'Monsoon' weather and sporadic harvest

 We have windy weather but it's humid also. Not hot enough to put AC on just wish there was a dehumidifier for the window. As I type this we decide it is only going to get worse and shut up for the say at 11 am.

I went out in the evening to check on things and water a bit and Dolores was out there. I noticed not one but two tomatoes that were ready and they came off in my hand easily (didn't get any pictures of them). I have plenty of tomatoes at this point so I finish up and offer her the tomatoes. She took them gratefully and told me she was shifting her ginger into a pot by itself. The tomato looks like a cherry and she said it was a compost volunteer. I told her 'cherry most definitely'. I don't know if it's goiing to do very well as she has it in a small pot and only a cage on it. Cherry tomatoes are vines. it's going to overtake everything if it survives.

The sunflower facing west in the evening of course and the two other tomatoes coming along. There are those and a few others I tested this morning but none are ready yet.

 

A tomato on the middle plant looked red enough but it didn't pull off easily so I left it. Raised bed is looking good. Cucumbers are going to be all over that corner for sure. Still debating on moving the one closest to the corner in the opposite direction at the trellis.

 

Found a tiny caterpillar but that didn't account for the huge amount of holes in the leaves on all the bushes in the raised bed. My eyes just don't have good binocular and depth perception anymore so I can't focus enough to look for a caterpillar big enough due to the amount of foliage. I was lucky with that first one.

Tomatoes coming along nicely. Not the same bush but similar state of the tomatoes. They'll be ripening about one every other day or every two days at this rate. Which is fine because I can have some to spare for trading when the time comes.

 

Mulch makes all the difference in the world. I watered day before yesterday and the soil underneath is still good. Other areas are bone dry at least an inch or two down. If those cukes thrive like they should I really do need to move the smaller one to the other corner at the trellis where there's lots of room.

I had to kind of coax this branch to hang on the trellis, it was just laying on the ground. I was digging around the north bed and there are a lot of roots really close to the surface. That root at the back had green skin in a section which means that it was exposed to light and would form a plant given the chance. I watered as well as I could (didn't bring the nozzle with me) and buried it again. Hope to get back out tonight and do more thorough watering in the dry areas and put some of the mulch down.

No more pictures at this point so short post today. So the difference in the fertilizer I got and what I usually use not much but got the label pictures for comparison. Anything is better than nothing and this is pretty good stuff.

First off, the print is much smaller. I couldn't get a good picture with both sides in one photo, it would need a magnifier and it's still blurry to me. The analysis on this one is 2-5-3 with 7% calcium which is great, .5% Magnesium and of that .15% Water Soluble  Magnesium (just like Nitrogen it makes a difference). It also has 1.4% sulphur which is absolutely needed in my alkaline soil.

 

I had to crop and reduce the size from the original photo I had.The difference in percentages is obvious numerically but the balance is about the same. Then there's the lack of Sulphur and a difference in the Magnesium. Calcium is higher but without the Sulphur a lot of those beneficial nutrients won't be taken up as quickly. The other difference is the type of bacillus they use. I would have to do some research on which one is more suited to our climate and soil type but essentially they're all good but some are better than others for our type of soil. Again, I'm not a soil scientist and don't plan on starting a career. 

The macro and micro nutrients are more important because it wasn't until about fifteen years ago that fertilizers started incorporating and listing the micro-organisms and micro nutrients as a selling point. Regulations in labeling nationwide but mostly in California is also a factor in knowing what is in your food, garden supplies and fertilizers.

What does this say about which one is better? Nothing. They are both good, they have minor differences in numbers but Jobe's has a rather metallic smell and the EG was more obvious in the appearance of the fertilizer being organic. Jobe's looks and smells like blood meal. For my budget I have to get what I can afford, what's better for the plants in the labels, I'll go with Jobe's. It's apparently less expensive also.

So there's the topic for today, fertilizer comparison but no soil science lesson.