Feeding plants correctly

I. First, let's consider what plants need, and where and how they get it. Plants require 16 elements for healthy growth, and 95% of the plant is the result of photosynthesis using just 3 elements - carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen - all of which it gets from the air without man's intervention. The other 13 elements come from the soil and make up only 5% of the plant, but are very important, for without them the plant will fail. Most importantly, the plant can only access these 13 nutrients as water-soluble minerals through its root system.

II. The next important principle to understand is that everything in this world is a chemical. Every element that makes up a plant, as well as everything in our bodies, and everything in the soil in which we grow is chemical. Therefore, we must not get carried away in refusing to use chemicals in the garden in favor of something else, because there is no something else!

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III. Most soils contain all 13 nutrients, but due to thousands of years of leaching and crop removal, the water-soluble compounds are mostly gone, and what is left in the soil is not readily available.

This is not a big problem for trees and shrubs - they grow slowly enough that they can wait for the natural chemical processes constantly going on in the soil to make small amounts of nutrients water soluble. However, this is not the case with vegetables. They grow very quickly, multiplying their size many times in a few weeks, and many complete their life cycle, including flowers, fruit, and seeds, in only 60-90 days! This is why they often need assistance.

First off, you MUST have direct sunlight all day long for vegetables to thrive. Therefore, use only the space that has no shade. And don't worry if it seems small! You'll grow twice the food in one fourth the space others are using, so just do it right in the space you have. And actually, starting small is a good idea anyway! It's easier, more fun, and won't wear you out!

Level ground, or something with a slight Southern slope is best, in order to catch the sun's strongest rays, and to avoid rapid water run-off that will wash out your soil, seeds, and seedlings.

Begin by clearing your ground of EVERYTHING! No weeds, rocks, or anything else is allowed. "Cleanliness is next to godliness" certainly applies here, and you surely want your garden to be a thing of beauty, as well as being productive!

Measure and stake the perimeter of your garden. This gives you an important starting point for figuring out how many soil-beds you can have, and then placing them properly. Let's use 25' X 35' as an example of what your garden area might be.

It doesn't really matter what direction your beds face, so far as sun exposure is concerned. What does matter, though, is that the beds be level, and that you plant taller plants to the North or East of shorter plants. This is to assure that taller plants don't shade shorter plants, and rob them of essential sunlight. So, align your beds to maximize those factors as much as possible.

I'll assume we are able to run the beds lengthwise along the 35' dimension. Your soil-beds should be 18" wide and any length you choose. When you become experienced in this method of growing, and want to specialize in growing certain crops all the time, you may want to begin using 4'-wide beds, but let's stick to the best family garden layout for now.

The ideal size for aisles is 3.5', and since we have 25' width in our example garden, this will give us 5 - 18" beds with 3 ' aisles. If you have only 23' you could get by with aisles a little narrower. But don't squeeze those aisles! You will be growing plants that need all of that space, and reducing the aisle space only leads to problems of not enough light and air for your growing plants!

We'll make our beds 30' long. This leaves us 2.5' on each end of the garden for walking, and 30' is a good length, because it makes caring for the garden easy. More about that later.

Using 18"-long stakes, stake your 5 - 18" X 30' beds, with 4 stakes per bed.

Apply 32 ounces of the Mittleider Pre-Plant Mix, and 16 ounces of Weekly Feed Mix to the soil under your strings. This amounts to about 1 ounce and half ounce per running foot of those VERY important natural mineral nutrients. Dig or till the soil of your soil-bed to a depth of at least 8".

Then, using nylon string, tie strings between the stakes, to outline your soil-beds.

Begin making raised, ridged beds by pulling about 2+ inches of dirt from the aisles into the 18"-wide bed area under your strings. Smooth and level that dirt, and then check the level of your bed area. It must be level to make watering easy and efficient, so don't ignore this step! Move dirt from the high spots in your bed to the low spots, until your bed is no more than one inch higher at the water-source end than the other end.

Make 4"-high ridges all around your bed by pulling soil from the center of the bed to just beneath the strings. When you're finished you should have a planting area that is about 12" wide and between 1 and 2" above the level of the aisles, with 4" ridges, the top of which are 18" apart. Re-check the level of your planting area, and move soil as necessary to keep the bed level from end to end.

IV. Organic materials can improve soil structure, provide food for beneficial soil bacteria, and add mineral nutrients. Before using them, however, they should be clean - weed, insect and disease-free. And beyond that, there are still three problems with depending exclusively on organic materials. 1. You never know which nutrients and what amounts were in the previous plant. 2. Much of the plant was eaten and became part of the man or animal. 3. The nutrients are not usable until the old plant has decomposed and they have reverted once again to water-soluble minerals. This takes time and fast-growing vegetable plants can't wait. Plus, even more nutrients are lost or become unavailable in the decomposition process.

Dr. Jacob R. Mittleider has worked and taught in many countries for 39 years, and he always found the people were growing organically - doing their best with compost and manure - as they have been doing for thousands of years, and yet they were starving! So, with his 20 years of background in the Nursery/Bedding Plant business, he experimented with small amounts of natural mineral nutrients to supplement the organic materials being used - always using the best amounts and ratios he knew. By doing this he increased peoples' yields of healthy vegetables everywhere he went by as much as 10 to 1. And over time, he improved his nutrient mix to the point that today, using the Mittleider Pre-Plant and Weekly Feed mixes properly, anyone can grow healthy trees, shrubs, and virtually any variety of plants successfully in almost any soil or climate. That's why they are sometimes called "The poor man's hydroponic mix," but we recommend growing in the soil so the plants can get the best possible natural nutrition.

We apply less than ½ pound of a balanced mix of the 13 mineral elements to the 3500 pounds of minerals already in a 30' Soil-Bed - and do this only 4 or 5 times for most vegetables. This does not injure the plants or cause a toxic buildup in the soil. In fact, extensive tests by both the Brigham Young University and Stukenholtz Soil Labs found no toxicity in any Mittleider gardens, including his personal garden that was in use for over 20 years.

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On the other hand, misuse and over-application of mineral salts can cause problems. This has been the case in Russia for many years. When Dr. Mittleider began teaching and growing there in 1989, the USSR's Agriculture Agents actually stole plants from his garden, looking for nitrate toxicity in "those dark green, beautiful plants," hoping to expose him and force him to leave the country. But there was no toxicity! And before long the Agriculture Minister went on their National TV to proclaim "The only food grown in Russia that's fit to eat is grown in a Mittleider Garden." They went on to make him the featured speaker at the Yalta Conference of Agriculture Ministers, and they gave him an honorary Ph.D. from Timirjazjiv Academy, the most prestigious Agriculture school in the Country. For several years they even gave Timirjazjiv Certificates to graduates of Mittleider's three-month Agriculture School at Zaokski!

Therefore, in using mineral nutrients, always consider the content, purpose, and amount carefully before applying them to your soil. They are salts, and even table salt, while good for us in small amounts, can cause health problems if over-used - and large amounts are toxic and can even kill us. It's the same with all of these materials - whether they are good or bad depends on the amounts and how they are used.
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In summary, Dr. Mittleider puts all available clean, healthy organic residues into the ground immediately, for the maximum benefit to soil and plants, and then uses small amounts of God-given natural mineral nutrients to assure that his plants have complete and balanced nutrition. I recommend you use the knowledge Dr. Jacob R Mittleider has gained from his extensive education, training, and practical experience to assure the greatest success in your vegetable garden.

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