Adding according to the soil test recommendations will give you a good, general level of nutrients which will start your plants off well. Most of the nutrients are fairly stable in the soil and won't disappear over the summer, other than uptake by the plants. Nitrogen, however, is fairly easy to leach out of the ground with excess moisture and can gasify under some conditions. Your recommendations for a general garden may need some adjustments depending on the favorite nutrients of the plants you are growing. As mentioned, corn loves nitrogen, and you would likely want to side dress with some additional nitrogen when the corn is about 2 feet high. Corn, however, isn't the only nitrogen lover although it is extremely transparent in telegraphing its nutrient status so shortages become quickly and easily visible. Pretty much everything other than legumes (which use bacteria to make their own) love nitrogen too, and even legumes can respond to nitrogen. Watch your plants around 6-8 weeks after planting and if there are any signs of potential shortage or weaker/slower growth, then side dress with some additional nitrogen. After mid summer, let the plants use up what is available in the soil. You don't want to fertilize so heavily that you leave a lot of available nitrogen in the soil at the end of the season where it can leach to groundwater or anywhere else.

Blueberries are very shallow rooted plants, the wild ones around here grow on hummocks of soil above standing water and they do not want their roots wet but they do want water close. A gross misconception is that sand will help clay soils, or that clay will help sandy soils, and if enough is added, anywhere from 45 to 75 percent sand, it may, but your best, and cheapest, way to amend your clay soil is with organic matter. Tree leaves, Oak, Maple, Beech, Birch, etc. all test out with a pH in the 3.0 to 4.0 range and that stuff does not change a soils pH significantly so there is no really good reason to believe that any other organic matter would significantly change your soils pH either. All of the Blueberry Growers along the west shore of Michigan have their fields of blueberries in full sun, and the blueberries that self seed do so in full sun. Many of the blueberry growers have sand for soil and many have clay for soil, and few, that I have seen, amend their soil, they just pour a lot of water on the growing plants. Although most also grow grass between the rows and mow that leaving the clippings in place.

I revive this old thread on soil testing, since I have just received my soil report from EarthCo, as recommended by Karl from zone 5a. A $20 test gives you accurate results for pH, organic matter, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, and magnesium. It's a good deal, considering that you get MANY samples from your garden, and send that 1 cup of cumulative soil to www.drgoodearth.com EarthCo also gives you a thick booklet that covers the basics of soil science. I was lazy, so I got only the surface soil, rather than the bottom yellow clay (which I already tested using Lowe's soil kit). My surface soil (with dead leaves & grass, horse manure, etc.) are: 7.7 for pH (as expected with alkaline clay and horse manure), high in organic matter, and SUPER-HIGH in magnesium! I would like to thank Michaelg, Mike Rivers, Karl, and Jim for encouraging me to DO A SOIL TEST FIRST BEFORE WASTING TIME WITH EPSOM SALT. My calcium and phosphorus are adequate, but my potassium is a little bit short. We can always use more banana peels for roses in my zone 5a, 1 hour west of Chicago. Berndoodle is right on the info. about heavy clay and high magnesium in California (my 3 sisters live there). Bern's info. on high pH can be amended through addition of nitrogen/organic matter is correct, since cow manure's pH is 4 to 5, peat moss is 4, and both alfalfa meal and pine bark are acidic. The exception is horse manure, reported around 8 to 10 pH, since some stables add lime to deodorize their stalls. I spent 1 hour researching to see if gypsum is necessary for clay. The answer is NO, do not waste your money. The best amendment for clay from my experience is peat moss to lower pH, and alfalfa meal. Here's my experiment on William Shakespeare rose, planted as a band this July: Knowing his reputation for being wimpy, I put him in Miracle-Gro potting soil. The pot wasn't draining well, so he was turning yellowish. He whimpered in the hot sun, so I put him in partial shade, he improved and started blooming. I planted him in the ground September 1. I was really annoyed by his continued yellowish leaves, even with improved drainage. So I dug him up, and amended the soil with 2 gallons of peat moss mixed with 1 gallon of alfalfa meal. It was excessive, but worked wonder. Mr. Shakespeare turned dark green, and really bushy and vigorous. The peat moss brought down the pH, fixed my alkaline soil problem, and the alfalfa meal gave the nitrogen needed and stimulated abundant new growth. With Eglantyne I followed Roses Unlimited directions of 2 cups of alfalfa meal & 3 cups peat moss in the planting hole, OK, but leaves are NOT as green as Mr. Shakespeare. Michaelg: Where do you get litmus paper or Rapi-test for pH? The soil test from Lowe's is not accurate with pH, and I need to test horse manure repeatedly for high pH whenever I get from the stable. Many thanks.

Most leaves raise pH but I would use anyway. sul-po-mag is a good product. Looking at your report, it needs it. You should otherwise be fine. I have 7 blueberry plants, I wish I could add more. So many I would like to try. 4 of mine are in pots, and 3 are in ground. 6 will bear fruit this year. All 7 next year. Two are 4 years old, one is 3 years old and 4 are only one year old. Three of them have a few flowers. Next year will be a huge blueberry year for me. The 3 in ground are the oldest and will produce hundreds of berries this year. So it will be a decent yield this year. I also have about 20 raspberry plants and 15 blackberry plants. I have a few currant bushes too. Looks like a good year for berries.