Adding the right soil amendments in the fall is a great way to set up your garden for success in the spring. By incorporating amendments now, you give them time to break down and integrate into the soil, providing nutrients and improving soil texture for the next growing season.
Today on Just Grow Something we’re going to breakdown the best amendments for addressing specific nutrient deficiencies, as well as general-purpose options that we can add to our soil now to benefit our garden in the spring. Let’s dig in!
Question of the Month: What was your biggest failure in the garden this year?
References and Resources:
Get 20% off a Magic Mind subscription with code GROWSOMETHING20
Focal Point Friday: Plant Nutrient Basics
Using Manure in the Garden: What's Safe and What's Not? How and when to use manure as fertilizer.
How and Why to Perform a Soil Test for Nutrients and Texture
High quality single-ingredient (alfalfa meal, cottonseed meal, bone meal, etc.), all-purpose, and mineral amendment resource: https://amzn.to/4f32Nmo (aff)
Bonus content for supporters of the Podcast! (buymeacoffee.com)
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Adding the right soil amendments in the fall is a great way to
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set up your garden for success in the spring.
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By incorporating the amendments now, you give them time to break
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down and integrate into the soil, which is providing
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nutrients but also improving the soil texture for the next
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growing season. Choosing the right amendments
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are important, though. We have to make sure that they
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are slow release versus fast release and that they aren't
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going to leach out before our plants get the chance to use
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them in the spring. Today on Just Grow Something,
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we're going to breakdown the best amendments for addressing
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specific nutrient deficiencies as well as general purpose
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options that we can add to our soil now to benefit our garden
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in the spring. Let's dig in.
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Hey, I'm Karen, I started gardening in a small corner of
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my suburban backyard and now 18 years later, I've got a degree
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in horticulture and operate a 40 acre market farm.
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I believe there is power in food and that everyone should know
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how to grow at least a little bit of their own.
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On this podcast, I share evidence based techniques to
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help you plant, grow, harvest and store all your family's
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favorites. Consider me your friend in the
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garden. So grab your garden journal and
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a cup of coffee and get ready to just grow something.
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OK, last chance for the October question of the month.
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What was your biggest failure in the garden this season?
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You share yours, I'll share mine.
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So drop it in the comments on YouTube or in Spotify, send me a
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DM, post it in the Facebook group, send me an e-mail however
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you can get the information to me so that we can share it with
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everybody. October 1st is your deadline and
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then I will air that in the first episode of November.
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Now as you listen or watch this episode, I am currently in
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Puerto Rico. Yes, we finally for the first
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time in, I want to say 17 or 18 years are actually taking a full
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blown vacation. Not we need to go visit family,
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although my husband's family is there in Puerto Rico, but it's
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not specifically to go to a family event or to go to a
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wedding or to, you know, visit the kids or whatever it is.
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It was just intended to be a full blown vacation.
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Now it's supposed to rain the entire time, but that's OK.
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It's 85 or 90° in rain. I'm OK with that.
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But I'm interested to see how tropical gardening goes first
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hand. I've only been to that region of
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the world one time before. That was for my brother's
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wedding in Saint John. And so I didn't really get too
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much of a chance to kind of explore.
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We were very busy with, you know, wedding activities.
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So I really do want to kind of take a, you know, a look around
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and see how does tropical gardening go and see if I can
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talk to some people who are gardening their island.
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I will likely be posting to social media, maybe adding some
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videos to the YouTube channel when I sort of see what I can
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see. But this leads me to ask you if
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you have specific questions about your gardening zone that
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maybe I don't normally address. Again, I'm gardening in zone 6B
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and so a lot of the time I am speaking in sort of general
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terms. For the majority of gardeners,
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that might be between zones 5:00 and 8:00.
