Would I be over fertilizing?

[KLR1188]

I finally got around to doing a garden this year only to realize, after planting, that the soil we planted in is extremely lacking in key nutrients. Within 5 days of planting all my tomatoes had purple leaves, and as more time has passed I've also noticed signs of a potassium deficiency too. Anyway because of my tomatoes I bought Miracle-Gro Quick Start and gave all my vegetables a dose 6 days after planting. Which has definitely helped. But realizing that I'm lacking nutrients as I am I bought Miracle-Gro Shake 'N Feed Tomato, Fruit & Vegetable plant food and put a light coating of that around all my vegetables 10 days after planting. My question is would I be over fertilizing my garden if I give everything another dose of Miracle-Gro Quick Start tomorrow or the next day? Which is 13 to 14 days after planting. I'm am still seeing some signs of potassium deficiency on some of my peppers and a couple of tomatoes still have a touch of purple on their leaves.

I know that synthetic fertilizers can be bad because of the salts the nutrients are derived from, but this is the best that I can do this year. This fall I'll have my soil tested by my local extension office so that it can be fixed right for next year. Any guidance would be appreciated though.

Thanks

 

[headfullofbees]

Or over-poisoning?
How did you know that your soil was lacking nutrients?
What was it used for prior to a veg garden?
Was it successful in that previous use?
Seaweed nettle or comfrey tea will all quickly overcome potassium deficiency, because they have readily available minerals.
There is a fashion these days for lab soil tests, but it's an unnecessary cost.
PH can be found easily in an internet search:
UK:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Susie_Roques/publication/277669269/figure/fig1/AS:294300601602061@1447178139820/Map-of-basic-soil-type-s-in-the-UK.png

US:

https://forages.oregonstate.edu/sites/forages.oregonstate.edu/files/ph.jpg

Everything else is balanced by holistic soil feed with natural fertilisers, fish blood & bone, animal manures, seaweed, nutrient miners like comfrey & nettles, woodash & urine, and indeed, because you're adding so many optional micro-nutrients in these natural feeds, far more than the man-made ones, you get the benefit in the flavour of your fruit and veg.
Remember also that

Unless you honestly cannot come by these natural feeds, throw away your miracle gro.

 

[KLR1188]

My extension office only charges $9 for a soil test that will tell me a lot more than the pH alone so I am content to do that this fall.

Where my garden is was the edge of a field that was in a soybean/corn rotation for more years than I know up until 2 years ago. We assumed the soil would be fairly decent because we created a topsoil pile form the same field and it was growing grass within 2-3 weeks without seeding. Also when digging into the soil it looks like a nice loamy topsoil. According to the web soil survey I believe it said it was a a type of silt loam to be more precise.

After seeing what I have I'm afraid that the numerous years of crop rotation without proper soil health maintenance just sucked most of the minerals and nutrients out of the soil. I wouldn't have thought so though until I planted my garden there. I've never had any soil issues with previous gardens so that's where I'm stuck at what I should ideally be doing at this point since I've already planted.

 

[headfullofbees]

Seaweed and comfrey liquid feed are pretty instantaneous and you can make a good actively aerated compost tea for pennies.
You're not stuck until you've killed your soil.

 

[DirtMechanic]

Or over-poisoning?
How did you know that your soil was lacking nutrients?
What was it used for prior to a veg garden?
Was it successful in that previous use?
Seaweed nettle or comfrey tea will all quickly overcome potassium deficiency, because they have readily available minerals.
There is a fashion these days for lab soil tests, but it's an unnecessary cost.
PH can be found easily in an internet search:
UK:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Susie_Roques/publication/277669269/figure/fig1/AS:294300601602061@1447178139820/Map-of-basic-soil-type-s-in-the-UK.png

US:

https://forages.oregonstate.edu/sites/forages.oregonstate.edu/files/ph.jpg

Everything else is balanced by holistic soil feed with natural fertilisers, fish blood & bone, animal manures, seaweed, nutrient miners like comfrey & nettles, woodash & urine, and indeed, because you're adding so many optional micro-nutrients in these natural feeds, far more than the man-made ones, you get the benefit in the flavour of your fruit and veg.
Remember also that

Unless you honestly cannot come by these natural feeds, throw away your miracle gro.

lol! hater! But not wrong!

@KLR1188 makeup is fine. You wont use that much anyway, lightly every week is that product design. The organics are real slow to kick in. You can see when they look good and ease off anyway. The best fertilizing starts in the fall. Leaves and such, like nature does its business.

 

[headfullofbees]

lol! hater! But not wrong!

@KLR1188 makeup is fine. You wont use that much anyway, lightly every week is that product design. The organics are real slow to kick in. You can see when they look good and ease off anyway. The best fertilizing starts in the fall. Leaves and such, like nature does its business.

Liquid feeds made from organics are as quick as miracle gro.
Even if you add as solids, a bacterial actively-aerated compost tea will break them down quickly.
It's just that organics tend to hang around doing good for longer.
I planted another 3 comfrey plants grown from root cuttings on Wednesday.
I'm hoping that the only fertiliser I'll ever need to buy in future is a kilo of bonemeal a year for phosphate.
'

How & Why to Make Actively Aerated Compost Tea to Feed Your Garden ~ Homestead and Chill

Learn how to make aerated compost tea to feed your plants! We'll explore its benefits, supplies needed, the step-by-step process of how to make it, and ways to use compost tea in the garden.

homesteadandchill.com

 

[DirtMechanic]

For us and our ever non-conforming acid clay, a non phosphate fertilizing regime is a holy grail. We seem to either have the 5pH in unamended soil where the low pH increases available phospate or we have Amended soil where the second phosphate window exists. Of course all of this is meaningless, because the clay suffocates most plants.