soil test shows no nutrients :(

Hello,
I have been reading here for a while but just planted my garden. I have had gardens before, but where the soil was rich. Here, in zone 9 northern California, the summers are hot and the soil gets hard.

I rototilled three times, and put compost on and then rototilled again. I took a soil sample and it says the ph is neutral and the nutrients nil. I have already planted the veggies. Please help me with what to add. Side dress with manure? "fast food" fertilizer for veggies? Osmocote?

I am not sure what to feed the plants. Thanks,
Ellie


This message was edited Apr 29, 2008 7:19 AM

This message was edited Apr 29, 2008 7:19 AM

Ellie, I think I'd ignore the part of the test that said "nutrients nil" - I seriously doubt that a home test kit could be that accurate. I don't have the best soil either and I'm sort of experimenting with fertilizers.

I have some llama poo that several people on the SW forum swear by. One person uses it as mulch and concludes that it fertilizes her plants as she waters. If you can get chicken manure, that's supposed to be good worked in around the plants. Some manures can be used 'green' and some can't because they'll burn the plants.

I just got some Dynamite that is highly touted as a long-term fertilizer and it can also be used to side dress plants by working it into the soil. I just started so have no opinion either way.

Fish emulsion is very good; I've used that and it does work well. And, of course, there's always Miracle Grow. I would skip the Osmocote; somewhere I read it doesn't hold up well in high temps.

Good luck with your garden. Don't worry too much about your nutrients. Mulch, mulch, mulch.

you know, I don't have any mulch yet. Can I use the compost as mulch? I have a lot of it. I have designed the garden so it is shaded in the afternoon. Like you in AZ, most of the failure I see here is heat and sun.

Ellie

Why not? One gardener I know does just that and her plants are beautiful. Are you using bagged compost or some homemade? Yep, it's the heat and sun that usually does my plants in. Around July, it looks like a wannabe beach, what with all the umbrellas.

Ellie, where is Cottonwood? I know it's naive, but I always think of northern CA as cool. Probably because years ago I was in Lassen in July and there was still snow on the ground.

Hi,
Cottonwood is in between Redding and Red Bluff. I lived in Tucson and near Phoenix and the weather in June, July and August seems the same. We sustain over 100 degrees for days at at time. I swear I am going under water in the pool and only breathe through a straw sometimes :) I even have to empty out pool water and put fresh in because it gets so hot.

Anyway, I got the mulch from a landscaping place. It has coconut husk or shell and mushroom, etc. I still have a large pile left and would like to put it to use.

Thanks so much for answering my questions and umbrellas? Really? I'm on it!!

Ellie