Growing an Organic Garden

Understand your plants needs.
All plants need certain things in order to survive and thrive. The basic ingredients are balanced soil, sunshine, water and food. Let’s break those down and discover how to achieve the best amounts and types for growing an organic garden.

SUNSHINE
All plants require sunshine, although not necessarily to the same degree. When your planning on growing an organic garden, it’s important to place plants in the adequate amount of sunlight to suit their needs. This information is typically included on seed packets or plant tags, but can also be found in a number of books.

SOIL
Obtaining balanced organic soil can be a challenge if you’ve never had experience with it before, but rest assured it’s not that complicated once you understand the basics. You will need to evaluate your current soil and test it, then you can improve it and add just what it needs to be properly balanced so you can grow incredible crops.

When you look and feel your soil can you determine these things… is it mostly clay or sand or nice and loamy? Does it drain well? Does it smell "earthy"? Are earthworms abundant or sparse?

Next you’ll want to check the pH to determine if it’s acidic or alkaline. Make sure you take a good sample from your garden for the testing. Tests are available for under $20 at most nurseries. If your number is low, your soil is acidic, 7 is neutral and on up to 14 is alkaline. Now while we want our bodies to be alkaline, we want our soil to be slightly acidic so plants can use the nutrients correctly. A pH of 6.2 to 7 is generally preferred for most plants. If your soil is off, you can add limestone or sulfur to bring it to the correct pH.

Good organic soil should provide the basic nutrients along with many other micronutrients. There are also tests available to check these levels in your soil as well. To correct deficiencies, adding compost is by far the best, but you can also add organic humus (manure free), seed-free straw, kelp meal or wood ash. I never recommend using any type of manure, blood or bone meal, fish meal or emulsion, other "animal" by-products. There are better ways to garden than with ground up fish and cow poop, blood and bones. Not exactly what I want my food lying in!! Many great organic soils are available at your local nursery or order online.

FERTILIZER & NUTRITION
Plants require essential nutrients including nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. These are the main three and they are generally rated in that order on the bag of fertilizer, compost or soil you purchase at the store (10-10-10)(N-P-K). There are also other needed trace elements such as cobalt, boron, zinc, copper, magnesium, calcium, iron, manganese, sulfur and molybdenum. To feed your plants while growing an organic garden, choose organic substances such as compost , earthworm casings or Garden Plenty. Nitrogen promotes rapid growth, improves color density and quality while over use of nitrogen can cause overgreening and less flowers and fruit.
Phosphate stimulates early root growth and plant formation and aids in germination. It also promotes rapid and vigorous growth and helps winter hardiness to perennials.
Potassium adds vigor and disease resistance while it helps stiffen stalks and stems. It also aids in protein synthesis. It’s important for developing quality fruits.

Here’s a list of some common deficiencies you may encounter while growing an organic garden.

Nitrogen deficiency- older leaves at base of plant turn yellow then develop a burnt look.
Iron deficiency- leaves turn yellow or pale green while veins remain green.
Sulfer deficiency- young new leaves turn yellow.
Potassium deficiency- plants are more prone to disease, forming spots and leaves curling.
Phosphorous deficiency- growth is stunted, leaves turn very dark , blue-green or purple with red veins.
Calcium deficiency- blossom end rot occurs. Young leaves die or wrinkle.
Boron deficiency- stems turn brown and mushy.