I don't know that there is a whole lot that I can do to improve my soil looking at the results of my soil test. I chose where my garden is for a specific reason to take advantage of all of the lucious manure that has slowly filtered into the spot I'm using as my garden nothing like 50+ years of livestock to give the soil a boost. All I'm deficient in is sulfur, I think I'll leave well enough alone unless anyone has any suggestions.
Nitrate 00-06 50 lb/acre very high
Olsen P 133 ppm very high
Bray P1 286 ppm
Potassium 433 ppm very high
Sulfur 00-06 9 lb/acre low
Zinc 14.6 ppm very high
Calcium 2358 ppm
Magnesium 313.1 ppm very high
Manganese 2.8 ppm high
Iron 37 ppm high
Copper 1.2 ppm high
Boron 0.7 ppm high
pH 7.1
buffer pH 7.2
organic matter 7.4%
soluable salts 0.5 mmhos/cm
sodium 16.4 ppm
ESP 0.5%
CEC 15.6 meq
Base sat Ca 75.7%
Base sat Mg 16.8%
Base sat K 7.1%
Base sat Na 0.5%
Base sat H 0%
You could add sulfur 1 lb per 100 square ft to lower the pH. But 7.2 is not that bad unless you are planting acid loving plants. It would take 6 months for you to see the results of the sulfur. Most plants will still do well in that soil. I agree with you, it doesn't look like you have to add anything more.
I am surprised you got a nitrate level back. When I do my soil test, I get recommendations for nitrogen supplements but do not get nitrogen levels except when I send the plant tissue for analysis and all that really says is if the plant is getting enough. I can usually tell that by looking at it.
I am surprised you got a nitrate level back. When I do my soil test, I get recommendations for nitrogen supplements but do not get nitrogen levels except when I send the plant tissue for analysis and all that really says is if the plant is getting enough. I can usually tell that by looking at it.
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applestar
- Mod
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- Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)
I remember this soil test came about as result of this discussion.
So how is your garden growing now? Did you have a thread in which you posted about what you are growing? At first glance, it doesn't look like you would be needing to foliar feed any time soon....
You could probably grow any crop that jal_ut posts about growing well. He mentioned that his soil is on the alkaline side, and he spreads and tills in manure slurry every fall.
So how is your garden growing now? Did you have a thread in which you posted about what you are growing? At first glance, it doesn't look like you would be needing to foliar feed any time soon....
You could probably grow any crop that jal_ut posts about growing well. He mentioned that his soil is on the alkaline side, and he spreads and tills in manure slurry every fall.
Thanks for the replies.
Yes I did plant a few onions, only problem is they were transplants in bunches so I plant the whole clump. Now the onions are spewing out of the ground lol. Whoops :/
I figure with a 7.1-7.2 pH I'm doing ok I guess I could add in some sulfure but I figure for what I'm growing everything is doing pretty well and I don't want to mess anything up.
I've considered taking some of my cattle manure and working that in but I mean my organic matter is already 7.5% I don't want too much in there, I think as I till the sore more and more the few gravelly spots and the spots with more orgaic matter will fix itself.
As for the foliar feeding, I don't know yet I'm still on the fence if it has actually helped or hurt based on my very very little experience with gardening. I've only foliar fed twice this season and it is pretty cheap for what I have at least into it. I do know my tomatoes have grown in very very thick and are about chest high now, its been kind of an odd wet -> hot -> dry -> cold summer so what and we just got another 1.5" of rain. Lots of green tomatoes but not much ripening yet. They peppers are hit and miss, my Anaheim peppers are friggin huge and my "fooled you" peppers are doing well too. My ghost pepper has nothing but a a few budding flowers, my tabasco has some tiny peppers I can see, my green peppers are weird and I looked this morn and a ton of little forming pepper had fallen off dammit
I have no idea what happened at all. The peppers some are doing better because of placement, the ones that are doing the best are between my corn and tomatoes, it seems the ones with more sun exposure are doing worse actually.
