Garden Soil Test

[Gary350]

Last summer I had a problem July when weather was near 100° no rain for 1 month then 3/4" of rain made my entire garden soil turn green color. I tilled the soil green was gone where I tilled but green color was still in all the plant rows. 1 month of no rain again then about 1" of rain all the garden soil turned green again and it killed all the strawberry plants. I could see there is some type of algae problem but I don't know why???

I think it was about 1st week of March 2025 we were having 80° already I had a soil test done. Soil test is very high Farmers co-op did the test but they have no clue how to read the test and I have no clue how to read the test either. Someone on the TN garden forum knew how to read the test and explained it to me.

Phosphorous is mines rock that it ground into power and sold as fertilizer. Phosphorous stays in the soil and builds up higher and high if you keep adding more NPK fertilizer to the soil. Phosphorous is extremely slow to be washed away by rain. I switched from using 15-15-15 fertilizer to 6-12-12 fertilizer and that was part of my soil problem too much P caused my soil to become toxic. 15-15-15 would have been better for my garden in small amounts than 6-12-12. Farmers co-op told me my garden needs nitrogen and 6-12-12 or nitrogen and 15-15-15 and that is wrong. My garden is also high in K best fertilizer for my garden is 5-0-0 until PK drops which might take 5 years. K is mined rock also it is very slow to wash away by rain. After having close to 4 ft of rain since March 1st the correct thing for me to do is get another soil test to see how much PK 4 ft of was wash away or don't put any more PK fertilizer in my garden at all until next summer.

My goal this summer is no NPK fertilizer at all, only nitrogen. Hot weather and rain can remove all N from soil in 4 months or less. The hotter it gets the faster N leaves the soil. The more rain we get the faster N leaves the soil. Now I understand why commercial growers test there soil every 2 to 4 weeks all summer.

This year I will only put small amounts of N in my garden and no PK.

[imafan26]

Good plan. I just did a soil test too. My phosphorus has been high for over 10 years. It takes a long time for it to get used up.