The soil testing results for our community garden came back from the lab, and to me, they don't look good. We're very lucky to have a very large plot of land, owned by the city, to use. But it's been sitting vacant for many years and the soil has some deficiencies. Please look at the attached picture of the results and tell me what you think. (We're doing this all organically, by the way.)
We did the soil testing on the land as it orginally was. A few weeks ago, we dumped several loads of composted horse manure (along with something we purchased and people are just calling it "compost") on part of the property and spread it. We're doing more this weekend.
Do you think that will be enough to get us started for this season and have some decent harvests? What else should we add besides what we've already added?
We intend to open the garden and get started in late April.
I'm surprised to see no nitrogen content on the analysis. The horse manure will reduce the high ph somewhat and increase the organic content. It will also add add nitrogen and phosphorous, but not nearly enough P according to the analysis. I think bone meal and rock phosphate are organic sources of P.
Frank
Agreed, of the nutients listed on your analysis, only phosphorus is low and it is very low. Really need to get it up for fruiting plants.
Thanks. I hope we can correct the problem enough that people can grow a few veggies.
I'd call the extension office just in case they have any bright ideas. The problem with bone meal and phosphate rock is that they might be too slow acting to help anytime soon. The extension agent should be able to tell you about that and how much you need. It seems a great piece of property for your project. Good luck and let us know how it works out for you. I'd like to see every barren piece of public property in America turned into somebody's garden. Just think of all the tax payer's money that could be saved on mowing.
You're right. We should contact the extension office. Part of the project is to grow pumpkins for every kid in the elementary school, but maybe we can talk them into a lighter feeder? Here's your garlic, kid. Happy Halloween! ha. Maybe not.
I'll let you know how it goes. I'm so happy I stumbled across this project and get to be a part of it. Even the neighbors who don't want to garden are excited about it. And it will be an excellent resource and experience for the kids. Lots of kids (and adults) don't really know where their food comes from or what to do with a fresh vegetable if they have it. So if we can get the soil in shape, this will be a nice eye opener.
We just found out that we got a really nice grant, so that will help. The grant requires that we document the project from beginning to end with photos and commentary, and I'm the photographer, so that will be fun. Here's the first installment, where we fools went out on a 25 degree day to spread compost and got soaked with snow after a couple of hours. But we were so excited to finally get out there and get started that it didn't matter that we were freezing and wet.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/heidiveronica/sets/72157614186244361/
Oh, and here's the Before pictures if anyone's interested in taking a peek. http://www.flickr.com/photos/heidiveronica/sets/72157613521909884/
Indy-v, to increase your phosphorus I'd go ahead and use ground phosphate rock (not superphosphate or triple-superphosphate). With all that manure ya'll added that will make the phosphate more quickly available to the plants. As mentioned above bone meal is pretty slow-acting but nowadays phosphate rock is so finely ground that it will begin to work immediately (well, soon as you have plants roots growing in there) and the fact that you already added manure is a definite plus.
It looks like a good-sized area for a garden, I hope you use all of it, do successive cropping, and go for the gusto! Growing quick-maturing crops will not only give the gardeners lots of good eats but if you keep a tally on poundage it'll surely make a great report for your grant program and help you qualify for next year. And who knows, your successes this year may just be the program needed to see even more gardens pop up in years to follow. Like Twiggybuds (I luv that name!) said above, "I'd like to see every barren piece of public property in America turned into somebody's garden." Time for the return of the Victory Gardens, eh?
Shoe
Thanks, shoe. If there's a possibility that we can bump it up well into the medium range, I'll be happy.
I heard from the guy doing the lead testing that there are several more first-year community gardens in the city this year. Looks like a movement to me! I'm with twiggy. I see a vacant lot and I want to sprinkle seeds all over it.
Does anyone have any thoughts on the sodium, soluble salts, and zinc? You think the manure will take care of most of that as well?
Good idea for keeping a tally of the harvests. Any suggestions? Take a scale out there when we harvest, or do you have a system of estimating that? It'll be hard to keep records for the individual plots (5' x 10'), with people harvesting one or two things here and there, but we'll encourage them to do that.
Thanks guys!
Sodium , you don't really want. Zinc is useful for pecans and such, but not much for vegetables. Plants only get nutrients from soluble salts, the negative ions NO3 (Nitrogen), and PO4 (Phosphate) and the Positive ions K ( potassium) Ca ( Calcium) and Mg (Magnesium). Trace elements are needed but most of the time are in the soil or need only minute amounts.
