Fall is officially here, and I don’t know about you, but my garden is ready for a bit of a break. But that doesn’t mean the garden soil shouldn’t be doing something in the meantime. We all know testing our soil is the only real way to find out what is lacking in our gardens as far as nutrients are concerned and what the pH level is of that soil. Testing your soil now and adding the appropriate amendments means they will have a chance to break down into the soil, incorporate themselves, and become water soluble which is really the only way they can be absorbed by your plants come spring.
But, how do you know what to add, when to add it, and how much? Today on Just Grow Something we’ll review some of the most easily accessible amendments you can use on your soil right now to give you a better garden next season and help you figure out how much of it to use, based on your own soil test results. Let’s dig in
Episode Resources and References
Ep. 76 - Managing Soil pH in Your Garden
Affects of pH on Nutrient Availability
00:00:01
This is positively farming. Media Fall is officially here
00:00:06
and I don't know about you, but my garden is ready for a bit of
00:00:09
a break and honestly, so is this gardener.
00:00:11
But that doesn't mean the garden soil shouldn't be doing
00:00:15
something in the meantime. We all know testing our soil is
00:00:19
the only real way to find out what is lacking in our gardens
00:00:22
as far as nutrients are concerned and what the pH level
00:00:26
of that soil is. Testing our soil now and then
00:00:29
adding the appropriate amendments means that they will
00:00:32
have a chance to break down into the soil, incorporate themselves
00:00:36
and become water soluble, which is really the only way they can
00:00:39
be absorbed by our plants come spring.
00:00:41
But how do you know what to add, when to add it and how much?
00:00:46
Today on Just Grow Something, we'll review some of the most
00:00:49
easily accessible amendments that you can use on your garden
00:00:53
right now to give you a better garden next season and help you
00:00:57
figure out how much of it to use based on your own soil test
00:01:00
results. Let's dig in.
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Hey, I'm Karen and I started gardening 18 years ago in a
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small corner of my suburban backyard when we moved to A5
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acre homestead. I expanded that garden to half
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an acre and I found such joy and purpose in feeding my family and
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friends. This newfound love for digging
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in the dirt and providing for others prompted my husband and I
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to grow our small homestead into a 40 acre market farm.
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When I went back to school to get my degree in horticulture, I
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discovered there is so much power in food.
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And I want to share everything I've learned.
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With as many people as possible on this podcast.
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We explore crop information, soil health, pests and diseases
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plant. Nutrition, our own nutrition,
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and so much more in the world of food and gardening.
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So grab your garden journal and a cup of coffee and get ready to
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just grow something. So I took an unexpected 2 weeks
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off from the podcast and it was not intended.
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I left town to go run the Marine Corps Marathon that was my 50th
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birthday present to myself, and I fully intended on recording
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while we were gone, but it just didn't happen to work out that
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way. I had the episode notes kind of
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written out and ready to go, but unfortunately I just didn't find
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the time to be able to find a quiet spot and be able to
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record. So sorry about that.
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The funny thing is, you know, we were kind of taking a break and
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it was kind of a vacation from the farm while we were visiting
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the kids. And I got to go run the
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marathon, which the marathon was fantastic by the way.
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My performance, not so much, but that's OK.
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But I was still thinking about, hey, you know, I would see a
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garden or I would see something and and try to think of like,
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oh, you know, I should really talk about that on the podcast.
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So you guys are always on my mind regardless of what it is
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that I am off doing and whether or not I'm actually publishing
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episodes. So we're back, we're ready to go
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and at the recording of this, I'm recording it on Saturday,
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I'm running another marathon tomorrow.
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So and then we're taking off again to do some some travelling
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again. So hopefully I will be able to
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keep up with you guys, but if I miss another week you'll know
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why. So let's say that you've done an
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off the shelf soil test and you've gotten at least back the
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basic results right the the soil pH and the levels of the
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nitrogen and the phosphorus and the potassium.
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Now if you do a soil test where you send it to your local
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university like Extension Service or one that you send off
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to a private company, you might not actually have a nitrogen
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level in those results. The available level of nitrogen
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can vary really widely based on the soil temperatures and the
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moisture levels and a lot of other circumstances.
