ursulas_alcove (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ursulas_alcove) wrote2025-04-04 11:56 am
ursulas_alcove) wrote2025-04-04 11:56 am
Entry tags:
Soil Testing
If you are going to do intensive growing, say two or three crops in the same bed in a year, you need to replace nutrients. I started with raised bed garden soil from the hardware store. I had no idea what was in it. I had a soil test run for a baseline. Last year I grew potatoes in the bed. Typically potatoes need potassium. I wondered if it was low. Here's what my soil test yielded.
It looks like I am low on calcium. I would not have guessed this. I also didn't know that the bags of raised bed garden soil were slightly alkaline. Peat moss or coconut coir will acidify the soil just the tiny bit that it needs. I'm not worried about that. I guess I shouldn't be surprised by loss of calcium. I had lettuce in this bed previously. Lettuce, strawberries and tomatoes all require calcium. With tomatoes, not only do they need calcium to prevent blossom end rot, the temperature needs to be in the correct range for the plant to take up the calcium. This is why many growers just buy a foliar calcium spray. It's an easier way to get the plant what it needs. Since I am not growing any calcium intense crops in there this year, I will wait and add comfrey as a mulch. It might help. I also have ground up eggshells that could be added. More than one of my beds is low on calcium.
As to the sulfur, since I am allergic to all vegetables high in sulfur, I am not concerned. My front garden, made of coffee grounds is high in sulfur. If I truly wanted to grow brassicas, I could grow them in a different bed. Same goes for garlic.
It helps to test but it also helps to research your crops to see what the vegetable or fruit needs. Ideally a good sandy loam with a lot of microbiology is best. In this, tests have shown than biology will triumph over chemistry in providing a plant what it needs. A healthy fungal network can supply plants nutrients from much further away.
Time to work on soil health.
It looks like I am low on calcium. I would not have guessed this. I also didn't know that the bags of raised bed garden soil were slightly alkaline. Peat moss or coconut coir will acidify the soil just the tiny bit that it needs. I'm not worried about that. I guess I shouldn't be surprised by loss of calcium. I had lettuce in this bed previously. Lettuce, strawberries and tomatoes all require calcium. With tomatoes, not only do they need calcium to prevent blossom end rot, the temperature needs to be in the correct range for the plant to take up the calcium. This is why many growers just buy a foliar calcium spray. It's an easier way to get the plant what it needs. Since I am not growing any calcium intense crops in there this year, I will wait and add comfrey as a mulch. It might help. I also have ground up eggshells that could be added. More than one of my beds is low on calcium.
As to the sulfur, since I am allergic to all vegetables high in sulfur, I am not concerned. My front garden, made of coffee grounds is high in sulfur. If I truly wanted to grow brassicas, I could grow them in a different bed. Same goes for garlic.
It helps to test but it also helps to research your crops to see what the vegetable or fruit needs. Ideally a good sandy loam with a lot of microbiology is best. In this, tests have shown than biology will triumph over chemistry in providing a plant what it needs. A healthy fungal network can supply plants nutrients from much further away.
Time to work on soil health.