Barley update.

I had a bit of a scare last week when I went to the garden. It had rained and the barley in three of the beds had fallen over. This is called “lodging” and happens when there’s too much nitrogen in the soil. Fearing that the stalks would break I ran strings through the beds attached to posts to prop them up as well as placing several bamboo sticks within the beds for the same  purpose. This weekend I returned to the garden with more string and sticks thinking things would be even worse but instead almost all of it had straightened out!

 

Nutrient deficiencies and powdery mildew

So it turns out it was a good idea after all to put the Maris Otter in the garden and not in a pot like the Golden Promise. It started out looking really good but now there is some yellowing around the base leaves and powdery mildew on quit a few of them. I’m pretty sure the main reason for the mildew would be the spacing- too many plants in a small area. I’ve been using milk diluted with water as an organic method to get rid of it and this seems to work. The ratio is 30% milk 70% water sprayed on a sunny day so it dries quickly. Here’s a link for some info on powdery mildew. As for the yellowing this looks like a potash deficiency which is surprising since the soil is new. I bought a brand new bag of potting mix just for this pot. I guess I’ll have to add some fertilizer to it.

 

Barley update

The barley’s looking really healthy this year take a look. Last fall I dumped a ton of horse manure on the garden. This spring I tested the soil and it was low in Nitrogen and Potash so I added some blood meal and some potash, I also added a couple bags of alfalfa meal which has a natural growth stimulant  (I read that somewhere a long time ago so don’t quote me on it)  I’ve added alfalfa meal to roses before and it seems to work. A lot of gardeners around here swear by it so I gave it a try. In hindsight I should have put the Maris Otter in a pot like the Golden Promise but I’m sure I’ll get some seeds out of it.