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But for those of you who lie outside of those zones,
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oftentimes I haven't experienced what you're experiencing,
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whether it's at the Super end of being cold or if it's the Super
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end of being warm. And I'm considering maybe doing
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some new series, maybe specifically to YouTube and and
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Instagram. But obviously I would share that
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information here as well specific to those different
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zones. So if you have specific
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questions or concerns, whether it's crop specific or just sort
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of gardening in general about your particular gardening zone,
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send me those questions and we'll see what kind of interest
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there is and maybe we'll go ahead and just make that a whole
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new series. So in the meantime, I am going
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to enjoy my time in Puerto Rico and see what I can see when it
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comes to some some tropical gardening.
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So let's dig into what deficiencies you may see in the
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fall in your garden that can be adjusted now so that your spring
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garden can get off to its best start.
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And then we'll also talk about just some general amendments
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that are good to add based on what you're sort of experiencing
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and seeing in your garden. Of course, the only way to know
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if we have a deficiency is if we do a soil test, right?
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So it doesn't matter whether you are picking one up from the
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shelf in your garden center or whether or not you're paying
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your university Extension Service to do this test for you,
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or whether you're hiring your local garden consultant to do
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this for you. It's something that ioffer with
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some of my packages. You need to know what you're
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working with before you start adding amendments.
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Now with nitrogen, it's a little bit different because your
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temperatures and your soil moisture content are going to
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affect your nitrogen readings. This is why oftentimes
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university extension services, when they send you their
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information, aren't going to tell you what they tested for in
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terms of your nitrogen because they're not testing for it
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because it fluctuates very dramatically.
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The off the shelf ones and ones that you can get through like
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your local garden consultant, they often times will go ahead
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and provide you nitrogen readings, but just understand
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that that reading is very specific to the time that that
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reading was taken. Just kind of know that if you
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have not amended for anything and you have been gardening in
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that spot or anybody has gardened in that spot, you
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likely have a nitrogen deficiency, OK.
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So we generally are always going to be, but taking the soil test
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is always the best way to know whether you're severely
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deficient in something and specifically things other than
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nitrogen like your phosphorus and your potassium.
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You can also test your pH at the same time.
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So let's start with the easiest way to amend for most of the
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macro nutrients, which is our nitrogen or phosphorus and our
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potassium and the micronutrients, which are also
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very important, and to just give the soil a really big boost of
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organic matter and that is with compost.
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So late fall and early winter is the absolute best time to do
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this. There's a number of reasons for
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this. Nitrogen tends to get tied up
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while organic matter in compost is being broken down, especially
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with commercial compost. Not all of us can create enough
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compost in our backyards to be sufficient for amending our
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entire garden area, so a lot of us are having to purchase
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compost, but most commercial compost is not super bio active.
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When you get it, you have to remember that these are huge
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facilities that in most instances are trying to get this
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compost finished off and available to the public in as
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quick a manner as possible. Which means it is being heated
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and it's generally getting above 160°F, which means that it's
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killing off or negating a lot of those microbes that are in there
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that kind of make it become make it alive.
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And so when you get it, it needs time to really become alive
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again. So once the compost hits your
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soil, the existing microbes that are in your garden already are
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going to go to work. They're going to infiltrate that
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compost, they're going to start feeding on that organic matter
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and they're going to start working it into your existing
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soil. Those microbes need nitrogen in
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order to break down all of those other carbon components.
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So that nitrogen is not going to be available in the soil to any
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plants until that process, that breakdown is complete.
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So that is why fall and winter, for those of us who are not
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growing in those areas during the fall and winter, those areas
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in our garden is a really crucial time for adding compost
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to the garden. It needs that time to break down
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and for those microbes to do that work to make all of those
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nutrients available to our plants, right?
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So regardless of whether you have a nutrient deficiency,
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compost is a really good idea to revitalize the soil structure
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and to give your soil microbes something new to feed on.
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And it also helps you maintain that good soil texture that
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makes your plants happy and makes their roots happy.
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But you need to be adding it in the offseason.
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Now if you are somebody that does get to garden year round,
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then you can be adding compost on the top of your soil at the
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same time that you are growing things.
