Hi Rick,

Compost is good for the soil and the plants, but you might want to supplement it with some water soluble nutrition like MiracleGro. My zinnias respond well to the MiracleGro Tomato Food, which also works very well on our tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants.

You mentioned weak stems. There are a little-known class of plant nutrients that aren't strictly necessary for plant life, but have important uses in a plant. Silicon is one such nutrient. Rice growers frequently use commercial fertilizers that are fortified with soluble silicon. Silicon strengthens cell walls, which makes the plant structure stronger, including the stems. It is particularly important for rice growers to have strong stems, otherwise the heavy heads of rice will droop into the water and be ruined.

For my zinnias I have been experimenting with a product called Pro-Tekt, which is a solution of potassium silicate. For silicon maintenance you add 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of Pro-Tekt per gallon of water with every watering. I have also used it as a foliar feed. You can find more details at this link for Pro-Tekt

Some garden centers have it, but you can also buy it online from many sources, including Amazon.

ZM (not associated with any product or vendor mentioned or linked)

Thanks, ZM. I'll experiment with silicon. So you don't think the weak stems are from too much compost? I think I've read in various places that some plants have stronger stems in poor to medium soils, and that rich soil can produce weak stems that lean over. Does "rich soil" mean "rich in organic matter" or does it mean something else?

i'd be curious to know why you recommend water-soluble nutrition rather than something coming in, say, granular form. I spoke recently to a manufacturer of a granular flower fertilizer that slowly percolates through the soil who advocated their product over a water-soluble product that is much more short-lasting. Maybe the quick action is specifically why you suggest a water-soluble product? (We are getting towards the end of the season!)

Are they in full sun? Plants often elongate and "lean" towards the light if not getting enough sun.

Ah, I'm sure that's it. No, they do not get a full day's sun. As well as this new flower bed I just created has turned out, it does have one potentially fatal flaw: it gets only afternoon sun. But honestly, I'm grateful for anything I get there; before this season it was an unkempt weed lot and hadn't been cultivated in decades. A bit late in the season, I found my pick axe and dug up the weeds and turned the soil, had compost hauled in by pickup truck, and finally scattered seeds in mid-June. I even had to chop down a 20' tree to allow the rear part of this garden any sun at all past 3:00.

At the time of planting it was getting sun from noon till 8 which gave me hope that I could pull off something good and beautiful. But now it's more like 1 till 6 which I'm well aware scarcely constitutes a "full day of sun." And of course September will bring even weaker and shorter sun.

Well, it's done pretty well considering the odds stacked against it. I was very worried in the first two weeks after germination as almost all the plants seemed elongated, leggy, off-balance and overly stretching towards the sun. Many of the Cosmos stems are quite bent over and often curved or zig-zag but are now flowering beautifully, Zinnia looked bad at first but are now mostly ok, Marigold stems are twisted and bent but the flowers are prolific and beautiful, Bachelor's Buttons sometimes are straight and sometimes are quite curved and some dying this late in the season, Chinese Forget-Me-Not stem is very curved, Dill is very curved and does not have not strong stems, Nasturtium are curved and weak but the leaves are strong and flowering well. Most of the Sunflowers are strong and true, though a few have scarcely made it. Cardinal Flower seems to be doing great growing up its trellis though possibly because of inadequate sun has barely flowered yet (though it's such a beautiful leaf I'm content just to see that.)

Short of setting up an outdoor tanning salon, is there anything I can do about the relative sunlessness the garden is getting in the remaining month and a half before Old Man Autumn makes his frosty arrival and shuts the door behind him?

P. S. It would be an interesting experiment to explore/learn what part of this weak and curvy stem phenomenon is caused by inadequate sun vs. the percent caused by inadequate silicon in the soil.

Hi Rick,

" Short of setting up an outdoor tanning salon, is there anything I can do about the relative sunlessness the garden is getting... "

Are there any more trees you can take down or prune severely? I had a similar problem when we lived in Maine, so I purchased a good chainsaw, a couple of pole saws, and a rope saw (a rope saw can remove limbs that are 50 feet up or more). I created a lot of firewood and got a good view of the sky for a change. And got the required 8 hours of sun on my poor garden. I used some of the wood to create a retaining wall so that I could increase the size of my garden, which was essentially a terrace on the side of a slope.

Thanks, ZM. Ah, if it were only that simple. Unfortunately, that tree I took down was the only one that could make any difference. The primary reason that particular garden gets no morning sun is that ... well, my house is in the way. I've well planted the yard on the sunny side of the house (with more plantings to come next year), but I saw that the other side gets at least afternoon sun and this year decided to take a chance and turn it into a flower bed. I'm pretty happy with the results other than ... weak and curvy stems (if that is indeed the primary cause of the problem).

btw, I just looked more closely and see that even the zinnia stems are almost all curved. Healthy-looking, good flower production, but by and large not standing up straight.

why not show us pix of your garden ...

lots of guessing.. because we are completely guessing ...

what is the source of your compost.. and is it properly finished ...

lack of full sun ... 8 hours.. is high on my list of speculation ...

ken

ken_adrian, thanks for the idea of posting pictures. Here are some of the cosmos stems:

See how the cosmos stems are leaning to the left.

Any thoughts about these? Silica? They're all more or less leaning to the sun, but some of them certainly take a circuitous route to get there.

My compost comes from a landscaping company and is a "nutrient-enriched leaf mulch, produced from clean New
England fall leaves." They tell me that it's aged -- not sure how long. Maybe I'll ask them.

Compost is a great medium to grow in, but might not have as much nutrients as needed. I’d use some liquid fertilizer, but the stems really don’t look weak—more like reaching