My husband scored on a bounty of alpaca dung this morning. "Four hundred pounds!" he said. Alpaca dung, a well-known nitrogen fixer, contains acidic pine shavings and alfalfa straw - a good carbon fixer. The combination together morphs into the ideal compost, especially for high alkaline soils of Flagstaff.
Bill McDorman of Seeds Trust in Cornville, AZ preaches, "it's all about the soil; if you fix your soil, you fix most of your problems." Adding compost to your soil fixes minerals and nutrients and balances your soil. And supposedly, adding mycorrhizal inoculum boosts played out and poor soils. According to the founders of Mycorrhizal Applications Inc., mycorrhizae literally means:
..."fungus" - "root" and defines the mutually beneficial relationship between the plant root and fungus. These specialized fungi colonize plant roots and extend far into the soil resource. Mycorrhizal fungal filaments in the soil are truly extensions of root systems and more effective in nutrient and water absorption than the roots themselves.
Mycorrhizae is becoming more available in nurseries, especially nurseries that endorse organic growing practices. Flagstaff Native Plant and Seed sells Earth Magic, a mycorrhizal humus, and when mixed with Protein Crumbles - a food source for mycorrhizae - the mycorrhizae will be greatly augmented in your soil. We have used this compound for the first time this season, and so the verdict is still out. I will be sure to update this blog later in the season.
Interested to see how things turn out in Flag.
ReplyDeleteChandler is warming up (i.e getting hot) but the rain on Sat helped out. Picked up some cantalope seedlings from Lowes today. I will see how the do. I am sure the sun will bake them soon.
Nate
From my very limited desert gardening experience, diffused shading and trenching your gardens to allow the moisture to get to the roots is the best approach to deal with the hot sun.
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