[Arid_gardener] Crape Myrtle

[Dick]

My coment below " - - - A high organic content -" begs an explanation. Organic material blended in the soil should be completely composted first. If you can id small fragments of plant parts, it ain't ready, in my opinion. If it is not complete, continued activity by soil organisms will consume nitrogen robbing it from the plant. Additional nitrogen fertilizer can make up the deficiency but it seems to me to be more complicated and inefficient after the fact.

Organic debris three or four inches on top of the soil yields great benefit. It cools the soil, preserves moisture and microscopic soil organisms feed on the underface.The digested organic compounds  are ready for adsorption by the plant feeder roots but only after it has suffered through the guts of the organisms that chow down in it.

Dick Gross, mgv, Maricopa County Cooperative Extension
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