No as far foliar feeding I don't know, hard to say. I do know that I purchased the same exact peppers at a farmers market though in Sioux Falls and the peppers I bought at the time were smaller than the ones that I had on my plants at the time and mine are still growing! Maybe the person selling them was desperate or maybe I'm just a better pepper grower I have no idea. Theirs did have black hue to the husk though, which mine don't have. I think mine are due to be picked very soon at at least one batch of them.
My cabbage and brocolli sprouts would be doing well if it weren't for those damn cabbage loopers. I'd have used BT by now but I can't find it and now I've found https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anise_Swallowtail Anise Swallowtails all over my fennel and now on my celery, soo I don't want to kill them so I'll pick off the loopers by hand. I did see a bird one day peck off a looper so nature is taking care of itself in a lot of ways.
The corn I learned a huge lesson and planted my rows waay too close together now I have corn rust everywhere but I still got good ears growing so its fine. I've seen an earwig or two and I did see one cornborer but we'll see how it all turns out.
Asparagus is going nuts sending up all kinds of new little shoots. The fennel the caterpillars are murdering lol.
My watermelon and cantelope are growing everywhere but I haven't seen any melons yet, however I did plant the transplants till around July so I don't know if I'm going to get anything or not.
Anyways thats my garden report for now. I'll try to get up some pics sometime soon.
Yes I did plant a few onions, only problem is they were transplants in bunches so I plant the whole clump. Now the onions are spewing out of the ground lol. Whoops :/
I figure with a 7.1-7.2 pH I'm doing ok I guess I could add in some sulfure but I figure for what I'm growing everything is doing pretty well and I don't want to mess anything up.
I've considered taking some of my cattle manure and working that in but I mean my organic matter is already 7.5% I don't want too much in there, I think as I till the sore more and more the few gravelly spots and the spots with more orgaic matter will fix itself.
As for the foliar feeding, I don't know yet I'm still on the fence if it has actually helped or hurt based on my very very little experience with gardening. I've only foliar fed twice this season and it is pretty cheap for what I have at least into it. I do know my tomatoes have grown in very very thick and are about chest high now, its been kind of an odd wet -> hot -> dry -> cold summer so what and we just got another 1.5" of rain. Lots of green tomatoes but not much ripening yet. They peppers are hit and miss, my Anaheim peppers are friggin huge and my "fooled you" peppers are doing well too. My ghost pepper has nothing but a a few budding flowers, my tabasco has some tiny peppers I can see, my green peppers are weird and I looked this morn and a ton of little forming pepper had fallen off dammit
I have no idea what happened at all. The peppers some are doing better because of placement, the ones that are doing the best are between my corn and tomatoes, it seems the ones with more sun exposure are doing worse actually.No as far foliar feeding I don't know, hard to say. I do know that I purchased the same exact peppers at a farmers market though in Sioux Falls and the peppers I bought at the time were smaller than the ones that I had on my plants at the time and mine are still growing! Maybe the person selling them was desperate or maybe I'm just a better pepper grower I have no idea. Theirs did have black hue to the husk though, which mine don't have. I think mine are due to be picked very soon at at least one batch of them.
My cabbage and brocolli sprouts would be doing well if it weren't for those damn cabbage loopers. I'd have used BT by now but I can't find it and now I've found https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anise_Swallowtail Anise Swallowtails all over my fennel and now on my celery, soo I don't want to kill them so I'll pick off the loopers by hand. I did see a bird one day peck off a looper so nature is taking care of itself in a lot of ways.
The corn I learned a huge lesson and planted my rows waay too close together now I have corn rust everywhere but I still got good ears growing so its fine. I've seen an earwig or two and I did see one cornborer but we'll see how it all turns out.
Asparagus is going nuts sending up all kinds of new little shoots. The fennel the caterpillars are murdering lol.
My watermelon and cantelope are growing everywhere but I haven't seen any melons yet, however I did plant the transplants till around July so I don't know if I'm going to get anything or not.
Anyways thats my garden report for now. I'll try to get up some pics sometime soon.
It sounds like you don't really even need to do foliar feedings. With very high levels of nitrate and phosphorus in the soil already you run the risk of having imbalances that might tie up some micro nutrients. So much excess fertilizer can create problems of runoff, just as your garden was fertilized by the runoff from the cattle. Runoff during the rainy season may contaminate water sources and it is an expense you don't really need.
