What is Needed Before You Plant Your Garden?

 

1. Every 3-5 years you should test your soil.

2. Every year, you should rotate your crops around your garden, trying not to plant the same veggies in the same place year after year.

How To Take a Soil Test

• To take a representative sample, scrape away any surface litter, plant residues, leaves, etc.
• Avoid sampling in a spot where ashes have been dumped, manure or compost stored, or brush burned.
• Cut straight into the soil with a shovel or trowel 6 to 8 inches deep making a V-shaped hole.
• Cut a 1 inch wide slice of soil the length of the hole from one side. Take a 1 inch strip from the center of this slice to use in your sample.
• Repeat sampling randomly around the garden and mix the samples together in a clean glass jar or bucket. Since we use raised beds we take a slice from each bed and mix them all together.
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• How Can I Read a Soil Test?

• Soil pH – This should always be the first thing you look at on a soil test. 
• Base saturation – This is the ratio of 5 nutrients to each other: potassium, magnesium, calcium, hydrogen, and sodium. ...
• Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) – This measures the holding capacity of your soil.
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• Reading Test Results

  When you get your test results, the fertilizer recommendations will be quite specific, and speak to three elements: nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.

  Nitrogen: N stands for nitrogen, which helps plants make leafy growth. For nitrogen, they will tell you how much manure or compost to use. If you are using fresh manure, spread it on in the fall so it can break down over the winter and be safe for spring planting. If you prefer, dried blood, alfalfa, soybean, or cottonseed meals can be substituted. Nitrogen is released quickly from them, so it is best to wait until spring to add it to your soil. Ten pounds of blood meal supplies the same amount of nitrogen as 10-20 bushels of manure, but without the added benefit of all the organic matter that manure contains.

  Plants that are almost all leaves need a lot of nitrogen, so look for a fertilizer with a high first number. The higher the number, the more nitrogen the fertilizer provides. This is why most lawn fertilizers are high in nitrogen, with formulations like 24-4-12 or 20-2-6.

  Phosphorus: P stands for phosphorus, which is necessary for germination, strong root growth, flowers, and fruit. It helps plants absorb minerals, grow strong stems, and withstand disease. Rock phosphate provides phosphorus, magnesium, and trace minerals. Rock powders are wonderful soil enhancements. They are slow acting but long lasting, so they need to be applied only every 3 to 4 years. Bone meal and bone char are more readily available sources of phosphorus. It also increases bloom and fruit production. Tomatoes and root crops favor “snacks” of 5-10-10.

  Potassium: K stands for potassium or potash. It regulates the flow of water in plant cells and is necessary for flowering, fruiting, and disease resistance. A lack of potassium will cause plants to have weak stems and stunted growth. For added potassium you can use granite dust or greensand which is made from glauconite, an ocean mineral high in potassium and iron. Wood ashes are also high in potash.

  Plants deficient in potash may display stunted leaves and fruit and be extra sensitive to drought. Because most soils already contain potassium, the third number in the fertilizer ratio tends to be the smallest.

  
  
  Other Plant Nutrients

  When it comes to fertilizers, much attention is paid to nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, but there are other key nutrients needed for overall plant health as well, though in smaller quantities.

• Calcium (Ca), which improves general plant vigor and promotes the growth of young roots and shoots.
• Magnesium (Mg), which regulates the uptake of nutrients, aids seed formation, and contributes to the dark green color of leaves, which is important for effective photosynthesis.
• Sulfur (S), which maintains that dark green color, encouraging vigorous plant growth.

Soil test results sometimes come with recommendations to add these trace minerals to the soil if they are found to be deficient. 

Soil Texture: The Peanut Butter Jar Test

Find out what kind of soil you have! Healthy soil typically consists of 20 percent clay, 40 percent silt, and 40 percent sand. This should take about 1 hour to set up and a full day to conclude. Find an empty straight-sided jar, such as a peanut butter or mason jar, with a lid, and have a ruler handy. Dig down to root level—about 6 inches—in the area that you want to test and remove enough soil to fill the the jar to between one-third and one-half full. Next, fill the jar to the shoulder with water, then set the jar aside to let the soil soak up the water. Put the lid on the jar and shake it hard for about 3 minutes.

 

1.    Set the jar down and look at your watch. In 1 minute, measure (with the ruler) the amount of sediment that has collected at the bottom. This is the sand in your soil.

2.    Wait 4 minutes more. Measure the sediment again: The difference between the two numbers will be the amount of silt in your soil. 

3.    Take a third measurement in 24 hours. The difference between the second and third number will be the amount of clay in your soil. 

 

Calculate the percentages of sand, silt, and clay, which should add up to 100 percent. Nice, loamy soil will be 20 percent clay, 40 percent silt, and 40 percent sand. This simple test can help you to decide what to grow: If your soil is high in sand, it will be well-draining. Silt and clay are hard to get wet, but they stay wet; plants that like “wet feet” would be happy here. Choose your plants accordingly and/or amend the soil:

 

• If you have sandy soil, add humus or aged manure, peat moss, or sawdust with some extra nitrogen. Heavy, clay-rich soil can also be added to improve the soil.
• If you have silty soil, add coarse sand (not beach sand) or gravel and compost, or well-rotted horse manure mixed with fresh straw.
• If you have clay soil, add coarse sand (not beach sand), compost, and peat moss.

Soil Acidity or Alkalinity: The Pantry Soil pH Test

1.    Place 2 tablespoons of soil in a bowl and add ½ cup vinegar. If the mixture fizzes, you have alkaline soil.

2.    Place 2 tablespoons of soil in a bowl and moisten it with distilled water. Add ½ cup baking soda. If the mixture fizzes, you have acidic soil.

• If it does not react to either test, the soil has a neutral pH.
• A very high or very low soil pH may result in plant nutrient deficiency or toxicity. 
• A pH value of 7 is neutral; microbial activity is greatest and plant roots absorb/access nutrients best when the pH is in the 5.5 to 7 range. 

Once you figure out your soil pH, you can change or adjust it. Acidic (sour) soil is counteracted by applying finely ground limestone, and alkaline (sweet) soil is treated with ground sulfur.

Soil Health: The Earthworm Test

The best time to check for earthworms is in the spring when the soil’s temperature has reached 50°F and its surface is moist. Use a shovel to dig up about 1 cubic foot of soil. Put the soil on a piece of cardboard, break it apart, and look for earthworms.

If your soil is healthy, you should find at least 10 earthworms! If your soil has fewer than 10 worms, add more organic matter—compost, aged manure, leaf mold. Organic matter improves structure, slowly releases nutrients, and increases beneficial microbial activity.

Use these DIY tests to gauge the overall health of your soil, but for more granular information, be sure to order a proper soil test as described above!