Mineral deficiences in plants

[fishfood]

this may help some http://www.hbci.com/~wenonah/min-def/list.htm

[Hamish]

That is a great link - thants FF.

[bushboy]

I visited a garden on at Tweed Heads on the weekend - this old guy
had a very impressive and quite large vegetable patch but how he went about it was most interesting.

He uses a refractometer (Brix meter) that measures basically the sugars in the plant sap - higher reading = plant more healthy , lower = plant struggling or short of something.

Now what he does is to say take 6 cauli he has growing and do brix readings
on the sap and then applies different folar type sprays on each plant
-eg some spray high in Boron , another seaweed extract etc etc and then after 45mins or so re do the brix readings . Using this process he has worked out what his tomatoes, carrots, brassicas etc need in a logical manner

Whilst we were there he demonstrated the process by spraying a tomato
fertilser on to some brassicas - the Brix reading went down - ie not a smart option for this vegetable.

The meters seem to be about $50 (ebay) -> $180 odd at Green Harvest

It seemed a neat way to work out how what to apply to your particular soils
and plants as everyone's soils and climate are different.

Incidentally , once he works out what to apply he uses something similar and applies it to the soil rather than folar sprays.

His veges were quite impressive - some of these old gardeners certainly know a trick or two!!

[Hamish]

That is a really interesting trick. I wish I could talk to my grandfather. He died when I was quite young - but man did he have an impressive garden. He use to make his own seaweed extract - basically seasol. His whole back yard was an amazing raised bed garden that was able to feed both my grandparents and any visitors that came over. Amazing - and such a shame all his knowledge was lost. But until recently my generation did not see the value in vege gardening when the shop is so close and veges so cheap. Havent times changed!

[djs-sa]

I have done some homework b4 on brix. google it and there is lots of info to scan thru

[bushboy]

Hi ds.. - do you use one yourself?

if so how have you found it ?

[djs-sa]

havent used 1 only been shown in depth by the bloke I had come out

[bushboy]

My Grandfather was the same Hamish - amazing orchard - feijoas/tamarillos/citrus/grapes/figs/apples/pears/peaches and superb vegetables. Unfortunately I had no interest in any of that at the time and of course he is now long gone. I have no idea of what he did or how or what he used and why - such a shame as I bet he had a wealth of knowledge.

I think it was to do with the depression years when growing your own food was really important. My parents never bothered as food became cheap and plentiful. My main concern and interest now is the quality side of growing my own - it gives me a real "buzz" to look at a plate and tick off - grew the brocilli/beans/pumpkin/potatoes or whatever and then scheme on producing whatever else was on the plate in the future or alternatives (such as the Jap Quaill for meat). When you look at it objectively though it is quite difficult to grow significant daily kilojoules for a family - but at least we are ahead of the pack in getting our minds around this and at least having a go at it. I think it will take more than a few years to really develop the skills and knowledge. It is fun though and I really enjoy it!
(love the addition of aquaponics to it as well - already thinking of setting up another system - gently hinting to the wife about needing more tanks for crayfish this time)

oops - bit off topic of mineral deficiencies -sorry

[organicusrex]

Hey FF, that link is fantastic. Thanks!

[fuzvulf]

And all this time I thought my gram was just psychic with plants. Thanks for the link, saved a copy of the web page since links go down all the time and I don't wanna lose that one.