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Because it's only that area where the compost is going to be
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in contact with that soil where you're going to have that sort
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of nitrogen unavailability. But understand that if you have
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any kind of deficiency or you are growing things that are
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relying on a lot of nitrogen, you might need to be adding some
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additional nitrogen at the same time.
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So the compost when you add it, if you are actively gardening
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may not be enough to supply nitrogen to your plants.
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You may have to actually amend a little bit for nitrogen, OK.
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So if your soil tests are showing a deficiency in any of
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those big three nutrients that are tested for the nitrogen, the
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phosphorus or the potassium, we want to choose amendments that
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are not only going to add those specific nutrients back into the
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soil, but we want to do it in a way that supports the soil
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microbiome at the same time. Why?
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Well, if we use synthetic fertilizers, they're fine when,
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you know, we use them in a pinch.
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If you have a plant that is suffering because it's like a
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really, you know, bad season or, or it's very, very deficient and
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we need to deliver those targeted nutrients right away.
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The plant to be taken up immediately, that's one thing.
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But those synthetic fertilizers are not going to do anything to
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help the health of our soil. 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 than just feeding the nitrogen, the
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phosphorus, and the potassium directly to the plant.
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We want to feed the soil so the soil can feed the plant.
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The soil microbes that we just talked about need more to feed
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on than just, you know, the nitrogen, the phosphorus and the
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potassium. And the plants need more to feed
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on than those big three in order to be able to perform at their
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optimum level. They need micronutrients, they
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need minerals, right? And let's be honest, our bodies
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need those macro nutrients and also need the micronutrients and
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the minerals to function our best.
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And the more that it's in the soil, well, the more the plants
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can take it up and the more of it is going to be available to
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us when we eat the plant and we eat the fruits from those
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plants. So I am going to focus on
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amendments that are derived from living matter or minerals
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because not only do most of them have slow release macro
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nutrients, which is what we are looking for when we amend in the
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fall, but they also all contain micronutrients and trace
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minerals to support a very holistic approach to amending
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the soil. OK, I am not knocking you if you
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use synthetic fertilizers, that is entirely up to you.
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But just understand when you use these synthetic fertilizers,
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they are targeting very specific nutrients and they are only
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targeting the plant growth. They are not targeting the soil.
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OK? So that's where the difference
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lies, and we are talking about feeding the soil.
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So first let's talk about nitrogen.
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It is the first fuel that plants need for their growth.
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It is used in everything from chlorophyll production to
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synthesizing amino acids. It helps the plants grow big and
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strong and you get that nice lush green growth.
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The stronger this initial growth is, the better able the plant
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will be to take that next step, which is producing the flowers
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and the fruits and the roots and the shoots.
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Right, All of the things that we are counting on, unless of
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course, you know, it's a leafy green and then we really want
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the nitrogen, right? So if your plants ever show
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signs of really stunted growth, it oftentimes is a lack of
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nitrogen. And this is the most common
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deficiency that we see in the garden is nitrogen because all
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the plants always need nitrogen, even if it's just to start with.
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But nitrogen is also highly soluble, which means it can
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leach from our soil. And this is especially possible
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over the winter time when a lot of us see the most of our
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moisture. So we really want something that
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is slow release to replenish those nitrogen levels in the
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fall so it is still in the soil and available for our plants
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come spring. And one of the first ways to do
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this is with composted manure. So it is a very slow release
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nitrogen source. It is also going to improve the
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soil structure. OK.
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The fall is also the time that if you have any uncomposted
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manure that you want to go ahead and add it as well.
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If you have livestock and you have manure from that livestock
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that hasn't sat and aged yet, you can put it in the soil in
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the fall. Or if you have someone gifting
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you manure from their homestead and you have no idea how long
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it's been sitting, putting it in the soil in the fall gives time
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for any of those hot manures, like horse or chicken manure to
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break down a little bit. And that means they're going to
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be less likely to burn the roots of your sensitive plants.
