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Monday, January 25, 2010

I'm Miserable!!

I cannot sleep. There is a major issue with my garden. The plants have been magnesium-poisoned. It all started with a few fascinating exposés on high brix gardening by 2 people whom I shall call LL and K. These 2 are the GCS Forum PhDs of Fertilizer Management. I had to re-read their forum posts a few times before I even understood anything. But whatever I did understand was intriguing. I itched to try.

It didn't help that the last quarter of last year was so busy, I hardly stepped out into the garden. Besides, Petunia has never been patient enough to wait till she has understood everything before she launches herself into an escapade of the non-physically-challenging sort. Most times, I figure that things will get clearer as I go along... and besides, learning requires mistakes no?

Oh well... this time, my mistake is a big, big one indeed!! Oh... woe is me!!

See... I somehow understood that magnesium was necessary for something that a plant does (whatever that might be)... and since none of the fertilizers that I used in the past had any stated magnesium, I went and assumed that magnesium would be the missing nutrient. Now of course LL would have gone and done a soil test. But Petunia conveniently tossed that notion out the window and went ahead to augment her garden. Being rather busy with proper work, not the fun gardening sort of work, I went through my garden dispensing magnesium like I was The God of Fortune dispensing gold. I gave out A LOT, A LOT, A LOT of magnesium.

And many plants simply fell over. They look like yesterday's stir fry.

Alright, now I know that too much magnesium takes out nitrogen from the soil and interferes with the plant's ability to absorb phosphorus. How does magnesium take nitrogen from soil? Dunno. How does magnesium prevent a plant from taking in phosphorus? Dunno. Whatever it is, my plants are starved and now I worry that if I add A LOT, A LOT, A LOT of something else, then my poor plants will really have to become yesterday's stir fry.

Oh... does anyone know what to do to make those sprigs of stir fry stand up again?

10 comments:

Rummi, the gardener. said...

Opsie, so u took K's experiments out of the lab. Hehe.

Since magnesium is water-soluble, how about flushing out the soil today; then filling the nutrients back with more balanced formula tomorrow, such as phostogen or hydroponic-solution... in theory this sounds logically workable.

Petunia Lee said...

Magnesium is water soluble? Ok!

Rummi, the gardener. said...

Its a salt, isn't it. LOL

Blur Ting said...

Oh dear. Poor plants. Poor you. So sorry I cannot offer any intelligent solutions but I hope to see you happy again.

Petunia Lee said...

Rummi... actually... I dunno if it's a salt. I went to buy new soil and I'll repot the more sickly ones... and flush the other pots.

Petunia Lee said...

Ting - Now that I'm into the fix-my-problem mode, I'm less unhappy.Besides, daytime (especially mornings) is usually happier than night because one is rested and fresh enough to tackle problems. Thanks for caring!

Open Kitchen Concept said...

Oh dear... I can so understand that feeling.. and you have such a nice garden too... :(

Petunia Lee said...

OKC - Thanks! I repotted earlier today. Feel much better now!

Unknown said...

ops sorry i really wanted your plants to grow well. my responded to the treatment. maybe the lime you had had too much mg. sorry again.

k

Petunia Lee said...

It's not your fault Kelmund. I not only put lime. I put something else with high mg.

It's no one's fault but my own.