Fertilization

DaveKarn@aol.com DaveKarn@aol.com
Tue, 12 Apr 2005 08:39:49 PDT
All ~

With all this discussion of fertilizing the Dutch bulb fields, I've seen no 
mention of climate.

The climate is cool year round and downright cold in Winter (Hans Brinker, et 
al!) and often quite wet and greatly affected by storms off the North Sea.  
Spring-flowering bulbs grow well in cool, wet climates that do dry out some in 
the summer.  I can yet vividly recall my last trip to Holland when going 
around to the various growers to look at their fields.  I was wearing virtually 
every stitch of clothing I had packed in a vain attempt to ward off the 
bone-chilling cold that was being driven through the layers and into the 'ol bod by 
winds so strong they were blowing the rain and sleet horizontally across the 
landscape!  If it hadn't been for the steaming mugs of coffee and energy-restoring 
goodies in the warm kitchens of the growers, I really think that I would have 
stopped functioning somewhere in the middle of one of those fields until 
thawing out on one of the rare, warm Spring days . . . 

Too, the soil in the North polders is pure sand with the addition of some 
humus in the form of old manure and the covering straw of Winter.  Any nutrients 
applied to the soil (in whatever form) are soon leached by the rains.  And, it 
should be pointed out, that any organic fertilizer applied to the soil can 
only be absorbed by the plant in inorganic form.  That is not to say a healthy 
soil, filled with an abundance of humus and associated organisms, is not 
something to be striven for; it is.  Many experiments have been done with soils of 
this nature and, of course, have found that plants are far more robust and 
growing without many of the common ailments they seem to have in less healthy 
soil.

Best,
Dave Karnstedt
Cascade Daffodils
P. O. Box 237
Silverton, OR  97381-0237
email:  davekarn@AOL.com



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