A bone meal is an excellent natural fertilizer for your potato beds. When you sow the potatoes, sprinkle a bit of granulated bone meal on the surface of the soil around the seeds such that the fertilizer is spread into the surface whenever it rains, giving your crop long-term nourishment.
How to Use Bone Meal for Potatoes?
Following steps should be taken while using bone meal for potatoes –
- Dig or loosen the soil to an 8-inch depth using a gardening fork. Take a sample of dirt and get it analyzed.
- Depending on the soil test findings, spread a 1/4-inch coating of compost and dust over a bone meal as required. Bone meal is applied at a frequency of around 1 quart per 100 square feet in general. Combine the compost with bone meal in a mixing bowl.
- Dig an 8-inch-deep furrow and set the surplus soil to the outside. Plant one seed potato per 12 inches in the furrow.
- 6 inches of soil should be used to plant the seed potatoes. Hydrate them thoroughly, but do not water them repeatedly until they’ve sprouted to prevent decay.
- And once potato sprouts have emerged, add more soil on top of them. Continue this hilling process a couple of extra times to keep the potatoes from turning green due to sun radiation.
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What Is the Purpose of Bone Meal Fertilizer?
Steamed animal bones are crushed into finer dust or granules and applied to field crops as a fertilizer. Bones are highly nutritious and have minerals that assist the crops, making them bigger and more resilient. Bone meal fertilizer, on the other hand, isn’t appropriate for all cases.
There are several advantages to using bone meal fertilizer as a nutrient-dense soil amendment: –
#1 Calcium-dense
Calcium is well-known for its role in the development of strong bones, but it is also useful to crops. This important mineral is abundant in bone meal fertilizer. It supports vigorous development by keeping your crops’ cell walls firm and healthy.
#2 Phosphorus-rich
Another important mineral present in bone meal fertilizer is phosphorus. Photosynthesis, roots, bloom and seed formation, energy transport within the plants, as well as other critical activities all rely on this component.
Phosphorus is the “P” in NPK, which you’ll see on fertilizer all the time. It strengthens pest attacks protection, increases fruit and seed output, and stimulates blossoming.
Also Read: Is Bone Meal Good for Cucumber Plants?
#3 Nitrogen is present in bone meals
The majority of pre-made bone meal fertilizers include nitrogen. An additional element required for a well-rounded soil supplement is this. 15-30-15 fertilizer is included in great brands like Miracle-Gro. This signifies that 15 percent of the material is nitrogen, 30 percent is phosphorus, and 15 percent is potassium. Plants require those three minerals to survive.
#4 Additional Soil Nutrients are Balanced by Bone Meal
Although manure and compost are beneficial to soil additions, they are typically heavy in nitrogen and poor in other components. What your plants require from the land is a delicate balance of nutrients that do not interfere with one another. Bone meal aids in achieving that equilibrium, allowing your crop to thrive.
#5 Blooming Plants’ Health Is Improved
Gardeners typically employ bone meal for flowering shrubs like roses and bulbs because plants require phosphorus to blossom. Initially, in the growing period, an infusion at the bottom of the plant can result in larger, more abundant flowering, as well as assist onions make bulbs. Bone meal is also applied to the root of plants precisely since they are flowering to encourage them to produce fruit.
How to Make Bone Meal Fertilizer?
Begin by assembling a bone collection. Usually, bones are saved in the refrigerator until you have enough. The bones must then be cleaned and sterilized before being used. One usually prepares broth to wash and disinfect the bones because They want to get the maximum out of these. Lay the bones out on a baking dish and bake for 10-fifteen min under the broiler.
Then, for 5-8 hours, slowly simmer these bones in just sufficient water to immerse them. By the completion of this period, the bones should have been readily stripped free of any remaining fatty or meat tissues. Make sure the bones get completely dry. Simply lay the bones onto a dish and leave these in a well-ventilated location to dry after they’ve been scrubbed clean.
Wait approximately a month for bones to dry off. This enables it to be simple to powder. Grind the bones together into powder form after they are stiff and dried. With a little effort and a mortar and crusher, you can do this. To make uniformly fine particles, proceed in tiny quantities at a moment. The handmade bone meal for houseplants is now prepared to use after being crushed up.
