The month of July is considered the middle of summer. July is the hottest month, and literally all plants - fruit, vegetable and decorative - suffer from a lack of moisture. If these crops are not provided with sufficient moisture, then they will not be able to absorb nutrients from the soil in the proper volume, because only substances dissolved in water are absorbed. However, you need to be careful. So, along with watering, it is impossible to apply large doses of nitrogen fertilizers, because only August is ahead, and after it a cold snap will begin - autumn, which is often accompanied even by frosts, and this can negatively affect young growths of fruit trees, berry bushes and ornamental species, and the introduction of nitrogen fertilizers in July can help vegetable crops, because they will not hibernate, and they should form a reliable vegetative mass on which the future harvest will be concentrated.
Fertilization in the middle of summer, that is, in July, can be carried out both once - in the middle of the month, and fractionally - for example, at its very height, as well as at the end of July. Of course, a lot depends on the type of soil and its structure - on sod-podzolic soils, you can do with a couple of dressings - at the beginning and end of the month, but on sandy soils you can make all three dressings.
In general, all dressings that can be carried out in the middle of the summer period are usually classified into the so-called urgent feeding and planned feeding... From the names it is clear that urgent fertilizing should be carried out at a time when the plants (it does not matter if it is a fruit, berry, vegetable or ornamental crop) is very badly lacking one or another nutritional element, but planned fertilizing is carried out at a time when fertilization is already It was planned for a long time, and if you get out of schedule, then a deficiency of one or another element may be felt in the soil.
Urgent feeding
Urgent feeding is like an ambulance for a plant, they are carried out in the case when there is an acute deficiency of one or another element, and we are really talking about the life or death of a particular plant.
You should know that for fruit crops, and for vegetables, and for berry crops, as well as for decorative plants, the lack of even one of the most important elements, that is, nitrogen, phosphorus or potassium, can be fatal. Any plant with a lack of this or that element will literally wither, wither, dry out before our eyes, and in just a week it can die completely.
At this time, it is important to understand what kind of element the plant lacks and, by the way, such a negative phenomenon is often observed precisely in the middle of summer.
Let's start with the signs of a nitrogen deficiency in mid-summer. As you know, nitrogen is one of the most important elements that activates and contributes to the normal course of plant growth processes. For example, if at the height of summer you observe that the plantings are slowly growing and developing, that is, they are completely not typical for this crop, then there is a nitrogen deficiency in the soil and it must be eliminated. In addition to oppressed, abnormal growth, one can understand about nitrogen deficiency and discolored leaf blades, strongly weakened young shoots and lobes, as well as a change in the color of leaf blades from a standard green color to yellowish. In this case, you can add both minerals (necessarily dissolved in water) and organic.
Let's start with organic matter - in the middle of summer, completely without fear of harming plants, you can use a mullein. It should be diluted 10 times with water and poured under a tree more than five years old into previously loosened soil in the amount of one liter; under a tree less than five years old - in the amount of 0.5 liters, under a shrub or ornamental plant more than five years old - in an amount of 800 g, under an ornamental plant or shrub less than five years old - 500 g each. meter of plot, here a mullein, also diluted ten times, is needed in an amount of 500 g per sq. m.
You can use humus - it is applied like this: first, the soil at the plant is loosened, then it is watered well with water, then the loosened soil is sprinkled with humus and covered with moist soil.
Fresh manure in this case is also quite applicable, but it is advisable to dilute it with water 15 times, the application rates for each plant - as in the case of rotted manure.
Often, foliar dressing is used to quickly solve the problem, that is, spraying the plant directly over the vegetative mass. Usually, urea is used for this, it is diluted in the amount of a tablespoon in a bucket of water, filled into a spray bottle and sprayed on the plants, consuming the resulting solution so that the entire above-ground mass of the plant is wetted.
Another important element for plants is phosphorus, with a lack of it, leaf blades begin to discolor first of all, from green they turn purple. In addition, the plants look oppressed, their growth and development is inhibited, and in those plants that are already producing the first fruits, in this case they will be much less tasty.
In ornamental plants blooming in the middle of summer, too much shedding of flowers is very often observed, and in those crops that actively lay the ovary, inhibition of its development can be observed.
Naturally, if there is a lack of phosphorus in the soil, it must be replenished. Especially at the height of summer, phosphorus is required for such plants as apple, pear and plum, and, of course, berries and ornamental crops also need this element.
However, it is worth knowing that phosphorus is not a fast-acting and rapidly assimilated element. So, for example, if you take a simple superphosphate, which in appearance is granules, then it goes into compounds available to plants for a long time, in this case it is better to take Azophoska, and even better - Diammofoska. In these fertilizers, phosphorus is in much more readily available compounds.
Phosphorus, although poorly soluble in water, still needs to be dissolved in order to help plants as quickly as possible. For example, let's take superphosphate: a tablespoon of superphosphate granules should be poured with a liter of boiling water and mixed very well and thoroughly until the most homogeneous mass, after settling the liquid fraction, you can fill it into a sprayer and carefully process the aerial part of the plants. And send the sediment from ballast substances to compost.