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So they get a chance to sit and mellow out throughout the winter
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time. Particularly, you know, chicken
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manure. It is very high in nitrogen.
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It absolutely needs to be composted, otherwise you're
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going to burn your plants. So adding it in the fall is your
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best bet. And the second thing here would
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be cover crops. This takes a little bit more
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forethought, but a lot of our cover crops like Clover, veg and
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peas are nitrogen fixing, which means that they capture
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atmospheric nitrogen and they store it in their roots.
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And so that is released back into the soil when you either
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till those cover crops in before planting in the spring, or you
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can just leave the roots intact and cut the tops off of those
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cover crops tops and use those tops as mulch in the spring.
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And then you can just directly plant into the roots as they
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breakdown. The main thing here is you want
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the roots to stay in the soil. So your Clover, your veg and
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your peas leave the roots down in there and that is what is
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going to break down and release that nitrogen that has captured
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from the atmosphere and pulled into your soil.
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This is fantastic, but it does take some pre planning.
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So this might be something that you want to look at when you're
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doing your garden plan and you may make your plan for what's
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going to happen in the fall once you are pulling all of your
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other crops out. What can you put down in its
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place that is going to help to amend your soil?
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And then finally, we have alfalfa meal, cotton seed meal
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and feather meal. All three of these are slow
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releasing organic nitrogen sources that will break down
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over the winter. The one that I tend to use a lot
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is feather meal. I have a lot of easy access to
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it. It's a great nitrogen source.
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I use it for my onions. I use it for my garlic.
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I use it for, you know, amending the beds in the fall.
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Again, nice and slow release, but alfalfa meal and cotton seed
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meal do the exact same job. And like I mentioned, we're in
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Puerto Rico right now. And so I am interested to see
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what types of amendments are available in different areas
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because bat guano is something that is a fantastic nitrogen
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source as a composted manure. So again, something new which
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you would want to break down first before adding to the soil
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or an uncomposted version would be only added in the fall.
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But it's not something that would generally be available in
00:16:44
my area unless I had it shipped in.
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The same with cotton seed meal. It seems like that is more
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readily available in the southern US, whereas where I'm
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guide gardening, alfalfa meal and feather meal are much more
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readily available. So do some research on some of
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the things on your own to see if there are maybe less expensive
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options that are available regionally.
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So just look for, you know, slow release nitrogen amendment for
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garden and then put in your area or whatever for adding it in the
00:17:15
fall. Now as we were getting ready to
00:17:17
take this trip, I was scrambling around trying to get everything
00:17:21
ready to leave. We had just had our first frost,
00:17:24
so of course the tomatoes and the Peppers and all the zucchini
00:17:27
and the other summer stuff were taken out, which was fine by me
00:17:30
honestly. It was time for them to be done
00:17:33
and I had a list of so many things needing to be finished
00:17:36
before we left. At the last thing that I wanted
00:17:38
to be doing was harvesting anything, right?
00:17:41
I needed to record podcast episodes.
00:17:43
I had to clean my house. I had to pack our stuff.
00:17:45
I had to get the farm ready to leave and get my mom acquainted,
00:17:49
which, bless her heart, she drove in to help take care of
00:17:51
the things for us on the farm while we're gone.
00:17:54
So she had to know the routines for all the animals.
00:17:57
I attended the Women in Podcasting awards and then I had
00:18:01
my final farmers market of the season and I still somehow
00:18:04
managed to get all the Peppers and the zucchini chopped and
00:18:08
into the freezer before we left. So I am very glad that I had my
00:18:13
most recent Magic Mind shipment already here, chilled in the
00:18:17
fridge, ready to go every morning alongside my coffee
00:18:20
because I needed all the mental focus and calm energy I could
00:18:24
get in previous years if I was getting ready to leave town.
