Decado
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Creating The Best Soil Culture

I'm starting to think about next year and one of the things I really want to get just right next year is creating a very good soil culture. I plan on getting lot's of composted manure to till into the garden, and I'm going to do pH tests so I know if I need to make it more acidic or base. What do I need to amend the soil with for the best growing conditions (everything that can help) and what do I amend it with to make the soil more acidic or more base (I'm not sure which way I'm going on that yet)?

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Diane
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Decado wrote:I'm starting to think about next year and one of the things I really want to get just right next year is creating a very good soil culture. I plan on getting lot's of composted manure to till into the garden, and I'm going to do pH tests so I know if I need to make it more acidic or base. What do I need to amend the soil with for the best growing conditions (everything that can help) and what do I amend it with to make the soil more acidic or more base (I'm not sure which way I'm going on that yet)?
Peat moss helps to make it more acid.

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stella1751
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Peat moss also conditions the soil, giving it a satiny texture, while adding some nutrients. I'm a big fan of peat moss! I also add bone meal. Wish I'd added more than I did last fall :cry:

cynthia_h
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I used peat when we established our Square Foot Gardens last spring (2008).

My two arguments *against* using it:

1) Peat is hydrophobic. No, it doesn't have rabies! :lol: But it is very difficult to get peat moss wet. Good luck with watering plants which have very much peat moss in their planting mixture. In our case, peat moss was approx. one-third of the total, per Mel Bartholomew. Never again.

2) The rate of extraction of peat moss vastly exceeds Nature's capacity to regenerate it. Yes, it *can* be regenerated, but I've read numbers which state that, for every cubic foot of peat moss removed from a bog, it will take 1,000 years to replace it. Then we need to add in the energy required to extract the peat moss, to transport it, store it, etc.... Not a good exchange, esp. for bog-dwelling critters and plants.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

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jal_ut
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Be careful with manure. A little goes a long way. Cow manure, an inch is enough. Chicken, half an inch. If you put too much you will burn your plants. I like to put the manure on in the fall and till it in. I would stay away from peat for reasons already mentioned. Leaves and grass clippings are good both for mulch and to till in in the fall. The idea is to put more on the plot than you take off.

If you are gardening in the soil left here by nature, you won't need to add much, just keep up the organic content and add a little manure in the fall for nitrogen. Avoid wood chips and sawdust which are slow to break down and deplete the nitrogen in the process.

A soil test would be good to tell you what you need to add and see what the acidity is. Check with your extension service for a soil test and also for ideas.

Have a great garden!

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stella1751
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Cynthia_H, can you recommend an unbiased website on peat moss? I had always thought it was simply regrown, unlike the peat beneath it, but I'm having problems finding a website that isn't wildly for or wildly against its use :(

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kimbledawn
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This forum is so great! I was looking up soil amendments and one site was talking about an alternative to peat moss. coconut coir :shock: so I was wondering how I could get some and the person talking said that hers came in a block that she soaked in water and then added to the soil...Well At my job we have hermit crabs and we use these blocks of earth, that we soak in water, for their cages, low and behold I have been letting my staff dump coconut coir everytime they clean the crab cages and I didn't know it. :oops:

Soon I'll buy more gardening things, alfafa pellets, coconut coir, air pump, from the pet store than pet stuff. :lol:

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stella1751
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I have been dying to find some coconut coir, but I didn't know it was available commercially. I bought my cousin-in-law a bag of Miracle Gro Moisture Control for her flowers, just so I could check it out. It's ingredients were similar to what I use when prepping a new bed (except for the synthetic materials :) ) with the exception of this coconut coir.

Like kimbledawn, I researched it online. This was two years ago, and I couldn't find a supplier. Where does anyone get this? Kimbledawn, where do you buy it for the hermit crabs?

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kimbledawn
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Anywhere you shop for pets. Petco, petsmart, they sell it for reptile bedding and you can buy a pack of three blocks for about ten dollars.