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So a lot of the time the universities and often those
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private companies will not send you the actual nitrogen level
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because it can vary so widely from one moment to the next.
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In reality, if you've not amended with anything or grown
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any cover crops, you are likely low on nitrogen, so just kind of
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assume unless there are some other symptoms that you're low
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on nitrogen. If there's any doubt though, you
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can use an off the shelf kit just to determine where your
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levels are at that particular moment.
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If it shows even remotely high, then you certainly don't want to
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add any amendments that are going to increase that available
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nitrogen because this is almost as bad as having too little
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nitrogen. You'll get a lot of big leaves,
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but you'll get no fruits or your greens are going to be super
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bitter even before the heat gets to them.
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So this is usually pretty rare in all but most of the fertile
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of gardens. But just be aware that you can
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overdo it with the nitrogen depending from year to year.
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So if your soil tests are showing a deficiency in any of
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those big three nutrients, nitrogen, phosphorus or
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potassium, you want to choose amendments that are not only
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going to add those nutrients back into the soil, but that do
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it in a way that supports the soil microbiome at the same
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time. This is why I'm not a proponent
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of synthetic fertilizers. They're fine when used in a
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pinch to help plants that are suffering because they deliver
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those targeted nutrients directly to the plant to be
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taken up immediately. But they do nothing to help the
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health of our soil overall, and we know that ultimately a
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healthy soil is far better for our plants in a much more
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sustainable way. The soil microbes need more to
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feed on than just those big three nutrients and so do the
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plants in order to perform at their optimum level.
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In addition, our bodies need those macro nutrients as well to
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function and the more that's in the soil, the more the plant can
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take up and the more will be available to our systems when we
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eat the plant. So per usual, I will focus on
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organic amendments as in those derived from living matter and a
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couple of mineral based amendments.
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For the purposes of this episode, let's start with
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nitrogen. It's the first fuel that plants
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need for their growth. It's used for everything from
00:05:59
chlorophyll production to synthesizing amino acids.
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It helps our plants grow big and strong and lush.
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And the stronger this growth is, the better able the plant will
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be to take the next step in producing fruits, roots, and
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shoots for our consumption. If your plants show signs of
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chlorosis or stunted growth, it's often because of a lack of
00:06:21
nitrogen. Now, the easiest way to amend
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for nitrogen and pretty much all the micronutrients too, and to
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give the soil a big boost to its level of organic matter, is to
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pile on the compost. Late fall and early winter is
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the absolute best time to do this.
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That's because nitrogen tends to get tied up while organic matter
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is being broken down. Once it hits your soil, the
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microbes go to work, and they're feeding on that organic matter
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and working it into your existing soil.
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Those microbes need nitrogen in order to break down the other
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components, so that nitrogen is going to be unavailable to the
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plants until that process is complete.
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That's why fall and winter are crucial times for adding compost
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to the garden. It needs that time to break down
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and be ready to work for you in the spring.
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This is also the time you should be adding any uncomposted
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manure. This gives the time for any hot
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manure like horse or chicken manure or back guano to break
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down further and be less likely to burn the roots of sensitive
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plants. Other easy to access organic
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amendments to add in the fall for nitrogen shortages include
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alfalfa meal, cotton seed meal, and feather meal.
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Feather meal is the one I use the most on top of adding
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compost, and it's the one I use when I plant my onions and my
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garlic, which are notoriously heavy feeders of nitrogen in
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their early growth stages. And if you live near a coast,
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you may have access to crustacean meal of some sort,
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which is a really good long term nitrogen source.
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And if you're looking for something that's right in your
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own backyard, consider grass clippings.
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Fresh grass clippings contain large amounts of nitrogen, but
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they do take a while to breakdown.
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So adding them directly onto your beds in the season before
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you plan to plant into them is the best way to take advantage
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of them. And then finally, if we think
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back to the cover crop episode a couple weeks ago, things like
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Clover, alfalfa, or legumes can add nitrogen back into the soil
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by pulling nitrogen from the air and fixing it into the soil
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through their root nodules. And then if we leave those roots
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to decay in the soil, we make that nitrogen available to the
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other plants in the spring. So if you still have time to
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throw some cover crops out there, depending on where you
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live, those are the ones to help with a nitrogen deficiency.
