Is your garden looking slightly yellow?

Some fellow gardeners have been experiencing some yellowing of plant leaves and have found that their plants aren’t growing very well. This is most likely due to the PH level of the water and sand. We consulted the Garden Master Ted Hallett on what to do and these are the solutions he recommended.

First you need to find out what the PH of your water is, call the city, or get your own PH test done. There are inexpensive PH water testing kits you can get online, or at garden stores. Opinion is divided on their accuracy. Once you know the PH of your water, there are two things you should do.

1) Foliar Feeding Nutrient Spray - based on the chart below add APPLE CIDER VINEGAR to your nutrient solution to get the water you’re using in the solution to the right PH. Then spray your plants once a week for three weeks then go back to spraying once every three weeks. The Garden Master recommends that you spray at sunset. You will want to add the Apple Cider Vinegar to your nutrient solution indefinitely. It would be good to check your water PH on a yearly basis. As you prepare your nutrient solution add the water, then the apple cider vinegar, then the nutrient concentrate. The Garden Master now recommends spraying in the evening just at sundown.

2) Bag Flush - for four weeks flush the bags in your garden with a quart of water mixed with apple cider vinegar based on the chart below. If your plants are really struggling also mix 1 teaspoon of the concentrated nutrient solution into each quart. Dump one quart on each bag once a week for four weeks.

You should start to see an improvement within a week.

So, why does PH matter?

The PH scale measures acidity and alkalinity, a 7 on the scale is neutral. Below 7 is acidic and above 7 is alkaline. The PH of soil and water around a plant determine the plants ability to absorb nutrients. Most plants like a PH of 6 to 6.5. The natural PH of sand is around 7. Depending on what it mixed in the sand it can vary, but for practical purposes the sand in our gardens has a PH of about 7. The PH of your water varies from city to city. For example, Spanish Fork city water has a PH of 7.1.

Hope this helps your gardens grow out of control!

Oh, one more tidbit of info from Ted.

If you’re having problems with crawling bugs, the Garden Master offers the following suggestion. Purchase some food grade diatomaceous earth and sprinkle 1 Tbsp around the base of the plants. This will prevent any crawling or earth born pests from attacking the plants. (Diatomaceous earth can be found here - it’s also often at animal feed stores like Cal Ranch and Pet stores - call the stores first to make sure they care FOOD grade diatomaceous earth)