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applestar
- Mod
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- Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
- Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)
It sounds like you have plenty of space.
For added Garden Patrol, grow herbs and flowers to attract beneficial insects which include tiny wasps and flies that parasitize caterpillars near or interplanted with the cabbages, etc that you want to protect. In all honesty, though I find it's better to use insect netting row covers if you are planting in monoculture. But I can attest that one year, a head of cabbage was protected by a 2nd year blooming parsley that grew 4 feet high with 4 feet spread canopy over the cabbage despite a clump of lavender not 3 feet away attracting up to a dozen white cabbage butterflies at a time.
Fennel flowers actually would be one of them. What you could do is plant rows/beds of fennel, etc. that are FOR the anise swallowtails or any other butterflies you want to keep and handpick and move the caterpillars that are on your food crops to their own garden bed. You can even treat the food crop bed to kill them (but be careful of drift).
I think peppers can grow well in partial sun as you found out. Remember that if you can put together an indoor set up, hot peppers can easily be dug up and overwintered inside to start producing inside in the winter if warm and bright enough, or in spring -- they are actually perennials and produce well (better) in 2nd-4th yrs (Look for "Winter Indoor Pepper Torture" thread) you will want to dig them up before overnight temps start falling down into the 40's.
I'm finding that peppers grow better in raised beds and containers even here in NJ. You may want to use open sided raised/mounded rows next year for peppers as well as heat loving crops like melons.
For added Garden Patrol, grow herbs and flowers to attract beneficial insects which include tiny wasps and flies that parasitize caterpillars near or interplanted with the cabbages, etc that you want to protect. In all honesty, though I find it's better to use insect netting row covers if you are planting in monoculture. But I can attest that one year, a head of cabbage was protected by a 2nd year blooming parsley that grew 4 feet high with 4 feet spread canopy over the cabbage despite a clump of lavender not 3 feet away attracting up to a dozen white cabbage butterflies at a time.
Fennel flowers actually would be one of them. What you could do is plant rows/beds of fennel, etc. that are FOR the anise swallowtails or any other butterflies you want to keep and handpick and move the caterpillars that are on your food crops to their own garden bed. You can even treat the food crop bed to kill them (but be careful of drift).
I think peppers can grow well in partial sun as you found out. Remember that if you can put together an indoor set up, hot peppers can easily be dug up and overwintered inside to start producing inside in the winter if warm and bright enough, or in spring -- they are actually perennials and produce well (better) in 2nd-4th yrs (Look for "Winter Indoor Pepper Torture" thread) you will want to dig them up before overnight temps start falling down into the 40's.
I'm finding that peppers grow better in raised beds and containers even here in NJ. You may want to use open sided raised/mounded rows next year for peppers as well as heat loving crops like melons.
Thanks applestar,
Yes I do have quite a bit of space and will have to do a little more planning next year. I might try as you suggested and do one patch of fennel for the butterflies and one to protect my cabbage and sprouts.
I'm thinking I'm definitely going to bring in my pepper plants then for over the winter, thats a great idea and I will definitely check it out for sure. It'd be nice to have stuffed peppers all year round. I could try some peppers in containers but I don't think I'm going to do a raised bed garden or anything like that. The containers might just work fine though. Its quite possible I might try a greenhouse as well but we'll see about that, I'm not 100% on it plus it'd be tough to do with our winters up when it gets subzero. But see that my biggest attraction to it
some place warm to sit outside, it'd be great, but I highly doubt I could keep the sucker warm enough to actually grow plants in. I may just have to convert my unfinished basement some.
Thanks for all of your suggestions though
imafan just to let you know I would never jeopardize my water supply or contribute to excess nitrogen runoff, I'm quite the opposite actually and am very very conscientous about it is my family who farms. As for foliar feeding the more that I read about the more I like it. Its pure science I just have to learn more to do the right thing. And actually foliar feeding helps to release the micronutrients, I just need to talk to someone with a little more knowledge on the topic. Thanks though I know you are only putting in your two cents but I think there is a lot more to foliar feeding than you or I know. I think I'll do some experimentation next year that way I'll have concrete evidence one way or the other if it actually works or not. Truly though it isn't all that expensive. Foliar feeding is more of a way to supplement it does not and never was intended to replace building up good soil.
