“Oops! I thought I was helping the plants, but turns out I just stunted their growth” Ethan and I dumped the leaves in our garden and tilled them all it, thinking we were doing our plants a favor. Turns out we were actually making it harder for our plants to thrive!
Our plants were slow growing and pale-yellow. It took a bit of research to find out what was going on. Only to find out our plants we suffering because we tilled in the leaves, but what could we do about it now?
If you find yourself in the same predicament with pale yellow plants that are growing at a very slow rate, don’t lose hope! Grading is a skill you develop not a "green thumb" that you either have or don't have.
There is a great way you can boost the soil nutrients without using harmful chemicals! Ethan and I add fish emulsion into the water when treating plants with low nitrogen. (We also like to give fish emulsion to new transplant young plants, and in compost tea, but I will save that for another blog post!) It takes very little fish emulsion per gallon of water, but it sure does help! You will be able to see that it is helping by the color of your plants. The plants will change from a pale yellow to the deep green that signals health.
A friendly warning, it is a little stinky, but the smell does not stay around for more than a few days. I do ask Ethan not to water the plants with fish emulsion if I know that we are going to have guests over.
Happy gardening!
Happy gardening!
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