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Let's move on to the next big plant nutrient, and that's
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phosphorus. Plants use phosphorus to promote
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root growth and to flower and to set seed.
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In terms of phosphorus, we still want to add that organic matter
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through compost, but unless you can get an analysis from your
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compost source of how much phosphorus is available in that
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particular batch, you might be selling yourself short.
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Chicken and horse manure are also generally good sources of
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phosphorus, so if you're using those as amendments for nitrogen
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then they should also help here too.
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Now we're talking about amendments that you're adding in
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the off season that need time to breakdown.
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But be aware, if you use fish emulsion during the growing
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season to supplement your nitrogen needs, it also adds
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some phosphorus and some potassium.
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So fish emulsion is an organic fertilizer.
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It's made from whole fish or parts of fish, and it provides
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an NPK ratio of 411, so 4% nitrogen and 1% each phosphorus
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and potassium by weight. But if your soil test indicates
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that your phosphorus levels are depleted, you're looking to
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amend now for next season, and you don't have access to or
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choose not to use animal manures, then what can you add
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to boost that phosphorus level while also feeding the soil?
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Two of the easiest ones to get a hold of our bone meal and rock
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phosphate. Bone meal is a byproduct of the
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meat industry. It's got high levels of
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phosphorus. It also produces a good amount
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of calcium and so if you've ever experienced blossom and rot in
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your tomatoes or your Peppers, you know calcium availability is
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pretty important. Bone meal is slow release, so
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it's good to add it in the fall because too much into close
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proximity of the plant roots can actually burn your plants.
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Some formulations may also contain higher amounts of
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nitrogen too, so pay attention to the packaging if you need one
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but not the other. And then rock phosphate is a
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sedimentary rock. It contains high amounts of
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phosphate minerals. It's been crushed and screened
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into a fine powder to make it easy to use in the garden and
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more water soluble for our plants.
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There's also colloidal phosphate, which is untreated
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soft phosphate combined with colloidal clay, so it has lots
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of trace minerals and micronutrients in it, like
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calcium, in addition to phosphorus.
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So that's also a really good option.
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Finally, we move on to potassium or potash.
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Potassium helps plants regulate their metabolism.
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It's important for good root development and it affects the
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regulation of water pressure inside and outside of the plant,
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which helps the plant effectively use its water and be
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more drought resistant. Plants with potassium
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deficiencies are often more prone to disease and to moisture
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stress. So gardens that have really poor
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soil structure usually end up potassium depleted because the
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water just runs right off or it goes right through the soil too
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quickly and the potassium goes right along with it.
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So that's another reason why soil organic matter is so
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important. So of course we're talking about
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adding compost or using cover crops to help with that on a
00:12:04
regular basis. But if you find your soil is
00:12:06
short on potassium, what organic amendments can we add
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specifically for that deficiency?
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Wood ash, green sand, and kelp meal are usually the most
00:12:18
accessible to home gardeners. So wood ash, of course the term
00:12:22
pot ash is actually derived from the term potash, potash.
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Potash, right? The ashes in the burnt pieces of
00:12:28
hardwood that came from open fireplaces or fire pits.
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Tossing this ash into the garden proved to be a really good quick
00:12:37
acting but sort of short lived source of potassium.
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You can absolutely do this with the ashes from your fireplace or
00:12:44
your wood burning stove. If you've been burning non
00:12:48
treated hardwoods or hardwood pellets, this is going to add
00:12:52
potassium back into your garden soil, but these ashes are going
00:12:56
to be very alkaline. We're going to talk about
00:12:58
amendments to adjust your soil pH here in a minute.
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But before you use wood ash as a potassium supplement, know what
00:13:06
your soil pH is first. If you've got pretty acidic soil
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then you should be fine using wood ash in moderation.
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But if you're growing plants that really like acidic soil
00:13:17
like blueberries or your soil is already fairly alkaline to begin
00:13:21
with, like around aph of 6.5 or higher, then let's not use the
00:13:25
wood ash, put it in the compost pile so it can mellow and then
00:13:28
mix in with other things before being used later.
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Green sand though is actually a good option.
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Green sand is a marine sediment. It contains A mixture of clay,
00:13:38
minerals and large quantities of these greenish granules called
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glauconies, hence the name green sand.
