Which is a better amendment...garden soil or soil conditioner?
redecoratingmom
12 years ago
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rosiew
12 years agoRelated Discussions
Which soil conditioner?
Comments (22)Cyn- I still think you should follow the basic recipe and just see how it goes for you. Here is something Al wrote about media ph, In container culture, the pH of the soil solution is much more important than the pH of the medium. What happens to container media pH is too complicated to draw generalities, but more often than not, media pH tends to rise as they age due to an accumulation of bicarbonates, but we can impact that affect by the pH of our irrigation water and by the fertilizers we use. Fertilizers deriving their N from urea and ammonium salts tend to acidify, while fertilizers deriving their N from nitrate sources tend to move the medium pH toward basic. Dolomitic lime's solubility varies with soil/soil solution pH, temperature, moisture content, and very importantly, the size of the limestone particles. Particles that won't fit through insect screen should be considered useless as a liming agent because of their reduced surface area:bulk density makes then essentially insoluble for container culture. The lime you often buy that is in round pellets of varying size is actually prilled. A slurry of pulverized lime and a binding agent is shot from tall 'prilling' towers. It forms small spheres on the way down and hardens. This is done to make the pulverized lime easier to broadcast. When the lime gets wet, the prills quickly break down into pulverized form, so the 'prills' are much more soluble than unpulverized limestone of the same size would be. The lime fraction of the limestone doesn't leach from the medium very quickly at all. I have (slow-growing) plants that I've kept in the same medium for 5 years or more that showed no signs of Ca deficiency with no lime applications subsequent to the original incorporation into the medium. Part of that is due to the tendency for bicarbonates to accumulate in the soil, which also supply a source of Ca. The Mg fraction of dolomite is much more soluble, up to 125x more soluble than the Ca fraction. I usually try to include a source of Mg (Epsom salts) in my fertilizer solutions for plants in the same medium for growth cycles subsequent to the first annual cycle. It is easy to overthink this, but if you like getting 'in the weeds' so to speak, here's a link. Here is a link that might be useful: Pour Thru Process...See MoreAmending a garden bed with clay like soil
Comments (15)Hi Janice! Some ideas: 1. You CAN do a lasagne bed & plant in it now - (you'd have to remove your existing plants first) - just "build it", then "cut" the holes into it, add some soil or compost to the holes when you plant the plant into it, and voila! Several people on this forum have said that they've done this (prior to the lasagne bed decomposing) w/success. :) 2. Consider using STRAW as a mulch - w/ or w/o the other mulch you may use - straw is great organic matter and decomposes fairly quickly, and according to several posters on this forum, is pretty darn close to an ideal OM addition and/or mulch. 3. One thing to consider is that some bagged compost (although almost any compost is better than no compost) has less organic matter than others - e.g. a poster here pointed out that the "composted manure" (which I buy b/c there's no alternative @ garden center) that I buy has less OM than a vegetative-based (grass & leaves etc) compost has. 4. Another source for compost - check out your local municipalities - my County dump (which is different than my town recycling center) has FREE compost (made from leaves & grass clippings that other residents dump off), and I really like it too! 5. Do you have access to leaves? These are a great organic matter addition. Some use shredded leaves as a wonderful mulch that disappears into the soil and feeds the soil microbes. I added tons of whole leaves to my bed last year (w/some dried blood), and added a few worms this spring, and of course added compost & mulch, and we have tons of happy worms now :) Hope this helps, All the Best, Tree...See MoreAmending Garden Soil
Comments (4)Compost would be the most suitable product to add on top of an established garden. That and/or a shredded mulch of some sort. The SOIL product would smother the root system your existing plants rather than enriching and improving the established soil....See MoreAmending garden soil, delivery
Comments (4)If you haven't already done so, you can contact your Ag Extension service. Many gardeners in your area will have similar issues so the extension agents should have good ideas. Just for starters, very sandy soil needs lots of organic matter (compost, leaves, etc.) to hold nutrients and moisture. It's closed during the winter, but you probably have a community composting site for yard waste that lets residents take free or very inexpensive compost. It won't be premo compost; it can have some branches and roots that didn't decompose, as well as fake plants, small toys, rocks, etc, etc, etc. So there is a trade off compared to buying it from a company and having it delivered. You didn't mention if you have started a composting system at home, beyond tilling in the leaves, but you should have plenty of room for a good set up. If you have patience, it shouldn't be expensive. If you are impatient, all bets are off. If you're new to composting, the Soil Forum and some other gardening sites have an abundance of information and argumentation about composting. Those sites also have information (and argumentation) about how to safely process and use various types of manure if you can get them. Some gardeners even raise their own rabbits or guinea pigs as much for the premo manure as for the meat. I can't give any useful advice about specific nutrients. Good luck....See Moreredecoratingmom
12 years ago
Iris GW
12 years agoredecoratingmom
12 years agowoody_ga
12 years agobuford
12 years agoredecoratingmom
12 years agoIris GW
12 years agoredecoratingmom
12 years agobuford
12 years agoSneakyP86
12 years ago
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Iris GW