00:18:30
It felt absolutely for frantic. It's a big job getting a farm
00:18:36
ready for us to leave, and I usually feel like I'm bouncing
00:18:40
from 1 task to another frenetically, even if I have a
00:18:44
list. Now that I'm using Magic Mind,
00:18:46
that was not the case this trip. I had plenty of focus to finish
00:18:51
one task before moving on to the other one, even when being
00:18:54
interrupted by the other people in my household who totally mean
00:18:57
well, but they may not understand what it takes to get
00:19:00
these things done. But with my Mental performance
00:19:03
shop working its magic, I was able to focus beautifully and
00:19:09
have the energy to zoom through the tasks, getting everything
00:19:11
accomplished on my list to make leaving for our trip smooth
00:19:14
sailing and now be able to actually relax on our trip.
00:19:19
If you want to experience the same calm focus that I have with
00:19:22
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00:19:26
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00:19:33
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00:19:39
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The link will be in the show notes.
00:19:57
So the next big plant nutrient is phosphorus.
00:20:03
OK, so plants use phosphorus to promote their root growth and to
00:20:07
flower and set seed. So in terms of phosphorus, we
00:20:11
still want to add that organic matter through compost, right?
00:20:16
But unless you can get an analysis from your compost
00:20:19
source of how much phosphorus is available in that particular
00:20:23
batch, you can't rely just on compost to add the phosphorus.
00:20:28
Chicken and horse manure though, if you are adding those
00:20:32
amendments for nitrogen, those are also going to help for
00:20:34
phosphorus because they actually are generally very good sources
00:20:38
of phosphorus. So if you're doing the one, know
00:20:40
that you are probably adding the other.
00:20:43
And the good news is that phosphorus actually doesn't
00:20:45
leach out of the soil very easily.
00:20:47
So it makes fall a really good time to amend for phosphorus
00:20:52
deficiencies and allowing it to just kind of go to work and
00:20:55
doing what it needs to do. So my favorite way to amend for
00:21:00
phosphorus is bone meal. OK, It's a great source of not
00:21:04
only phosphorus, but also calcium.
00:21:07
It breaks down slowly, like very slowly.
00:21:10
It releases its nutrients over several months.
00:21:13
And believe it or not, I actually make my own bone meal
00:21:17
now. It's not the, you know, a sole
00:21:19
source of my bone milk 'cause I can't make that much.
00:21:21
But if you're looking on YouTube or on Spotify, you can see I
00:21:26
have a Mason jar full of bone meal.
00:21:30
So all I did was I saved the bones from whatever it was that
00:21:34
we happened to be eating and also from making my dogs food
00:21:38
and I roasted them until they were totally dry in the oven
00:21:44
over a very, very, very long period of time.
00:21:47
So, and I can't remember how long it took me to do this, to
00:21:50
make it to where it was so completely literally bone dry
00:21:56
before I grounded up. But that's what I did.
00:21:59
I made it to where they were bone dry and I grounded up and
00:22:01
now I have my own homemade bone meal.
00:22:04
Now do I know what the phosphorus and the calcium
00:22:07
content is in this? No.
00:22:10
Could I test it? Yes.
00:22:12
And I do have the testing kits to do that.
00:22:14
So I might do that at some point and I might do a whole series on
00:22:18
homemade amendments and showing me testing them so that you guys
00:22:21
know how to do this. But I will say that I generally
00:22:24
don't suffer with really severe phosphorus deficiencies.
00:22:30
So I have found that using my own homemade bone meal is enough
00:22:33
to be able to boost the phosphorus when I need it, when
00:22:37
I see that maybe we're getting a little bit low, but I'm never
00:22:39
really actually depleted. If I were depleted, I would
00:22:43
either make sure that I tested this or go and buy something
00:22:47
that had a specific level of phosphorus in it so that I knew
00:22:51
that I was amending appropriately.
00:22:52
But just don't, you know, overlook the things that you can
00:22:55
do to amend with things that you already have in the house if
00:22:59
you're willing to take the effort, OK.