Also Read: Why Are My Potato Plants Falling Over?
What to Do Before Adding Bone Meal to Potatoes?
Get your soil analyzed before adding bone meal to the plants. If the soil is poor in phosphorus, the bone meal would be a suitable alternative since, contrary to slow-acting Soft Phosphate Rock, this will offer a rapid supply for poor soil.
What Should One Do If The Soil pH Is Over 7? If the pH of your ground exceeds 7, phosphorus will get locked in the surface and unreachable to your crops. If the soil tests alkaline (pH more than 7), start by lowering the pH with Cottonseed Meal, Peat Moss, Soil Sulfur, or Alkaline fertilizers.
What if the soil has a high calcium and phosphorus content? If one’s soil test shows that they also have enough calcium or phosphorus however not the others, a more focused treatment like high-phosphorus guano or Oyster Shell Flour for calcium would be a better option.
Tips to Use Bone Meal for Growing Potatoes
Producing potatoes naturally isn’t as difficult as some people believe. It only takes a little study into ground conditions, an awareness of what minerals your potatoes want and when they require them, and lastly, a comprehension of what natural chemicals you may use to provide those nutrients.
Potatoes are indeed excellent produce for folks farming at higher altitudes since they are adaptable to greater elevations and tougher growth circumstances. Queen Anne, as well as Torino potato tubers, mature quickly, are pest resilient, and also have a prolonged life span if you reside in a short-season area.
Because potatoes take a lot of nutrition to flourish, sprinkle a quarter cup of bone meal in the base of every sowing area to provide your young seedlings a push. Phosphorus is required for the formation of the root system and tubers, so the bone meal is abundant in this mineral.
Also Read: Growing Sweet Potatoes from Scraps
If you can’t obtain a bone meal, combine a high phosphorus granular fertilizer (high middle number) carefully into the base of the trench, then top this with an inch of new soil before actually planting the seed potatoes.
Root crops benefit from high-phosphorus fertilizers because they promote root and blossom formation. Bone meal is an excellent natural fertilizer for potato crops. When planting your potato, sprinkle just a little powdered bone meal on the soil surface that covers the potato seeds because when it rains, the fertilizer is disseminated into the soil and provides long-term nourishment to your produce.
Select tiny seed potatoes with a weight of 2 to 3 ounces (55-85g). Bigger potatoes should be split into bits before sowing, with at least three ‘eyes’ sprouting on each portion. Let the sliced portions of the chunks dry for approximately a day to produce a callous. Viruses as well as other diseases are less likely to infect the seed potato’s body as a result.
Drill ten to twelve-inch (25-30 cm) shallow pits or separate holes. To provide emerging potatoes the most freedom to spread, the soil around the sowing location should be properly cultivated and loose. Through each sprouting area, add a tiny spoonful of bone meal.
Phosphorus is abundant in bone meal, which itself is required for proper roots and potato growth. Each 12 to 14 inches, but one seed potato or piece (30-35 cm.) Potatoes would be shorter if they are planted closely together. Water thoroughly after covering the freshly planted tubers with a loose soil layer.
When using bone meal fertilizer in the garden, the simple principle is to use 1 pound of powders or granules per 10 sqft of growing area, or about a spoonful per planting area if transplanting. Begin by distributing bone meal across your garden and working it till it is evenly distributed throughout the first couple inches of soil.
This not just brings the particles closer towards the root zone, but also dissolves any remaining scent that would attract hungry predators. The dissolution of every application of bone meal fertilizer would require around four months.
If the crops are still growing, you may sprinkle them again. Unless you’re using a liquid fertilizer rather than powder, dilute it in 4 to 8 tablespoons of water each gallon of water then spread it to the garden area once a week during the growing period.
Also Read: Can You Plant Potatoes that Have Sprouted?
Conclusion
Bone meal fertilizer is an excellent organic fertilizer for providing key minerals like calcium & phosphorus for the plants, resulting in robust, thriving crops and fruit. This could, nevertheless, not be appropriate for every plant. Before selecting a fertilizer for your crop, make sure to do a test run.