Mittleider Gardening: 6 Laws Of Plant Growth

After learning so much from the Mittleider Gardening Course book , these are the six laws of plant growth. If you want to have a successful garden you MUST follow these 6 laws.

Law 1:

Your plants need at least 6-8 hours of sunlight. Every plant needs photosynthesis to survive, so keep that in mind if your planning on growing vertically , and with plant spacing, you don’t want to have plants to close or they will fight over sunlight. From my experience I didn’t follow this step when I had my tomatoes in cages then the ended up dying from blite, because of lack of sunlight, not enough air circulation, and I didn’t use the automatic water system they outlined in the book. So make sure you find a good sunny spot in your yard that allows your plants to get at least 6-8 hours.

 

Law 2:

Depending on your type of crop almost all plant need temperatures from 55-85 degrees, but some like your winter crop will prefer it on the lower end and sweet potatoes and tomatoes will prefer it on the higher end of that range. So this law is basically saying, if your trying to grow sweet potatoes in the PNW like me, then you’ll need to have an in the garden green house. 6 mil clear plastic to cover your crop will help you have great success. Or if your in the south and its getting high temperatures, you will need shade cloth so your plants won’t burn.

Law 3:

Plants need water, but just not any water. Scheduled watering, it is best like humans to be able to feed your plants on a schedule. This is why in the Mittleider course book, they talk about have an automatic watering system. For our garden, I had each grow bed on a different zone water timer. This ensures that your plants don’t dry out, this can also help your tomatoes not get blossom rot. By using the automatic water system they outline how to make, you can save 40% more water that traditional gardens.

Law 4:

Make sure your plants have sufficient air circulation, you can do this by adding sand, or other amendments to your soil, proper drainage is very important or your plants roots will drown and rot away. In my garden I have soil beds made out of 1/3 soil, 1/3 sand, and 1/3 compost. I also have grow beds made out of 75% sawdust and 25% sand. This summer will be the first time using soil beds, for me the sawdust and sand works great because of all the rain we get. We want to test out to see if which growing mediums have the highest yield.

Law 5:

Plants need nutrition all season long, so make sure you fertilize on a regular basis. That is usually the problem when people don’t have a successful garden, they only fertilize once at the beginning and assume the plants will be fine. Its like playing a sport, the harder you play the more thirsty your body becomes. This is why in the Mittleider gardening method they talk about the 16 nutrients plants need. Airborne nutrients is Carbon(C), Oxygen(O), and Hydrogen(H). Primary Nutrients are Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), and Potassium (K). Secondary Nutrients are Calcium(Ca), Magnesium (Mg), and Sulfur (S). Trace Elements needed are Boron (B), Copper (Cu), Iron (Fe), Manganese (Mn), Zinc (Zn), Molybdenum (Mo), and Chlorine (Cl). The book goes into greater detail of why each of these nutrients are needed. I love using the pre plant fertilizer and weekly feed, you can mix your own based on the list of minerals needed or you can buy it already mixed for you (click here for the micro nutrient mix). Even if the Mittleider Method weekly feed doesn’t interest you, you can still benefit from the Garden Doctor vol. 1-3 . In these 3 books they talk about nutrient deficiency you may have based on the look of your plant. The Garden Doctor books are full of pictures and great information on what your plant needs. Like humans we feed our body the nutrients it needs to perform and we need to do the same with our plants.

Law 6:

Keeping the competition at bay, for example don’t allow weeds, insects, animals, etc to overtake your garden. This is sometime easier said than done, but your plants need to have a clean area to grow without bugs, weeds, and animals to worry about. You can use many organic choices out there to deal with this, from fences, netting, to Down dish soap mix to kill bugs, or to just pulling out the weeds by hand your garden can thrive and be productive. This is one more reason I love using sawdust and sand as a growing medium, it doesn’t allow weeds to take over your garden.

 

All of this information can be found in the Mittleider Gardening Course book (click here for the book)

Resources:

-You can buy the Mittleider course book: click here

-Micro-Nutrient Mix:Click here

Garden doctor book series: Click here

If you have any questions, please leave me a comment or come join our face book page!

Link to Mittleider Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/MittleiderGardening/