Yes I do have quite a bit of space and will have to do a little more planning next year. I might try as you suggested and do one patch of fennel for the butterflies and one to protect my cabbage and sprouts.
I'm thinking I'm definitely going to bring in my pepper plants then for over the winter, thats a great idea and I will definitely check it out for sure. It'd be nice to have stuffed peppers all year round. I could try some peppers in containers but I don't think I'm going to do a raised bed garden or anything like that. The containers might just work fine though. Its quite possible I might try a greenhouse as well but we'll see about that, I'm not 100% on it plus it'd be tough to do with our winters up when it gets subzero. But see that my biggest attraction to it
some place warm to sit outside, it'd be great, but I highly doubt I could keep the sucker warm enough to actually grow plants in. I may just have to convert my unfinished basement some.Thanks for all of your suggestions though
imafan just to let you know I would never jeopardize my water supply or contribute to excess nitrogen runoff, I'm quite the opposite actually and am very very conscientous about it is my family who farms. As for foliar feeding the more that I read about the more I like it. Its pure science I just have to learn more to do the right thing. And actually foliar feeding helps to release the micronutrients, I just need to talk to someone with a little more knowledge on the topic. Thanks though I know you are only putting in your two cents but I think there is a lot more to foliar feeding than you or I know. I think I'll do some experimentation next year that way I'll have concrete evidence one way or the other if it actually works or not. Truly though it isn't all that expensive. Foliar feeding is more of a way to supplement it does not and never was intended to replace building up good soil.
Good for you.
I foliar fed my yard with miracle grow every two weeks for years. Everything was nice and lush. But the one year it rained 42 days and nights, a lot of stuff rotted, as in orchids. However, with so much rain, I did not fertilze, and guess what! The next year the orchids bloomed even better! The downside was that by not starting up the fertilizer again, the bloom the year after that was dismal.
I tested the soil in my home garden, and the Phos is like 2000 and potassium is also high. I know nitrogen is high because I planted taro and got 4 ft plants taking over and no root to speak of because there was too much nitrogen and most of the other root crops like beets only make tops and hardly any roots unless I grow them in pots and control the fertilizer or plant in my community garden which gets a lot less regular fertilizer.
I will be interested in the results of your research or experiments to see how it works out for you.
I foliar fed my yard with miracle grow every two weeks for years. Everything was nice and lush. But the one year it rained 42 days and nights, a lot of stuff rotted, as in orchids. However, with so much rain, I did not fertilze, and guess what! The next year the orchids bloomed even better! The downside was that by not starting up the fertilizer again, the bloom the year after that was dismal.
I tested the soil in my home garden, and the Phos is like 2000 and potassium is also high. I know nitrogen is high because I planted taro and got 4 ft plants taking over and no root to speak of because there was too much nitrogen and most of the other root crops like beets only make tops and hardly any roots unless I grow them in pots and control the fertilizer or plant in my community garden which gets a lot less regular fertilizer.
I will be interested in the results of your research or experiments to see how it works out for you.
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ElizabethB
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- Joined: Sat Nov 24, 2012 12:53 am
- Location: Lafayette, LA
Hey Guns - you were able to get soil test done through your county extension office? If so your county agent received a copy of the test results. The fee you paid includes a phone consultation with your county agent. Your CA will give you specific recommendation on soil amendment. Over 7 pH is ok but I personally prefer 6.8 to 7. A high pH can hinder nutrient uptake. Just a thought for your consideration. I am not a fan of random soil amendment or fertilization. I have a soil test done every 2 years and do not fertilize unless absolutely necessary. I rely on compost for soil amendment. I have little faith in foliar fertilization. Neither do I use much fertilizer in general. The exception is my potted ornamental plants. I do use a water soluble fertilizer on my potted plants and re-pot with fresh soil every other year. There is no real science to my method - just trial and error.
Good luck.
Good luck.