Need more history. Have you grown anything in these beds before? If so, how did it turn out? Gypsum is used to help loosen heavy clay soil, and make it easier to work. Do you have sticky clay soil? If you have tried to grow tomatoes, and you saw blossom end rot, then you might need to add lime to your soil. Here in Madison, Wisconsin, we already have lime in our soil, and our tomatoes never show this problem. I make compost from shredded leaves, garden refuse, like tomato vines, raspberry canes, and sunflower stalks. Every spring, I put compost on our garden plot, and work it in the top 6 inches. So far, that is the only amendment that our garden has received.

I grew vegetables in this spot last year, and beside an aphid outbreak, all went well. The soil is not very sticky, and I had no problem with blossom end rot at all. The woman at the store said we have plenty of lime in our soil as well. If it matters any, the land used to be farmland 20 or 30 years ago.

My compost is made from lawn clippings, straw, coffee grounds, kitchen waste, and cardboard, and this is the first year I am using it. Last year I simply tilled and planted. I'm not interested in putting my plants on steroids or anything, but I would like healthy soil. I bought a test kit a few weeks back. Will using that help in this situation?

Thanks, Kim

It sounds like your compost would be ideal for gardening. Its up to you whether you test the soil or not. If you can successfully grow what you want, the soil must be pretty good as is. We grow tomatoes, green beans, swiss chard, lettuce, brussels sprouts, and raspberries, successfully, with no testing. I do test the soil around the blueberries for pH, they will not tolerate alkaline soil.

Like any other manure "Chicken Poo" could potentially harbor disease pathogens and that most likely is why that salesperson tried to steer you away from it. However Superphosphate is not a good substitute for chicken manure and really which of your other "choices" you should use depends on what your soil needs. That you had no BER last year does not mean you will not have that problem this year, if the soil nutrients are not readily avaiable to the plants in the amounts needd problems will appear. The obly way to know if nutrients are readily available, in the right amounts, is with a good, reliable soil test that tells you what your soils pH is, and why, and what the rest of the major nutrients are and in what quantities. Then the humus level, drainage, tilth, and life in the soil become important to know as well.

The obly way to know if nutrients are readily available, in the right amounts, is with a good, reliable soil test that tells you what your soils pH is, and why, and what the rest of the major nutrients are and in what quantities.

A soil test may be the only way to get numbers for various nutrients, but it's just not the only way to grow good crops. Plenty of people have been growing things successfully for plenty of years by paying attention to their plants, and knowing what problems (or what successes) indicated what sorts of things about their soil.

If you want to know exactly what's going on in your soil, and/or you want to fully optimize your soil, and/or you're getting poor results and you're completely lost about what your soil needs, then by all means, get a soil test. They aren't even very expensive. However, it's not strictly necessary for the hobby gardener.

Okay, thanks.

I guess my main concern was if the phosphate would harm my plants somehow, maybe if I didn't have something to balance it out with.

The bag says it increases stem strength and helps create more blooms. Is this only for flowers, and not vegetables? I think I'm overthinking this... :)

Hi Kim,
Super Phosphate or Hi-Yield Phosphate or Triple Phosphate
(there could be more but those are all that I use ;-)
is a good product,it helps with a lot of transplants (I used it last for my Asparagus beds.)

Here is a link that might be useful: Super Phosphate w/ Asparagus Crowns

Hi Jon,

Good to know! Mine is the same brand, only 0 18 0. I'm guessing that strength will be ok since yours is higher. Those videos are so darn helpful. How many have you made?

Kim

A lot... ;-)
As soon as someone posts a question, I try to get out a helpful video...
You are going to be real happy with the Phosphate ;-)

I hope so! When I first started gardening, I thought that using compost and minerals was "cheating", but now I realize it's just the opposite. It's not depleting the soil, it's making it better.

Thanks for your help!

Kim

But vegetables have flowers, as well as roses & daisies & violets! The main thing with flowers is to encourage the bees who live in the neighborhood to visit and pollinate. If you want to keep the local bees happy, it helps to grow a wide variety of flowering plants, so there is always something in bloom, spring thru September. Also, it helps if you never use insecticide in your yard. I don't know if you need phosphorous or not. A soil test would answer the question. However, I can tell you that we have been gardening in the same plot for 15 years, amending the soil only with compost, and the garden is always successful. We have problems with squash vine borers, and the tomatoes always show sign of blight late in the summer. And the broccoli leaves will show sign of insect damage. But, on the whole, the plants are healthy and productive. If I was growing an acre of tomatoes for the farmer's market, I would have to soil tested, and then apply whatever was needed per the test. But our small garden seems to do fine without that much testing.

Soil test are not necessary and people grew food crops, and flowers, for eons without them often without knowing why they grew here and not there. A soil test is part of a gardeners knowledge base and it can be, when properly used, part of the guide toward getting your soil into a good healthy condition.
Plunking nutrients that your soil already has into that soil is a waste of your time, energy, and money and it can create more problems then that would solve, as well as contribute to more pollution of the world we live in. For example an excess of Potassium in your soil can inhibit the uptake of Zinc, Iron, and/or cobalt while too much Potash can interfere with the uptake, and utilization by plants, of Nitrogen.

My point is just that "knowing everything in detail because you've had a soil test" and "not knowing why things grow well in one place and not another" aren't the only available options. Many nutrient deficiencies or excesses have telltale signs in the plants that grow in their soil.

I was taught to garden by my grandmother, who could always tell when plants needed more bone meal, but who wouldn't have known "phosphorus" if it bit her. She also knew if the garden needed lime based on what weeds started to take hold.

In some ways I know a lot more about gardening than my grandmother did, and in other ways a lot less. I'm a geek at heart, and I enjoy understanding my garden and my soil like a chemist would...but at the same time, I really admire and aspire to the ability to tell a garden's needs in more of a "layman's" fashion. Achieving that level of understanding is the sort of thing that would really make me feel like an expert gardener.

I've seen some excellent guides to the signs of nutrient deficiencies in plants, though some of them are published by people who are selling soil tests and/or customized fertilizers. I'm sure a Google search would turn some up.