00:23:01
The other thing that you can use to amend for phosphorus is rock
00:23:05
phosphate. It is also very slow release.
00:23:09
It is more effective when the soil pH is below 7, which in
00:23:14
most instances are garden soil. I mean, want the ideal pH to be
00:23:17
between, you know, 5.7 and seven anyway for vegetable growth.
00:23:21
So this shouldn't be a problem unless you see that you have
00:23:25
fairly alkaline soil. But rock phosphate is actually
00:23:28
very effective way to add a slow release phosphorus amendment
00:23:32
that's going to work over multiple years.
00:23:35
So you're going to add it once and you're not going to have to
00:23:38
add it again for quite some time.
00:23:40
The final macro nutrient that we need to talk about is potassium.
00:23:44
So potassium helps plants regulate their metabolism.
00:23:48
It's very important for good root development and just
00:23:51
overall plant health. It also helps a lot with disease
00:23:56
resistance and fruit quality. It also affects the regulation
00:24:01
of water pressure inside and outside the plant.
00:24:05
So this actually helps the plant effectively use the water that
00:24:09
is available to it and makes it more drought resistant.
00:24:12
So do not overlook potassium. Plants with potassium
00:24:16
deficiencies are often much more prone to disease and to moisture
00:24:20
stress. Gardens that have really poor
00:24:24
soil structure often end up being depleted in potassium
00:24:30
because either the water just runs right off, or it goes right
00:24:36
through the soil too quickly and then the potassium goes right
00:24:39
along with it. And if the water just runs right
00:24:41
off, well, there's no way for the potassium to move through
00:24:43
soil. So this is another reason why
00:24:46
soil organic matter is very important.
00:24:49
So of course adding compost or using those cover crops to help
00:24:53
with the soil organic matter on a regular basis.
00:24:58
If you find that your soil is short on potassium, your three
00:25:03
best options are going to be green sand, wood ash or kelp
00:25:06
meal. So green sand is a marine
00:25:10
sediment. It is very rich in minerals.
00:25:12
So it also plot, it supplies potassium along with iron and
00:25:16
some other of the trace elements that are very important for our
00:25:18
soil. It also helps to improve that
00:25:20
soil structure and it also holds moisture really well and it will
00:25:24
also gradually improve the water holding capacity in your garden
00:25:28
soils. The beautiful thing about green
00:25:30
sand is you can apply it one time and it generally lasts for
00:25:35
about 3 to five years. So if you chronically find your
00:25:39
soil test coming back deficient in potassium, then green sand is
00:25:42
a really, really good long term option.
00:25:46
If we're talking about kind of homemade options, wood ash is a
00:25:52
really good way to provide potassium.
00:25:54
The problem is, is that it also raises the soil pH.
00:25:58
So if you have a very acidic soil, then wood ash is great
00:26:03
because it's going to raise the soil pH at the same time that it
00:26:07
is providing potassium. But you really want to make sure
00:26:10
that you are testing your soil pH before you start using wood
00:26:13
ash because it can make your soil too alkaline if it is
00:26:17
overused. I have actually had multiple
00:26:20
gardening clients who have had this exact problem.
00:26:23
They have taken the wood ash from their fireplaces and added
00:26:27
them out into the garden areas because they had heard that it
00:26:30
was really good for the garden. And it is but too much of a good
00:26:34
thing when you either already have an alkaline soil or you're
00:26:37
kind of borderline can actually actually flip your soil to the
00:26:41
opposite end and make it to alkaline.
00:26:43
So just make sure that you know your soil pH before you start
00:26:46
using wood ash. Kelp meal has actually become
00:26:50
sort of my favorite potassium amendment.
00:26:55
It also contains some nitrogen, so that's kind of a bonus.
00:26:58
I'm always needing nitrogen in the garden.
00:27:00
It also has over 60 micronutrients, which of course,
00:27:04
this is helping to encourage the microbial population in the
00:27:07
soil, which we really want to do.
