dgdft
Power plants that do not change their power output quickly, such as some large coal or nuclear plants, are generally called baseload power plants.
One of my cats, despite being an extreme clinger, absolutely will not tolerate being picked up under any circumstance.
Lone exception? If there’s a bug she wants but can’t reach, she will meow until I come lift her up to catch it. One hand under her hind legs, one under her stomach - so she has both front paws free to pin the bug with. Fortunately, she’ll let me summon her too, so whenever there’s a moth or something hanging out on the ceiling, I yell “bug” and the cat comes running to catch it for me.
Right ol’ on-demand vacuum cleaner, that one.
We can go back and forth on this all day, but I’m gonna just sum my point into a nice tight thesis: broadcast application of phosphorus is by far the biggest issue in terms of runoff (as you allude to re: lawn fertilizer). Home gardening use of phosphorus mixed into soil is entirely harmless by comparison.
I agree excess potassium is bad. Doesn’t happen overnight.
Plenty of reputable books and horticulturalists recommend even-ratio’d ferts for all these crops. My local ag office explicitly recommends 10-10-10 in particular for tomatoes year-round in a home garden context. It’s simplified, suboptimal advice; we’re on the same page there - but not malpractice.
Phosphate - Excess phosphate is water soluable and runs off like nitrate. This causes all sorts of issues in waterways.
Not at all true for the purposes of home gardening: https://extension.missouri.edu/publications/g9181. Granular fertilizer worked into the soil and covered by mulch isn’t going anywhere.
There is little potential for phosphorus to leach through soil into groundwater. Soil particles have a large capacity to fix phosphorus in forms that are immobile in soil.
Only 1/3 of it is immediately available. The other 2/3rd are insoluable and stays in the soil for months. It then releases over the winter and early spring and runs off into the waterways.
Entirely depends on the form of phosphate. See “Table 1: Percentages of water-soluble and available phosphate in several common fertilizer source”. The runoff bit is still nonsense.
Potassium - elevated levels of potassium in some species is an issue in others it’s not a problem. For example corn and other grasses will suck up extra K+ and store it. Howeve in tomatoes, peppers, potatoes etc it can inhibit the uptake of Ca+ and Mg+.
Sure - that buildup takes a while though.
The idea that hitting plants with 3-1-2 fertilizer causes top heavy growth is myth that is passed around gardening forums and many books To put it bluntly it flat out doesn’t happen. The root/shoot ratio is quite a bit more complex than that.
I agree that it’s more complex than that, and early 3-1-2 is in no way a catastrophic death knell, but there’s a grain of truth to it. As I think we also agree, pretty much every reputable source will tell you to prep the bed with a higher P+K feed in the early season.
There is a massive functional difference to anyone with two braincells to rub together.
The core devs can (and should) step in front of a bus (or tank) tomorrow; the core project will just fork, and LW and the other non-triad instances will do fine without them. I’ve had no issue on Lemmy blocking .ml client-side.
The only reminder of the triad’s existence is infiltrator trolls who make alts on other instances to post bad-faith arguments glazing the core devs.
Throwing out clarification since I think I was the one who threw out the even-ratio’d fert suggestion to you: your read is spot on.
The_v has a totally valid point here, but is substantially overstating the issue. Most plants do prefer an overall ratio closer to 3-1-2 over their lifetime, so if you feed them 10-10-10 endlessly, you’ll eventually get toxic build-up of phosphorus and potassium. Unless your starting soil is abnormally high in those already, that will take at least a few years to manifest, and can be easily addressed by switching to nitrogen-heavy feed until your plants take up the excess P+K.
Additionally, you don’t want to hit the plants with a higher-N 3-1-2 feed right out the gate - especially in hotter climates - since that can cause top-heavy growth with too much foliage but not a big enough root system to feed those leaves. That’s why many people add bone meal when planting or prep the bed with a higher P+K feed in the early season.
You won’t have any downside sticking with the 10-10-10 for a while; just don’t do it for years on end without getting your soil tested.
You misunderstood the pinned post; it’s soliciting donations for core Lemmy development, not for the .world instance.
The core devs use donations to the project to fund their tankie .ml instance, which is why they’re getting pushback. There is zero comparable pushback among the community towards funding .world or other instances.
Good step spacing, aesthetic mulch, healthy plants, just the right dose of unkempt wildness.
10/10 path, OP - nice work.