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applestar
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Used hermit crab cage bedding sounds absolutely SCRUMPTIOUS for soil amendment or for adding to the compost pile. If I had access like that, I would be bringing 5 gal buckets to work to take them home in. :wink:

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gixxerific
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kimbledawn wrote:I have been letting my staff dump coconut coir everytime they clean the crab cages and I didn't know it. :oops:
Never heard of this before, but how about mailing me some of your bounty, thank you. :wink: :lol:

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kimbledawn
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Well truthfully I had only heard coconut coir mentioned a few times here and I didn't know where to find any. :roll: Yeah It was right under my nose. I have been working here three years and I buy the pet supplies. :oops: The packaging says "eco friendly, can be safely composted or recycled!" Compressed coconut fiber...DUH True enough I just got my first garden this may for mother's day, but I didn't realized I could use the guinea pig bedding for compost until July. Now I discover that I can use the hermit crab bedding also. I am leaving work like a bandit 8) with bags of poopie guinea pig and hamster bedding, coconut coir from the hermit crabs, and all of the used coffee grounds from the building. I guess better late then never! :roll:

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Diane
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cynthia_h wrote:I used peat when we established our Square Foot Gardens last spring (2008).

My two arguments *against* using it:

1) Peat is hydrophobic. No, it doesn't have rabies! :lol: But it is very difficult to get peat moss wet. Good luck with watering plants which have very much peat moss in their planting mixture. In our case, peat moss was approx. one-third of the total, per Mel Bartholomew. Never again.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9
In my case that's exactly why I need it. My thick clay soil holds water, it seems, forever. I also need it for my blueberries. I've bought maybe four packages in twenty years. My blueberry bush was crying. :(

Today I looked in a pet area and found chipped pine to add to my garden and compost. All because I read about this here!
Since it's for pets it is clean with no additives.

Stella, I saw the coconut fiber but the package was very small and expensive. I plan on checking more pet stores.

Decado
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Gah, thanks for all the replies everyone, unfortunately I had no idea I was getting them as the notify by email when a reply is posted thing seems to be busted :(.

Decado
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jal_ut wrote:Be careful with manure. A little goes a long way. Cow manure, an inch is enough. Chicken, half an inch. If you put too much you will burn your plants. I like to put the manure on in the fall and till it in. I would stay away from peat for reasons already mentioned. Leaves and grass clippings are good both for mulch and to till in in the fall. The idea is to put more on the plot than you take off.

If you are gardening in the soil left here by nature, you won't need to add much, just keep up the organic content and add a little manure in the fall for nitrogen. Avoid wood chips and sawdust which are slow to break down and deplete the nitrogen in the process.

A soil test would be good to tell you what you need to add and see what the acidity is. Check with your extension service for a soil test and also for ideas.

Have a great garden!
Well a buddy of mine put 16 yards of manure in his garden this spring which is about twice the size of my garden (I did 2 yards and got about a 2 inch cover), and has been adding a good amount every year and his stuff grows like crazy and never ends up burned.

As for using the natural soil for the most part, that isn't really an option for me since the soil here is extremely sandy so I need to build up the soil culture for myself.

Overall it's looking like the best way for me to build my soil culture is just to use manure and this coconut stuff that's hard to find. :( That really sucks.

Is there really nothing else I can add to help create great soil culture? Anything to bring phosporous levels up for more blooms? Anything to prevent potassium deficiencies? Anything to help boost plants' immunity to diseases?

Edit: Peat moss is probably a bad choice for me having as sandy of soil as I do, I don't want my soil to be even more hydrophobic.

cynthia_h
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You *are* composting, aren't you? Organic matter, over a couple of seasons, will improve your soil almost better than anything you can purchase.

Cynthia

Decado
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cynthia_h wrote:You *are* composting, aren't you? Organic matter, over a couple of seasons, will improve your soil almost better than anything you can purchase.

Cynthia
Ya but I just started this year so even next year I won't have a whole lot of compost.



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