Fungus or nute burn?

[johnnyappleseed]

Yep, the way I see it. But, one little thing I try to keep in mind. Just about every package of 'organic input' or natural fertilizers will have a small percentage of a nutrient that is considered "water soluble". Those will start to be available as soon as the soil has enough water. The rest of it needs the microbes to eat it and pass it through their system to make it available. Or, when the microbe dies it then decomposes and that releases the nutrients.


Sterilizing the soil will kill off a large amount of weed seeds and pathogens. It also kills off a large percentage of beneficial micro-organisms at the same time. Within a short amount of time the survivors are starting to repopulate. There are some of these micro-organisms, good and bad, that are floating in the air. Those will contribute to the new population.

On top of that some of the soil producing companies are adding micro-organism to their medium. Some of the fertilizer companies are also adding these to their products. Pro-Mix is adding Mycorrhizae to one or more of their Peat based lines of grow medium.

A true sterile grow medium that is available to the average gardener might be hard to find.

Really helpful info. Thank you. Would what you said about water soluble nutrients apply only to granular fertilizers? Since I'm mixing mine with water and I'm assuming the entire nutrient batch is available to the plant all at once.

I usually pay close attention to the ingredients in the bags. A carryover from when I worked for Scott's lawn Care. . I just recently started mixing it all myself with pure peat, vermiculite, and perlite. Nothing else, unless they're lying!

My local Walmart sells the pro mix in the yellow bag for around $18 which is a pretty good deal in my opinion and I noticed they do include mycorrhizae in there. I'll keep that in mind if I get tired of mixing.

I built a two-site Hydro system which is more like a Dutch bucket. But I'm too scared to run it

 

[SmokingWings]

Would what you said about water soluble nutrients apply only to granular fertilizers?

No. I have the feeling that some percentage of nutrient sources listed on bottled fertilizers are insoluble or not yet ready to be water-soluble until the micro-organisms have had a chance to digest them. In that case the particular nutrient might take several days to be available to the plant.

Granular or dry fertilizers will often show the percentages of the particular nutrient that is water soluble and water insoluble.

Here is one to think about. Getting calcium from bones using 3 different animals.
*Bury a beef shank bone and 10 years later the bone is still there.
*Bury a bunch of chicken leg bones and a year later they can be dug up with maybe a few holes showing in most of them. Another year and the bone has broken down and is unrecognizable.
*Fillet a fish and bury the skeleton. Very possible that within 6 months most of the skeleton is gone. A year after burying and most of the bones, including the skull, are gone with just the jaw bone and teeth still there.

Here is another. Beef bones are often used for bone meal. Grind up the bones and the larger the pieces the longer it takes for them to break down. These days we can go to a garden center and buy a bag of bonemeal that has been ground up so it is as fine as the flour used for baking breads or cakes. The back of the package says that it is so finely ground that the plants will be able to use it all within one growing season.