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It is a great slow release potassium source and it will
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also gradually improve the water holding capacity in your garden
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soil. One application of green sand
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will generally last about three to five years, so it is a very
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good slow release source of that potassium.
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Kelp meal is the final option and I love the benefits of kelp
00:14:09
meal, but I will give you this one with just a little bit of
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caution. It does contain both nitrogen
00:14:15
and potassium and it contains over 60 micronutrients as well.
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So this is part of why I love it.
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It helps encourage microbial populations in the soil, but it
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is made from kelp, which is a plant, so it also comes with a
00:14:33
good amount of those plant hormones.
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Cytokinins, indoles, auxins, gibberellins, right.
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These are all things that are involved in processes, from
00:14:43
vegetative growth and flowering to adaptive responses to
00:14:47
transplanting over watering and excessive heat exposure.
00:14:51
So This is why I use Elm Dirt's kelp mist on my plants during
00:14:56
the growing season because it helps with the flowering and
00:14:59
with the drought tolerance. When I use it as a foliar spray,
00:15:03
it's very fast acting, and while we want our plants to do these
00:15:07
things, too many of these plant hormones in combination with the
00:15:11
hormones that are already present in our plants can
00:15:14
actually be too much. Which is why I recommend adding
00:15:18
kelp meal to the soil in the fall so it gets a chance to
00:15:22
mellow out a little bit. Effects of kelp meal in our
00:15:25
garden soil can last from 6 to 12 months, so there's going to
00:15:29
be plenty of potassium available for the plants.
00:15:32
But the plant hormones will have degraded enough to not overwhelm
00:15:35
the plants and cause issues. So how do we know how much of
00:15:50
these amendments to add at one time to fix our deficiencies?
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Well, that's going to depend on just how deficient we are and
00:15:59
what type of soil test we used. Most of these amendments are
00:16:03
going to have recommendations on the label for how much you
00:16:06
should be applied applying to a given space.
00:16:09
These are good general recommendations to follow if
00:16:12
you've used an off the shelf test that has returned to just a
00:16:16
very simple result of very deficient or depleted.
00:16:20
So follow those recommendations in the fall and then test again
00:16:24
in a few months to see if more adjustments are needed.
00:16:27
If you get a soil test from university or a mail in company,
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they likely include recommendations for what to do
00:16:35
to adjust your deficiencies. In most cases, these
00:16:39
recommendations are going to come back in pounds per acre or
00:16:42
pounds per square foot. This is not pounds of
00:16:47
fertilizer. This is referring to pounds of
00:16:50
nutrient. So let's review those numbers on
00:16:55
the side of the bag. Hang on, we're going to do some
00:16:57
math here. The numbers on any bag of
00:17:03
fertilizer or garden amendment will tell you the amount of
00:17:06
nutrients in that bag by percentage.
00:17:09
So on a bag that says 10/10/10, you will have 10% each of
00:17:15
nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium by weight.
00:17:20
So a £10 bag will have £1.00 of each of those nutrients.
00:17:25
So if your results come back low in phosphorus, say you're not
00:17:29
going to use an all-purpose mix that has equal amounts of
00:17:32
nitrogen and potassium. I'd be choosing something like
00:17:36
bone meal, which is a 315 zero, 3% nitrogen, 15% Phosphorus and
00:17:42
no potassium. So if your university test
00:17:46
recommends adding two pounds of phosphorus per thousand square
00:17:51
feet of garden, then you have to do that math.
00:17:54
You have to divide £2.00 by the 15%, which is the amount of
00:17:58
phosphorus in our bag of bone meal.
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So 2 / .15 = 13 and a third. So you'll need to apply 13 and a
00:18:06
third pounds of our bone meal to get the £2.00 of phosphorus on
00:18:12
1000 square feet of your garden. Now obviously if your garden is
00:18:15
only 500 square feet, then you divide that in half, and so on.
00:18:18
You make your adjustments. Now, if you used an off the
00:18:22
shelf test, you'll have to form your own recommendations based
00:18:26
on whether your results say mildly deficient, moderately
00:18:30
deficient, or depleted. You'll be following the
00:18:33
recommendations on the bag. So the bag may say something
00:18:36
like use three to six pounds per 100 square feet of garden.
