007 Feed Your Soil, Not Your Plants

Quit fertilizing your plants! Feed your soil instead. Episode 7 goes deep into what makes for a successful plant. If you think plant roots are sucking up the liquid or granular fertilizer that your pouring on them, think again. Plant roots aren’t straws. Instead there are billions of microscopic beneficial fungi and bacteria in the soil that are converting those fertilizers into a usable form for the plant, and delivering the finished product to the plant roots. The better you treat those beneficial critters, the healthier will be your plants. It’s all about the soil. On Episode 7, we talk with Giselle Schoniger of Kellogg Garden Products about how this process works, and actually how easy it is to improve your soil, and your plants. We talk with a soils expert about why you should spend your money on a chipper/shredder instead of a rototiller, and how that rototiller can damage your soil. Are your winter greens and cool season vegetables like broccoli and cauiliflower starting to bolt, turning bitter and uneatable? Our in house college horticulture professor, Debbie Flower, explains why that happens. But there is a very beneficial side to all that bolting, a result that can actually reduce your garden pest problems.It’s all on this week’s Garden Basics with Farmer Fred Podcast, and we will do it all in less than 30 minutes! Let’s get started!Thank you for listening, subscribing and commenting on the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast and the Beyond the Garden Basics  Newsletter.