Eye See Life: April 2012

Some of my Dahlias

Dahlias are really hard workers in the garden. These beauties have been blooming since early fall. They survived the extremely wet winter we had here. I really thought they were going to rot and die very fast. The rains and winds did brake some of their branches and some of the plants got a fungus on their leaves. I just pruned the parts that were infected in late January, I believe, and in a couple of weeks they bounced back and started to bloom beautifully. I’m not sure if they will go to rest some day because they are growing new shoots from the roots.

I do not fertilize them too often but they are growing in a very nice soil with excellent drainage and a lot of organic matter. Sometimes I give them some bunny poop and some compost and when I remember I give them a little bit of liquid 20-20-20 or a 15-50-5. And now I spray them with kelp foliar fertilizer when I fertilize my roses.

They have really impressed me. I do want to get more. I saw a beautiful dark red and white one on eBay some weeks ago. I hope they still have it.

The Mighty Kelp

Yesterday, my liquid kelp extract arrived and I wetted all of my plants with it. According to what I read Kelp extract provides natural plant hormones and micronutrients to the plants. These compounds are known to accelerate growth, increase flowering and fruiting, intensify color, and provide resistance to disease, insects, drought, and frost.

These are some other benefits:

Improves seed germination and increases root development.
Increases bloom set and size of flowers and fruit.
Increases and stabilizes chlorophyll in plants, which results in darker green leaves and increased sugar content in plants.
Relieves stress in plants caused by extreme weather conditions.

Increases plant vigor, and thus imparts a greater resistance to disease, insect attack, drought, and frost.
Increases microorganisms in the soil that can fix nitrogen from the air.

Increases mineral uptake from the soil and into the plant.
Increases the storage life of fruits and vegetables by retarding the loss of protein, chlorophyll, and RNA.
Retards the aging process in plants (senescence), thereby lengthening the production season.

Many of the trace minerals contained in seaweed have important regulatory functions when applied to land plants, and in the animals and humans that consume the plants.