00:18:41
So from mild deficiencies, we should be using the low end.
00:18:44
For our very depleted soils, we should be using the high end.
00:18:50
This is why we want to use amendments based on what our
00:18:53
soil test shows we need. This bone meal example also
00:18:58
contains that 3% nitrogen. So you're going to be applying
00:19:01
just shy of 1/2 a pound of nitrogen to that same 1000
00:19:04
square feet. But if we were choosing A
00:19:06
balanced amendment that was like a 15/15/15 all equal parts, we'd
00:19:12
be adding over 13 pounds of nitrogen and potassium too,
00:19:17
which could likely be too much for our soil and for our plants.
00:19:21
So This is why it's important to choose our amendments based on
00:19:24
what our deficiency is, not just automatically grabbing whatever
00:19:28
we see on the shelf that has all the same numbers or says it's
00:19:32
recommended for vegetable garden.
00:19:34
If your soil test is only showing slightly deficient, then
00:19:38
just start off with half the recommended rate, give the
00:19:41
amendment time to do its work, and then test again.
00:19:45
Starting slow and adding more is always going to be better than
00:19:49
adding too much and then needing to find a way to reverse it.
00:19:54
Now what about your soil pH? For most of our garden plants,
00:19:59
the ideal soil pH is between 5.8 and 6.8 or 7:00-ish, so slightly
00:20:04
acidic to neutral, with the exception of some things like
00:20:07
blueberries and you know, things that like acidic soil.
00:20:11
The pH of our soil affects the way that nutrients move through
00:20:16
the soil and into the plant roots.
00:20:18
So if the soil is too acidic, the nutrients like nitrogen,
00:20:22
phosphorus, and potassium are less able to move through the
00:20:25
soil. Not all garden plants are as
00:20:27
sensitive to this as others. Some are just better at
00:20:30
scavenging nutrients. So if you're not noticing major
00:20:33
problems with your garden, you may not need to do anything at
00:20:36
all if your soil pH is as low as 5.7 or as high as seven .5.
00:20:42
Anything outside of those extremes, though, or if you're
00:20:45
seeing your plants struggle and it seems like your nutrient
00:20:49
levels are on point in your soil, well, then you likely will
00:20:52
benefit from making some adjustments to the pH.
00:20:55
And once again, we're going to talk about easy to access non
00:20:59
synthetic amendments adding in the fall for correcting the soil
00:21:02
pH slowly. There are other options for
00:21:06
adjusting pH very quickly and I will leave a link in the show
00:21:08
notes to the episode I did on soil pH back in season 2 where
00:21:11
you can find more details on that.
00:21:19
If your soil is acidic, a good way to raise the pH is by adding
00:21:24
lime or wood ash, right? We already talked about wood ash
00:21:28
being alkaline, but it's hard to gauge the pH level of the ash
00:21:32
unless you have pH test strips lying around the house.
00:21:35
So knowing how much to add is going to be an educated guess,
00:21:38
so do it slowly. A good guideline to start with
00:21:42
is to add about half an inch of wood ash over the soil and then
00:21:46
mix it in about 6 to 8 inches. It's not recommended to add more
00:21:51
than a pound of wood ash to A50 square foot space per year.
00:21:55
Lime is actually calcium oxide, and it's derived from natural
00:21:59
deposits of limestone, which is another sedimentary rock.
00:22:03
If you choose to use lime to raise your soil pH, how much you
00:22:07
use is going to depend on the type of soil you have, so you'll
00:22:11
need more for clay soils. You'll use much less for sandy
00:22:14
soils and somewhere in between for lomi soils.
00:22:17
So follow directions on for amending soil that should be on
00:22:20
the package or with the package. Insert info when you purchase
00:22:24
agricultural lime. Hydrated lime, like the kind you
00:22:28
use when using products like for Saturday lime for insect
00:22:31
protection will not be as effective for adjusting pH.
00:22:35
It will work, but you'll need to use way more of it and use it
00:22:39
more frequently to maintain the effects because it's water
00:22:42
insoluble. That's why hydrated lime is good
00:22:45
to use in the garden, to protect against pests without doing too
00:22:48
much damage to the soil pH, and why it's short lived when it
00:22:52
does happen. For changing the soil pH you
00:22:55
want to use AG lime. Now both the lime and the wood
00:22:59
ash are going to need some time to work.
