Living here in the Southwest Desert has it's drawbacks as far as soil is concerned. I watch with envy, gardening show hosts trickling through their fingers, beautiful, rich, black loam from their perfectly manicured gardens. In contrast my soil is very alkaline, thick hard pan clay covered with sand. I spend most of my gardening efforts improving my soil. Hauling wheelbarrow load after load of Goat Manure, adding in compost made on the farm, spreading in leaves, old hay and straw, tilling in weeds before they have gone to seed, green cover crops, sawdust, and then watering with manure tea. Time and a lot of hard work has greatly improved my soil, but I still focus my efforts on improving it.
Here is a little information about
BUILDING
BETTER SOIL
To
improve your soil first determine the ph ratio, the humus content,
and
the type of soil; clay, sandy, or loam.
P H SCALE
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0 1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8
9 10 11
12 13 14
ACIDIC- SOUR NEUTRAL
-SWEET ALKALINE-BITTER
The optimum scale reading for growing these common vegetables:
ASPARAGUS 6.5-7.5
BEANS 5.2-7.2
BEETS 5.8-7.3
CABBAGE 5.8-7.3
CARROTS 5.8-7.3
CAULIFLOWER 6.0-7.5
CORN 5.2-7.2
CUCUMBERS 5.2-7.2
LETTUCE
5.8-7.5
ONIONS 5.8-7.5
PEAS 5.5 -7.5
SQUASH 5.2-7.2
-
STRAWBERRIES 5.2-6.8
TOMATOES 5.5-7.2
Simple soil tests can be purchased at your local nursery, or contact your local extension office and they will run a test on your soil for you.
CLAY
SOIL-60% clay, 30% silt, 10% sand.
CLAY LOAM- 35% clay, 35% silt, 30% sand
( this ratio is most preferred for optimum growth)
LOAM SOIL-10% loam, 50%
silt, 40% sand.
SANDY SOIL- greater than 50% sand.
To determine the type of soil in your garden, fill
a quart jar 1/3 full of soil. Add water
to fill the jar.
Shake the jar well and
let the soil separate into layers. Good
soil will contain equal parts of clay, sand, silt or loam. This test will help determine what to add to
your existing soil. If it is heavy clay,
add sand, compost, and organic matter.
Add compost, humus, and organic matter to sandy soil to help it retain
moisture. COMPOST is beneficial to all
soil types. Compost mitigates both PH
extremes. The higher the organic matter
content, the higher the soil quality.
The benefits of organic matter are biological, physical and chemical—it
influences microbial populations, it affects the stability of the soil
structure, adding air to the soil, breaks up clay, binds together sand
particles, and is an important nutrient source.
It improves drainage, prevents
erosion, neutralizes toxins, and creates a healthy soil for worms and fungi. Compost contains some nitrogen, phosphorus
and potassium, but is especially important for trace elements it adds to the
soil. The humic acids in compost
dissolve soil minerals and trace elements
that make them available to the plants.
Compost holds 6 times its own weight and regulates the supply of water
to be absorbed by the vegetables Fewer
nutrients will leach out of the soil if it has adequate organic matter.
There
are 16 elements known to be essential to plants if they are to grow and
re-produce. They are carbon, hydrogen,
oxygen, nitrogen, potassium, phosphorous, sulfur, calcium, magnesium, boron,
manganese, iron, copper, molybdenum, zinc, and chlorine. A soil rich in organic matter supplies plants
with adequate amounts of the trace minerals.
If a soil is deficient in a mineral, only a small amount is needed to
correct proper balance. By using compost, mineral deficiencies are
practically non-existent.
If you take care of your
soil, the plants will take care of themselves.
Creating
the proper soil conditions requires a little manipulation of the natural soil.
AERATION---
Plants and soil organisms will suffocate if insufficient air in the root
system is unavailable. Plant roots
absorb oxygen from the air and give
off carbon dioxide. The leaves absorb
carbon dioxide and give off oxygen.
Plants must be able to breathe. Dense
or compacted soil does not allow for air flow to the root system causing impaired
growth and failure.
WATER--- The gravitational pull of the water percolates
down into the roots. As it flows
downward it is replaced by fresh air from above. In heavy, dense soil the water does not drain
off fast enough and plants can literally drown.
Water vegetation with an inch of
water weekly. A good way to measure is
with a rain gauge or opened tuna fish can placed in the garden. Not all water flows downward, some remains in
the tiny spaces between the soil particles or is captured in humus. This is the water taken in by the roots to
hydrate and transfer minerals to the plants.
A good soil is both well drained and also has the ability to hold
capillary water.
BALANCED
NUTRIENTS---- Nutrients are the source of the plant growth. They consist of mineral subsistence’s found
in the soil. Plants require a balanced
supply of nitrogen, potassium, phosphorous, calcium, sulfur, magnesium, and
other trace elements. If a plant has an
overall balance of nutrients it will produce good crops. In deficient amounts, the plants will have
poor health, slow growth and crop failure.
BALANCED P H ----“Potential
Hydrogen” (ph) is a measure of the acidity and alkalinity of any substance. Purchase a test kit at your local garden
center. PH is measured on a scale from
0-14. Seven is neutral. Most garden vegetables will grow in a soil PH
of 6.0-7.0. In acidic conditions, plant
nutrients are attached tightly to the soil and cannot be absorbed by the roots. In alkaline soils the nutrients combine
through chemical bonds into substances the plants are unable to utilize.
