July 9th: Can it take the heat?

Toronto has not seen rain since the end of June. I’m writing this on July 13th. Each day has been pretty much cloudless, meaning full sun and temperatures above 30ºC (90ºF). Not what one expects in the Great White North. I haven’t felt this much sun since my visit to Sri Lanka, nor this much heat since my tax audit.
         So it’s not surprising that my garden reacts to the 13 hours of sunlight. What is surprising (to me anyway) is that the beds react differently, depending on what they are fed.
         The comparison can best be seen in these 3 beds. 
You just have to trust me that I have been watering these plants equally, every day. (They also have identical soil mix, with identical gravel bases and adequate drainage.)

The bed fed water only shows some drooping on the eggplant, less on the pepper, and hardly any on the romaine lettuce. 

The plants on Miracle Gro look almost dead! If I was this limp, I’d need Viagra. 

The plants on organic Better World seem unaffected! 

I pondered why these differences occurred. So I turned to google for some answers. I also called a professional gardener, Alex Rea of Dutch Nutrient Formula http://www.dutchnutrientformula.com/

Alex explained to me that chemical fertilizers like Miracle Gro are salts, which affects the ability of a plant to absorb water.

        A good article that confirms this can be found here: 

http://www.garden-ville.com/4376871_36600.htm

“For the nutrients in chemical fertilizer to be available to plants, they must be soluble in water. To be soluble in water, they must be in the form of salt. The problem with salt (chemical) fertilizers is that once dissolved in water, they are subject to evaporation, gasification and runoff, resulting in a significant percentage of their nutrients ending up in underground water tables, streams, lakes and oceans. The NPK numbers on chemical fertilizers are higher to offset the losses to runoff, evaporation and gasification; the NPK on organic fertilizers reflect the actual nutrient content of the ingredients.”

      Here’s some more: 

http://www.ehow.com/list_6596099_effects-miracle-gro-plants.html

http://www.ehow.com/list_6596099_effects-miracle-gro-plants.html#ixzz1S2g4PjNB

“Miracle Gro, like most synthetic fertilizers, contains chlorine, which can stunt plant growth and burn the roots. It also interferes with the plant's natural intake of nitrogen. Too much chlorine can stop the plant from producing chlorophyll, which causes its leaves to turn brown and subsequently fall off. Chlorine can also bleach plant leaves. While healthy plants can recover from chlorine absorption, they may never grow the same way again. Chemical fertilizers like Miracle Gro also cause salt buildup in the soil, which hurts a plant's ability to absorb nutrients. High levels of salt will affect a plant’s ability to produce seeds and absorb water.”

You can see this in the tomato beds as well, though not as clearly as with the eggplants above:

Miracle Gro

Better World