). It’s a 4-8-4 meal with some really nice ingredients including alfalfa meal, bone meal, and kelp meal. After 4 weeks, you can apply it again on the surface and water it in. If you would like a liquid fertilizer as well, our Omega 6-6-6 (Item F1825-5 Gal) is an excellent choice. You can apply it every 2-4 weeks at 2-4 Tbl per Gallon, which is 1:128-1:64.

We carry some excellent Mycorrhizae powders that can be mixed with the soil mix or added to the pots and watered in. Mycorrhixae are beneficial fungi that help the plant root and uptake nutrients (Item ISO705-24oz).

Hope that helps! Thank you for growing organically!
Amber