Late last fall, I put mulch from our compost pile over the entire garden. I then harvested some aquatic weeds from the canal in our back yard, and added them just to the front half of the garden area. I then added 13-13-13 NPK fertilizer over the entire garden area, then tilled the garden with my Mantis tiller. I planted the winter garden. After harvesting it, I planted potatoes on three rows in early February. From the picture above, taken by Judy today, it is obvious that the potatoes planted on the end of the garden that received the aquatic weeds as part of the mulch, are growing far better than those on the other end. I'm not sure what the aquatic weeds may have contributed, but the benefit is pretty amazing. Our "lake" is badly overrun with algae and other aquatic weeds, so there is no shortage of aquatic weed mulch that I could produce. Lakes overrun with aquatic weeds is a sign that significant amounts of fertilizer runoff (particularly phosphorus) from homeowners gardens is occurring. We just bought a composter that arrived late yesterday. I'm still putting it together. I'm not sure what aquatic weeds we have right now, beyond plain old algae, but I'm pretty sure the dominant species I used in the garden last fall is one called Southern Naiad, based on online pictures I have seen of it.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Effect of aquatic weeds used as mulch on potato growth
Late last fall, I put mulch from our compost pile over the entire garden. I then harvested some aquatic weeds from the canal in our back yard, and added them just to the front half of the garden area. I then added 13-13-13 NPK fertilizer over the entire garden area, then tilled the garden with my Mantis tiller. I planted the winter garden. After harvesting it, I planted potatoes on three rows in early February. From the picture above, taken by Judy today, it is obvious that the potatoes planted on the end of the garden that received the aquatic weeds as part of the mulch, are growing far better than those on the other end. I'm not sure what the aquatic weeds may have contributed, but the benefit is pretty amazing. Our "lake" is badly overrun with algae and other aquatic weeds, so there is no shortage of aquatic weed mulch that I could produce. Lakes overrun with aquatic weeds is a sign that significant amounts of fertilizer runoff (particularly phosphorus) from homeowners gardens is occurring. We just bought a composter that arrived late yesterday. I'm still putting it together. I'm not sure what aquatic weeds we have right now, beyond plain old algae, but I'm pretty sure the dominant species I used in the garden last fall is one called Southern Naiad, based on online pictures I have seen of it.
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5 comments:
Wow, that's really interesting! It's so cool that you do all these experiments with your garden.
I have a confession; it wasn't really a planned experiment. At the time, had just enough aquatic weed to cover the front half, but I admit that I was interested to see which half was going to do better, since, in my mind, it could have gone the other way. Strangely, it had little effect on the winter garden. Maybe it took time for the aquatic mulch to break down so that it can do some good now.
That is awesome! what a good discovery!
Didn't have any affect on the winter garden? Have you forgotten all those GIANT cauliflowers we picked?
Hmmm...that's a good point.
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