On a warm and early spring morning, the 3rd of April, 2012, my father in-law and I had just put the finishing filming touches on my very first vegetable gardening video. At the end of the filming, the wind started to pick up and it was very fitting for the video, and how mulching your vegetables can help stabilize your veggies in high wind.
He headed home before the storm started, and I broke out the samples of Winchester Gardens Select Organics fertilizer samples that were sent to me for review. I quickly read the directions for use on each packet, and started to apply the fertilizers accordingly.
First the tomato stakes. My plants were about 6” tall at the time of fertilizer application. I pushed three stakes into the ground around each plant to a depth of more than one inch and proceeded to the next vegetable. It has been just a few days longer than three weeks since the stakes were pushed into the ground, and I must say that I am extremely happy with the results.
The tomatoes are all about 16 inches tall with very stout branches, stems and leaves. I’ve never grown plants that looked so healthy. The fruit is approximately quarter size or bigger with lots of fruit coming on and more blooms.
My potatoes were approximately 6-8 inches tall at the time of the making of the video. I fertilized this 35 foot row of Red Potatoes with the “Vegetable” fertilizer at about half the rate, just in case we had a heavy downpour. To my surprise, the plants took off and are currently 18-20 inches tall in some cases. The plants are blooming like I’ve never seen my potatoes bloom and, needless to say, I am also very happy with the results.
I used the Berry fertilizer on my Blackberries (they were about 12” tall when I applied the fertilizer), White Grapes that were about two feet tall (I’d pruned them back in the fall), and my newly planted Blueberries (I planted gallon containers with fruit).
Three days after I fertilized, blooms began to show on the grapes. I was shocked, because there were so many blooms for such young plants. The blooms continued to pop out of almost every new stem and now that they have matured over the last three weeks, I’ve got grapes that are set, and maturing.
The Blackberries are producing lots of vegetative growth and will soon show flowers. I’m thrilled with their progress, because blackberries are my favorite bramble fruit. And finally, the blueberries are maintaining most of the fruit that came with the plants at the time of purchase, and have even begun to grow a lot more foliage.
Moving down the garden rows, each of the different vegetables have outperformed last year’s growth and blossom set. Yellow crookneck squash are producing a little earlier and I have already made two harvests from enough plants to provide some fresh veggies for us and the neighbors who aren’t growing a garden this year. The yellow sweet corn is taller than I had expected. The zucchini has exceeded my expectations. The pumpkin plants have already filled their growing area, with baby pumpkins already set and waiting for pollination.
Watermelon and cantaloupe plants are already beginning to send out running vines and the White Scalloped Squash are about the size of a quarter as well.
The best results that I’ve gotten so far are not necessarily huge growth spurts, or lots of blossoms, but the recovery of plants that I was sure would not make it. Somehow I had forgotten about some Bell Pepper plants that had been placed in a corner out of my eyesight. I think they received no attention for a period of about three days, as these delicate transplants were yellowing and drying out.
I immediately planted them into a spot in the garden and added a small portion of the vegetable fertilizer, so as to not burn the already stressed roots. To my complete amazement, approximately three days later I began to see recovery. Today, just two weeks later, the pepper plants are going to make it to maturity, with several new sets of solid green leaves and are currently about 8 inches tall…WOW!
Please go take a look at Winchester Gardens complete line of fertilizer products today, and get your vegetables, herbs, berries, nut trees and more off to a great start this gardening season.
I Grow Vegetables 