00:27:09
There is a little bit of a caveat to this one, though.
00:27:12
To kelp meal comes from kelp, which is another type of a
00:27:17
plant, right? So that also means that the kelp
00:27:21
meal is going to contain a good amount of those plant hormones.
00:27:24
So cytokinins and oxins and gibrellins and all those fancy
00:27:28
words that I used that I learned in college, right?
00:27:32
These are all plant hormones that are involved in all of the
00:27:35
different processes that naturally occur in our garden.
00:27:38
So vegetative growth, flowering, you know, adapting other
00:27:42
responses to like over watering and excess heat exposure, all
00:27:45
things that we want our plants to do.
00:27:48
But too many of these plant hormones in combination with the
00:27:52
hormones that are already present in our growing plants
00:27:55
can actually be too much. And we can sort of get the
00:27:59
opposite effect, right? It'd be more of a toxicity in
00:28:02
that aspect. So this is what makes kelp meal
00:28:05
really, really good to add in the fall.
00:28:09
If you are not someone who is growing year round, if you are
00:28:12
not actively growing plants in those beds through the winter,
00:28:15
kelp meal can be added. It's the perfect time.
00:28:19
It also gets a little bit of a chance to mellow out before we
00:28:23
do start planting in the spring. So the effects of a kelp meal
00:28:27
can actually last in our soil for about 6 to 12 months.
00:28:32
So there's going to be plenty of potassium available for those
00:28:36
plants when we start to plant them in the spring.
00:28:39
But by planting it in the fall or by amending in the fall with
00:28:42
the kelp meal, the plant hormones will have degraded
00:28:45
enough to not overwhelm those spring plants and cause any
00:28:48
issues. OK, So what can we be adding in
00:28:52
the fall that are just sort of general purpose soil amendments
00:28:57
that are going to help with just sort of our overall soil health
00:29:01
or the soil texture and sort of balancing those micronutrients
00:29:04
out? Fall is the best time to be
00:29:06
doing this too. And we already talked about the
00:29:09
first one and that's compost, right, rich in organic matter.
00:29:12
It improves the soil texture, improves water retention.
00:29:15
It also helps with our nutrient availability.
00:29:18
And of course it's encouraging that microbial activity and
00:29:21
that's what we want because the more microbial activity we have,
00:29:25
the more the available nutrients in our soil are going to be made
00:29:29
available to our plants. Right along with this with
00:29:33
compost is that aged manure that we're talking about.
00:29:35
So we want it well rotted. It's going to be a great source
00:29:38
of all those big three in most instances.
00:29:41
But just make sure that you know if you're adding manure that it
00:29:45
has been aged fully composted. We don't want weed seeds.
00:29:49
We don't want pathogens. If you don't know where the
00:29:52
manure is coming from, if it's not coming from your own
00:29:54
animals, if it is coming from your own animals and it hasn't
00:29:57
had a chance to mellow again in the fall is the best time to add
00:30:00
this. It's going to help it to break
00:30:01
down even more quickly and make all that available to the plants
00:30:04
in the spring and it's going to improve that soil structure.
00:30:09
You can also add composted straw.
00:30:12
So if you have used straw out in the garden this whole season as
00:30:16
a mulch and it's kind of starting to breakdown a little
00:30:19
bit, you can actually use straw to improve the soil texture and
00:30:25
to add organic matter, especially in sandy soils, OK?
00:30:29
So the straw breaks down fairly slowly, so it is going to keep
00:30:33
that organic content in a sandy soil for longer while helping
00:30:39
the soil retain moisture, which is always a problem in sandy
00:30:42
soils. OK, if you're dealing with clay
00:30:45
heavy soils, leaf mold is a really good addition.
00:30:49
So decomposed leaves are going to add organic matter.
00:30:53
It's going to improve that soil structure.
00:30:55
It is great for improving soil aeration and moisture retention.