00:23:01
This is why I'm recommending them for using in the fall and
00:23:04
over the winter. Test your soil pH again in about
00:23:07
45 days to see if you need to make further adjustments.
00:23:10
Be careful not to apply too much at once.
00:23:14
Just like with any other soil amendment, too much too soon can
00:23:18
cause too big of a change and you'll have to try to reverse
00:23:21
it. Speaking of reversing, what do
00:23:24
we use to bring soil pH down? If it's too alkaline?
00:23:28
One option is elemental sulfur. It's widely available for both
00:23:32
this purpose and for use as a fungicide.
00:23:35
Be careful not to overdo it, or you do run the risk of lowering
00:23:38
the soil pH too much. Once again, the addition of
00:23:42
sulfur for lowering the pH is going to be based on your soil
00:23:46
texture and the amount you need to reduce the alkalinity.
00:23:49
So you're going to need more for clay soils, less for sandy ones.
00:23:53
This definitely one for a fall application because you'll need
00:23:57
to give the sulfur some time to react and then check again in
00:24:00
about 6 months. So amend in the fall, check the
00:24:04
pH again in the spring, and then you'll get another chance to
00:24:07
amend the soil before the spring planting starts if you need to
00:24:10
lower the soil pH further. Once you've gotten the pH down
00:24:14
to where you need it, it should stay at that level for a period
00:24:18
of about five years, depending on your gardening practices and
00:24:22
your soil type. But do a test yearly just to be
00:24:25
sure so you can catch any changes early.
00:24:28
The other way to reduce pH over time is by adding sphagnum peat
00:24:33
Moss. Now I've mentioned I'm not much
00:24:35
of A proponent of peat Moss because of the destructive
00:24:38
nature of the harvesting process to the bogs where the peat Moss
00:24:41
grows, but you can find sustainably harvested peat Moss.
00:24:46
Generally it's coming out of Canada since they required to
00:24:50
maintain and manage their bogs, and they're limited on the
00:24:53
percentage of virgin bogs they can actually touch.
00:24:56
You can incorporate peat Moss into the soil to break down and
00:25:00
it will gradually reduce the soil pH and it will help retain
00:25:03
soil moisture too. Those are a lot of the options
00:25:10
for us for amendments to add to our gardens right now in the
00:25:14
fall and the winter to do the work in improving our soil for
00:25:17
the spring, both for nutrient deficiencies and modifying our
00:25:21
pH. Even if you're in an area where
00:25:24
you have already begun to see snowfall or your ground has
00:25:28
already started to freeze, it doesn't mean that you can't
00:25:30
still do this. Adding it now and allowing that
00:25:33
freeze thaw cycle to suck those amendments down into the soil
00:25:37
and allow them to start to break down is definitely going to
00:25:40
serve you better than waiting till the spring.
00:25:42
The bottom line is start slow, evaluate as you go, and then
00:25:47
test your soil annually to be sure you can make changes when
00:25:50
needed. Until next time, my gardening
00:25:53
friends. Keep on cultivating that dream
00:25:55
garden and we'll talk again soon.
00:25:56
You just finished another episode of The Just.
00:25:58
Grow Something Podcast For more information about today's topic,
00:26:02
go to Just. Growsomethingpodcast.com where
00:26:05
you can find all the episodes, show notes, articles, courses,
00:26:08
newsletter. Sign up and more.
00:26:10
I'd also love for you to head. To Facebook and join our
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gardening community in the Just Grow Something Gardening Friends
00:26:15
Facebook group. Let's move on to the next big
00:26:20
plant Nutrigent. Nutrigent.
00:26:22
Nutrigent. If you've got pretty acidic oil
00:26:26
oil, no. If you've stuck around this far
00:26:30
into the blooper segment, I will let you in on a little secret.
00:26:34
I did run that second marathon on Sunday.
00:26:38
And yes, I did finish. And I also managed to take
00:26:42
second in my age group, so there's that.
00:26:46
Now I'm ready for a rest. Until next time, my gardening
00:26:51
friends keep learning and keep growing.