only one compost used?!?

jamminsquarefootgarden 10/25/2011, 10:28 pm

I used only one compost, cotton seed compost, very small week plants. what do I do next? help

genes 10/25/2011, 11:39 pm

hello,
Pretend it was a bad dream. Start over.

Get teh book called ALL NEW SQUARE FOOT GARDENING.
Read it.
Do it.
Enjoy your harvests.

boffer 10/26/2011, 12:04 am

Nothing wrong with gene's solution. But, if you had the proper proportions of peat and vermiculite, you could get along by mixing two buckets of your current mix with one bucket of five way compost. That will be close enough for a batch of proper MM.

**gwennifer** 10/26/2011, 12:11 am

genes wrote:hello,
Pretend it was a bad dream. Start over.

So is your cotton seed compost 1/3 of your total mix, and peat moss and vermiculite make up your other 2/3's? If it were me, I'd just add fertilizer to get the nutrients in the mix for the plants that are suffering right now. Then I would make a proper mix of blended compost to have ready, so I can add a scoop of blended compost to each square before re-planting. We'll see what others have to say. Whoa! Boffer beat me.

Hey - only one compost used?!? 396615

to the forums by the way!

jamminsquarefootgarden 10/26/2011, 6:40 am

1/3 v 1/3pm 1/3 cotton seed compost. it made about 4-5 inches in my 4x4. But everything is staying so small.

jamminsquarefootgarden 10/26/2011, 6:42 am

I did by the way start seed and bed august 22.

jamminsquarefootgarden 10/26/2011, 7:50 pm

Now here is my garden.

only one compost used?!? 6284218929_b9e811f791_m

By contrast, here is a cucumber that is about the same age in the ground by the fence...

only one compost used?!? 6284747946_80ff7739b5_m

So, the lettuce in the lower left corner square is august 22 planting. The beans were later, but they are poor looking. The brusel sprouts are walmart starters.

So, it is obvious that my soils sucks. One compost, cotton seed. Vermiculite and pete moss on the thirds. I used some mirical grow some. But trying to do natural.

So, educate me... what do I do now. I want to use the black cow compost. that would be two, maybe buy some worm castings. three.

Do I fertilize too? what is the good choice?

Can you take me step by step on what to do next. I do want a spring garden.

I would like to do fava faba beens, what ever they are. In texas when can I put them in?

Sorry for the distracted wording, its busy around here.

boffer 10/26/2011, 8:19 pm

jamminsquarefootgarden wrote:
Sorry for the distracted wording, its busy around here.

Same here, so I'll be brief:

Get the book.
Read the book.
Do the book.
Enjoy your harvest.

BackyardBirdGardner 10/26/2011, 10:14 pm

I will really tick the die-hards off here and cheat for you. While waiting to get your mix and read the book....

Pop some liquid fertilizer in there if you still have some growing season left. Until I could add a little more compost, I gave my tomatoes a couple feedings and they are now 10 feet tall. The fertilizer didn't do that....the MM did.....however, the fertilizer bought me the time to get my MM right.

Too Tall Tomatoes 10/26/2011, 11:09 pm

10ft tall tomato plants????? only one compost used?!? 73140

middlemamma 10/27/2011, 4:48 am

boffer wrote:

Same here, so I'll be brief:

Get the book.
Read the book.
Do the book.
Enjoy your harvest.

Cincinnati 10/27/2011, 4:50 pm

Too Tall Tomatoes wrote:10ft tall tomato plants?????

Yep I can believe it. I have a friend whose plants this summer exceeded 10 ft in his earthbox. He has six or seven foot high plants right now and we are still at least a month from first harvest.

Too Tall Tomatoes 10/27/2011, 5:06 pm

to me any tomato plant taller than 6 feet is incredible.

That's going to be my goal for next year......grow the tallest tomato plants possible. I remember I had a decent tomato garden a few years ago and the Mr. Stripey that I had was almost 7 feet tall. It was so tall that I had to add a wooden stake onto the existing one.

Cincinnati 10/27/2011, 5:47 pm

jamminsquarefootgarden wrote:I used only one compost, cotton seed compost, very small week plants. what do I do next? help

For next season, make an equal amount of MM using 4 composts. Remove this MM and blend the two together. Add an extra shovelful of a five blend compost for every four squares in the box. Blend it all together into a bed(s) and plant.

For this season, I'd top dress it with fish emulsion or other organic fertilizer.

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yes

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So, I used only one compost and see the results. Somebody take me under your wing. please.

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