top dressing alfalfa/kelp

Discussion in 'Gardening' started by BigChowder, Jun 21, 2015.

  1. Will it do my garden plants good?  Can they change the flavor of my vegetables?

     
  2. #2 Ẅest Čoast, Jun 22, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 22, 2015
    Change the flavor? No. Possibly enhance it? Possibly.
     
  3. I like eating alfalfa with my veggies
     
  4. If you have any beneficial fungi in the soil they'll grow all over that shit so bury it down a few inches. Wont do much in flower, but early veg it could help and will definitely improve the soil for the next cycle.
     
  5. Be careful with the alfalfa, especially with the Toms, the toms will most likely explode in vegetative growth and put out little fruit. I would definitley add kelp. I topdressed all of my corn, cukes, tomatoes, zucchini, etc...with kelp and neem this year. Kelp provides not only 83 macro and micro nutrients, but also growth hormones and hormones to suppress pest damage. Neem provides azadirachtin as a pesticide and also a variety of nutrients. Alfalfa is very nitrogen rich and that's why I would use very little with the tomatoes, but it also provides growth hormones among a myriad of beneficial secondary compounds.
     
    IDK about flavor, possibly. Kelp will provide trace minerals and chelators that make available to the plant otherwise 'locked out' minerals in the soil. These could help produce a better flavor in the fruit. Kelp, however, aids in the plant's transition from veg to fruiting, as well as increasing the number of fruit sites, along with increasing the shelf-life of the fruit.
     
    As well as topdressing, it'd be a good idea to spray your plants with kelp at least once during their life cycle. The best times are right around the 3rd set of leaves, and right when it starts to make fruit. You could use this recipe to make a water-soluble paste from your kelp, and turn that into an instant tea with which to spray your plants.
     
  6. Alfalfa meal? It is a terrible nitrogen source. It is slow to become available, and does not have the protein content necessary to grow good stuff. Kelp will supply some N and trace minerals, but that in and of itself will not necessarily make things taste better. Soybean meal, alfalfa meal, cottonseed meal are all MUCH better organic nitrogen sources. Don't forget that available calcium is just as critical as NPK.

    If you want better tasting veggies, get a copy of Steve Solomons _The Intelligent Gardener_ and look into soil balancing.
     

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