Garden Soil Test Interpretation

General Gardening
#41

@Masbustelo I agree with you 100%. It’s a balance. There’s a reason why Logan and other testing labs recommend organic material to be between 1% and 4%.

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Mine is a little on the high end at 7.41% for having dumped 10 yards of organic compost in my 900 sq ft garden over the course of the past 3 years. At baseline the soil in 2020 started as an estimated 70+% clay and 20% rocks. Kind of a bad situation to get things kicked off. I will pause this year on organic compost and will just do some small scale household direct composting in between rows, as I’ve been doing since 2020. I’m going to give my garden a chance to “digest” the large amount of organic compost I massaged into the soil in the past few years. I’ll re-evaluate again next year.

I was looking to perhaps add 5-10 lbs of azomite for the entire garden to supplement for the low trace minerals (cobalt, moly, silicon, sulfur, copper, etc.), , but it also contains magnesium and I’m concerned with the already above optimal level of magnesium that my last soil test reported. It’s not significantly crazy over the suggested range, but I am aware. I never used it before, but Azomite might be exactly what I need at this point. Wish there was a place that compounded targeted amendments based on specific needs.

#42

The final plan for my 900 sq ft garden this year is to add 18 lbs dried blood meal and 10 lbs of azomite. Will re-evaluate after next year’s testing.

#43

If increasing acidity is desired you could try adding some diluted battery acid to your soil Blueberries and Battery Acid Adventures

However, consider availability of the nutrients you want to add at a lower pH if considering an adjustment.

#44

That sounds a little caustic.

#45

I think the key is to have pH monitoring ability on the water you are applying and making sure it’s not below a 5 pH.

From my experience at work, a ~5 pH is not “happy” water, meaning that it is in a transitional state where it wants to be higher or lower depending on the minerals around to either precipitate or dissolve.

#46

May be smart to do some tissue samples on the crops of concern and compare to the soil test results.

See if you can compare the results of the plants that are doing well against the results of the plants that are not doing well

Cost $5 at my state university.

Forgot to add the link for tissue testing for tomatoes.