Nitrogen boost or what?

[loong]

Hi,

earlier this year we had a tremendous storm and out of the trees on my plot, only a badly damaged mango survived.

I had to burn a lot to clear the land, I don't like to do that, but I had no choice. At least something was returned to the soil by way of the ash.

Problem that I am having now is that leafy green vegetables such as chinese kale and flowering pak choy are not doing at all well.

For sure they are suffering because the dappled shade from the trees is no longer there.

The leaves are yellowing and growth stunted which suggests a nitrogen deficiency. The odd thing is that leafy green weeds are doing extremely well. Self seeded pea eggplants are springing up everywhere and really strong.

The weeds such as pigweed (not sure if this is the right name) that are doing well are deeprooted whereas my veg will tend to be shallow rooted when the top layers of soil are constantly wetted as it has been with the consistant rain lately. When the sun comes out they burn up,

It is my belief that the topmost soil layers have the nitrogen tied up by the large amount of woody and leafy residue and as the soil is constantly wet, there is no encouragement for the veg roots to go deeper in search of moisture.

Any suggestions?

[teletiger]

Ridge and furrow? Growing veg on a ridge keeps them out of the worst of the water and encourages the roots to go deeper.

Regards.

[loong]

Thanks Teletiger,

that's not something that I had considered for veg.

[soidog2]

Not much you can do right now.

When it dries out a little bit, a good tilling is in order.

To make it scientific, you could also test the soil at two or three depths, you will know if it is nitrogen overload etc.

Personally, I would also replace the shade trees.

Best regards

[loong]

Not much you can do right now.

When it dries out a little bit, a good tilling is in order.

To make it scientific, you could also test the soil at two or three depths, you will know if it is nitrogen overload etc.

Personally, I would also replace the shade trees.

Best regards

I've been putting up shade cloth today, so hopefully that will help.

Sun seems to be so much stronger than it usually is at this time of year!

Sorry, I wasn't very clear, I don't think that it is nitrogen overload, but a shortage of nitrogen due to it being tied up by decomposing high carbon materials.

I am concerned that a good tilling may distribute these high carbon materials through more levels of the soil.

I've started a batch of fresh cow manure (from the stall, wet with urine), weeds and banana leaves, fermenting with EM in the hope that this will make a high nitrogen soup that I can dilute and use for watering.

[soidog2]

Tilling will aerate the soil (badly needed after the rainy season) to facilitate even organic decomposition; your nitrogen soup sounds good; use sparingly.

We make it & use it year around; does wonders when sprayed on cassava, in the garden 99% of plants thrive with it.

[kickstart]

I am no expert but I would suspect poor drainage,after a lot of rain,water can not get away.

Tilling will help ,but what it needs is a sub-soiler, or a heavy cultivator to get down at least 18 ins -2 foot, being a old tree plot nothing done to it for some years, there must be a pan under ground ,what type of soil is it ,sand land can pan as bad as clay land, some time worse.

Problem is where to find a"pan buster" ,round here the latest fashion with the sugar cane ,is a type of 2 leg sub- soiler used for applying fertilizer,one would work if you can find some one to do as you ask ,with a good tractor ,not a worn out Ford with bald tires

Best time of year to do it would be after the new year,when the land has dryed out ,you will get a good shatering effect,and open the land ,help it to breath.

As TT said ridge and furrow/raised beds would help.

Yours Regs

KS

[loong]

Thank you Soidog and kickstart.

Yes, the plot needs digging over, it has compacted quite badly, but it is still too wet.

Originally, the plot was very stony and level with the road. We bought some loads of soil from when they deepened the local river and raised it by an average 2 feet. Soil is iron rich clay with some sand, but mostly clay.

I added huge amounts of organic matter over the last 4 years, but it gets consumed quickly and I didn't do so much last year as I was tied up with other things.

It wasn't a tree plot, the trees were at the edge

[loong]

The soup that I made was extremely glutinous after 4 days.

I diluted 1000/1 and watered. Now the new chinese Kale seedlings are looking very strong whereas they were very spindly before. Big difference in just a few days.

I've ripped out the flowering Pak choi, they were bigger and too weak.

Areas that I had nothing growing I watered with a dilution of 100/1. Strong stink of ammonia there.

Now there is only one person in the village that takes care of cows and I find it very difficult to talk to him because he talks like a machine gun, very quickly. Thai people only want dried cow manure and he just cannot comprehend that I am happy to take urine soaked manure.

I've arranged with my BIL that he will go and collect more manure and I will make aerobic bokashi because the green weeds etc that I have now are in seed.

[soidog2]

I can confirm your results, been doing it for a while; experimenting with adding water from fermenting vegetarian kitchen leftovers.

Use in moderation, gives great results. I spray it on fruit trees/ grapes/ avocados etc, they all love it.