00:31:01
And like I said, this is particularly good for clay heavy
00:31:04
soils, unlike sand. You may have heard that if you
00:31:08
are somebody who gardens in heavy clay soils that adding
00:31:12
sand to your soil is going to improve that structure.
00:31:16
The problem with that thought is if you don't do it in a large
00:31:21
enough amount, all you are going to end up with is concrete.
00:31:26
And I have seen it over and over again.
00:31:28
So unless you have actually had somebody come and do an analysis
00:31:33
of of how much clay versus how much silk versus how much sand
00:31:37
is in your soil, don't just add sand to your clay soil thinking
00:31:41
it's going to help because oftentimes it's going to end up
00:31:44
doing more harm than good. For heavy clay soils that need
00:31:48
to improve that soil structure, the recommendation is actually
00:31:52
gypsum. Gypsum is going to improve the
00:31:54
structure by breaking up those kind of compacted layers.
00:31:57
It improves the water infiltration and the root
00:31:59
penetration. It actually also supplies some
00:32:01
calcium and sulfur without affecting the soil pH.
00:32:07
And then finally, lime, if you have very acidic soils and
00:32:12
that's talking, we're talking something that's below that 5.85
00:32:16
point 7 pH. So anything below that we are
00:32:18
considering to be too acidic for growing vegetables.
00:32:22
If you add lime in the fall, that allows it to raise the pH
00:32:26
gradually over the winter time. Lime also adds calcium and
00:32:29
magnesium to the soil. So that's also going to improve
00:32:31
the nutrient availability. And then we can refer back to
00:32:35
the wood ash. And this is also a really good
00:32:38
way to raise the pH while you're also adding some potassium.
00:32:46
So as always, there are some best practices for adding our
00:32:49
fall amendments. Again, the first thing is to
00:32:52
test your soil. Always test your soil before
00:32:55
adding specific amendments because over amending can
00:32:58
actually cause nutrient imbalances which actually might
00:33:00
harm your plants come spring. The other is how to incorporate
00:33:04
these amendments. I'm not a huge proponent of
00:33:08
always tilling the soil because that disturbs the soil microbes.
00:33:11
It disturbs the structure of the soil.
00:33:15
A very light tilling across the top or somehow lightly working
00:33:18
the amendments into the soil is okay to just sort of ensure even
00:33:23
distribution. If you're doing a no till
00:33:26
garden, you can spread the amendments on the surface and
00:33:30
then cover them with either a light layer of mulch or some
00:33:33
additional compost to help work them in.
00:33:36
And then you may also look at watering if winter is not your
00:33:40
rainy season. If it tends to be dry where you
00:33:43
are in the winter, you probably want to go ahead and water some
00:33:45
of the amendments in as well. And then finally, you know it's
00:33:50
going to be mulch right after you're adding your amendments.
00:33:52
Consider mulching those garden beds.
00:33:54
Mulch is going to protect the soil from erosion, it's going to
00:33:58
maintain the moisture, it's going to help those amendments
00:34:02
settle into the soil, and it's also going to help prevent any
00:34:04
nutrient leaching. So we want these amendments to
00:34:07
stay put where they are so our garden plants get the
00:34:10
opportunity to take advantage of them when we're planting them in
00:34:14
the spring. So by incorporating all of these
00:34:16
in in the fall, you give them time to break down and work into
00:34:19
the soil structure. And that means that your garden
00:34:22
is going to be nice and nutrient rich and ready to support
00:34:24
healthy plant growth when spring finally arrives and we get to
00:34:28
planting. Until next time, my gardening
00:34:30
friends, keep on cultivating that dream garden, and we'll
00:34:32
talk again soon. Thanks for listening to another
00:34:35
episode of the Just Grow Something podcast.
00:34:37
For more information about today's topic and to find all
00:34:40
the ways you can get in touch with me or support the show, go
00:34:43
to justgrowsomethingpodcast.com. Until next time, my gardening
00:34:47
friends, keep learning and keep growing.