At the height of summer, fruit, vegetable and ornamental plants rarely experience a catastrophic potassium deficiency, but it does happen. Usually, a deficiency of potassium in plants manifests itself in the form of emerging yellowness and further drying of the tips of various crops, especially in vegetable crops, such as melons and nightshades. At the same time, greenhouse plants most often suffer from a potassium deficiency, but you should not think that this attack can bypass plants growing in open ground.
Many people think that the annual introduction of well-rotted manure or compost into the soil can compensate for the loss of potassium, but this is not entirely true, these fertilizers have a high content of nitrogen and trace elements, but there is little or no potassium there, that is, literally traces.
Potassium simply needs to be introduced in the middle of summer during the period of potassium starvation and the substances dissolved in water are best used. The ideal option is potassium sulfate (potassium chloride is better not to use, because chlorine inhibits plant growth), it should be dissolved in a tablespoon amount in a bucket of water and in the evening, spray the entire aboveground mass of vegetable crops from a spray bottle. In adult trees or ornamental shrubs, it is necessary to process the aboveground part until it is completely moistened with this composition, so you can prepare a second rate of solution, and perhaps a third.
An excellent phosphorus-potassium fertilizer is potassium monophosphate. Here you immediately kill two birds with one stone, adding fertilizing and phosphorus and potassium. The fertilizer dissolves easily, and the percentage of its digestibility is superior to both superphosphate and potassium sulfate.
Planned feeding
Now we turn to planned feeding, they are often their own and depend both on the culture and the period of development of a particular culture.
Everyone probably knows that in most crops, be it fruit, vegetable, berry or ornamental, ovaries begin to form, berries or fruits ripen, next year's harvest is laid, and if these are early crops, such as honeysuckle or strawberries, then such crops are harvested in July.
If we talk about vegetable crops, then, for example, in the middle of summer, root crops are actively developing, in fruit and berry crops (with the exception of irgi, currants, gooseberries, gumi, mulberries) the berries are already ripe and ready to be harvested.
Medium and late cabbage actively sets heads of cabbage and needs top dressing first of all. At the height of summer, top dressing of both medium and late varieties of cabbage should consist in the introduction of phosphorus into the soil in the form of superphosphate (in an amount of 15 g per sq. M) and nitrogen (urea at a rate of 10 g per sq. M). Also, in the evening, it is quite possible to carry out foliar feeding by treating cabbage plants with Azofoskaya (a tablespoon per bucket of water, rate per square meter) or diammophos (a tablespoon per bucket of water, rate per square meter). It is very popular with gardeners and such a composition - they take a bucket of water and dissolve in it two tablespoons of simple superphosphate and a tea boat of any fertilizer containing trace elements. Next, the composition is mixed very well until complete homogeneity, and the cabbage is fed, spending 500 g of solution for each plant.
At the very beginning of July, it is highly recommended to feed the cauliflower. Usually at this time the head of the cabbage begins to form. It is best to feed the cabbage at this stage with a nitroammophos, for which it is also diluted in water, dissolving 2 tablespoons of fertilizer in it, this is the norm per square meter of the plot.
Towards the end of the month, you can feed the onion, the one that you grow for the turnip. The composition of the fertilizer should be as follows: potassium sulfate in the amount of 50 g, superphosphate in the amount of 40 g must be mixed and applied to the beds with previously loose and moist soil per square meter. It is quite permissible to dissolve these fertilizers, moisten them and apply them wet, or simply add them to the previously moistened soil of the site.
Table beets - in the middle of summer, feeding them should be mandatory. The first feeding should be carried out in early July, fertilizing the plants with boric acid, for this you need to dissolve 2 g of boric acid in a bucket of water and thoroughly moisten the above-ground mass of the plant. The next day, it is necessary to add potassium in the amount of a couple of tablespoons, as well as a tablespoon of wood ash, dissolving in the same volume. This is the rate per square meter of soil.
Further, currants ripen in July. If ripening is delayed, then nitroammofoska dissolved in water can be added under the root in the amount of a tablespoon per bucket of water, this is the norm for a couple of bushes.
Irga ripens - to increase the mass of its fruits under each bush, it is necessary to add a tablespoon of potassium sulfate dissolved in water.
The ovaries of apples and pears are actively growing - it will not be superfluous in the evening to treat them with potassium sulfate dissolved in water in the amount of 2 tablespoons per bucket of water.
In decorative crops, flower buds begin to form in the calculation for the next year, now you can add superphosphate dissolved in water in the amount of a tablespoon per bucket of water, as well as potassium sulfate in the same volume per square meter, all this can be mulched with wood ash in a layer of 2 cm.
Well, that is, in fact, all that can be said about the application of fertilizer in the middle of summer.
