From corn to garlic...how to amend my soil?

[Yogas]

I'm about ready to plant my garlic bulbs and the only good place to plant them is where I grew my corn this year. Now I know corn is a heavy feeder and I believe it takes nitrogen out of the soil - right?

So, my question is - what should I do to amend the soil so that the garlic will thrive in this spot?

I do have a good compost pile and my first thought was to work some into the soil.

Thoughts?

As an aside...are green beans good for the soil? I usually add compost to my entire garden in the spring but I thought I read somewhere that green beans put some of the good nutrients back in the soil.

[rainbowgardener]

Yes, green beans and other beans are nitrogen fixers that add nitrogen back to the soil. That's why corn and beans used to be grown together-- the beans provide some of the nitrogen the corn needs.

Compost is my typical answer to everything, so sure add the compost. If you want to boost the nitrogen more you could add blood meal, fish meal, or feather meal.

[CharlieBear]

Strangely enough garlic will generally thrive in any garden soil where other plants have done well. I have placed them over the years after just about every vegetable kind I have grown except of course things in the same family and it has done well everytime. However, if you have extra compost it can't hurt, as to whether it will help, who knows. Make sure you space the garlic far enough apart and if snow doesn't come before the ground is going to freeze you had better mulch. I lost a whole section of garlic one year because we had an unusual heavy freeze without snow and so did everyone else I know, so it must have been the freezing of the unmulched ground that killed all our garlic.

[jal_ut]

Compost is always a good amendment for any crop. Nitrogen is the soil nutrient most often lacking in soils and it is important to add amendments that will boost the nitrogen content. Compost also contains many other soil nutrients besides a good dose of nitrogen.

[jal_ut]

The legumes themselves are not that beneficial to the soil, but their roots will host colonies of nitrogen fixing bacteria. Of course, before they can play host, the bacteria must be present. If beans have ever been grown commercially on your lot, then it is a good bet the bacteria are present. Otherwise, no guarantee. Also, the bacteria is species specific. In other words the bacteria, that colonizes on alfalfa roots, won't colonize on beans. You can buy noculated seed, or buy the noculant.

Once you have grown legumes, you can dig a plant and look for the nodules on the roots to ascertain if you have the bacteria present.

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