How To Reduce Nitrogen In Your Garden Soil With One Popular Crop

Making mistakes when fertilizing your garden is common. After all, who hasn't been swayed by an old-timer's advice to thickly spread manure over a new garden bed, or by their own misguided impulse not to let that new shrub go underfed? Yet adding excess nitrogen to the garden can have a bad impact on plants growing in immediate and adjoining areas, and could even pollute local water sources. Fortunately, members of the humble squash family (Cucurbita spp.) can come to the rescue!

"Squash is often used as a 'mop-up' crop in soil that is holding high levels of nitrogen," writes organic gardening expert Barbara Pleasant for Mother Earth News. She noted that using the "hunger of plants" to efficiently process excess nitrogen can be thought of as "nature's plan" to cope with the issue. This method can certainly be attractive for home gardeners who would rather not buy synthetic products to deal with soil imbalances.

Of course, taking a soil test is the best way to determine if excess nitrogen is the culprit behind problems like low vegetable yield and poor flower bloom. It may also be the real reason your plants are covered with aphids and other insects. (Other factors can cause these issues too, such as excessive heat.) If the test shows excess nitrogen, planting nitrogen-loving squash can help "suck up" that soil nutrient. Nitrogen needs for both summer and winter squash types are about the same. That means that, no matter which part of the growing season you begin to address nitrogen imbalance, there's a squash for that!

When it comes to choosing the kind of squash you want to plant, you have a wide range from which to choose, all within the broader categories of summer and winter squashes. The key difference between growing winter and summer squash is growing time. Winter squash takes longer to grow than summer squash. On average, summer squash types like green zucchini and yellow crookneck ripen within eight to 10 weeks after planting. Winter squash varieties, including butternut, acorn, and gourds, require 12 to 20 weeks.

Keep in mind that even nitrogen lovers like Cucurbit family members respond negatively to too much of the nutrient. Be prepared for lush vines but lower yields or smaller fruits. The squash plants may also be more prone to plant disease and insects. To counteract this problem, if there's excess nitrogen in the soil, consider adding organic phosphorus to your growing area at the rate per square foot recommended on the package.

Grow the squash as you normally would: by selecting a sunny site and loosening the soil before planting seeds or seedlings. After the last frost date, create small mounds of soil about 5 feet apart. Put several squash seeds in each of these mounds. Once they sprout into sturdy seedlings, thin each hill to about two plants per hill. Regularly water throughout the growing season. Once you've harvested, don't dig the nitrogen-rich vines back into the soil as you might normally do. Remember, you're trying to rid the soil of too much of that nutrient, rather than return more nitrogen!