Amending Soil for Better Harvests

 It’s three o’clock in the morning, and it looks like it’s going to be another pretty much sleepless night.  (Well, I think I got a couple of hours.)  I do better if I take a sleeping pill or some Benadryl, but I hate doing that.  Herbal tea is great, except for the fact that the extra water wakes me up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.  Kinda defeats the purpose.

So am I awake due to some physical deficiency?  Or is it a little stress due to the global food situation?  Is it because not only are Russia, Ukraine, and China not exporting food this year to help feed other countries, but we also already have food riots starting?  I read about riots in Peru last night before going to bed.  I read this morning that the same thing is happening in Sri Lanka. 

Of course, you have to hunt for info like this.  Nothing of value gets reported in our media anymore. 

Is it because even the supply of eggs in this country is being affected?  You can’t slaughter millions of laying hens due to avian influenza without having something of a trickle-down effect.

Of course, we’re expanding our garden this year.  That would have happened regardless of what is going on in the world.  However, most everyone I know is also expanding their gardens, and even older folk who haven’t gardened in years due to age or physical limitations are planning a garden this year.  And there are a lot of newbies dipping their toes in as well.

In our gardening adventures, many people face the challenge of less than optimal soil.  The stuff we have here is something that starts with & ends with % and has #$@* in between.  But most people aren’t that bad off.  Just amending the soil a little bit with a few brightly colored bags from Home Depot works wonders.

But when this isn’t an option (as may happen in the not too distant future), what can you use instead? 

Before getting into the choices, first let’s briefly cover the different amendments. 

• Soil that is too alkaline needs to be acidified.
• Soil that is too acidic needs some alkaline material added.
• Soil that is too clayey or too sandy needs organic matter. 

If you don’t know what kind of soil you have, there are a few DIY home tests you can conduct.  Links are provided below.

Commercially available options for acidifying soil include the following:

• Aluminum sulfate (recommended for years and does the job, but due to concerns about aluminum toxicity, especially in children, it is best avoided with food crops)
• Ammonium sulfate
• Iron sulfate
• Miracid (from the makers of Miracle-Gro)
• Peat moss
• Sulfur

DIY options for acidifying soil are really easy to come by:

• Coffee grounds
• Leaf mold
• Pine needles
• Vinegar, 1 cup vinegar per gallon of water for instant feeds (reviews are mixed on doing this)
• Wood chips

Commercially available options for making the soil more alkaline are pretty much limited to agricultural lime.

The DIY option consists of wood ash.

Commercially available options for adding organic matter to sandy or clayey soil include:

• Composted steer manure
• Peat moss

Of course, there are numerous organic fertilizer choices that will also add organic matter to the soil.  They are usually expensive and as they are fertilizers, they can only be added in limited amounts, often not in sufficient quantity to improve the texture of the soil.

DIY options for adding organic matter to your soil include making your own compost using kitchen scraps (no meats or fats!) and farm animal manure (it’s generally recommended to avoid using waste from pets or pigs).

And now for a few words about wood chips and sawdust.  (Cue lots of people running around with their hair on fire.  Including my husband.)  So what’s the deal with sawdust?  Shouldn’t it be a great way to add organic matter to the soil?  It’s already pretty fine matter.  Shouldn’t it mix well to improve the soil?

Not quite. 

See, sawdust (and wood chips) are high in carbon.  As a result, they need nitrogen to decompose.  In fact, if mixed into garden soil, sawdust will absolutely tie up all the nitrogen in the soil and nothing (you want) will grow there for a year or two.  However, sawdust makes a great mulch for berries and asparagus, as long as a little organic fertilizer or other nitrogen source is sprinkled on top.[1] 

Wood chips, because they are much larger than sawdust particles and decompose more slowly, may be added to soil to improve the texture.  However, a very high nitrogen source (like blood meal) must be tilled in at the same time.  Mixing in wood chips or sawdust without a good nitrogen source will only result in sorrow. 

I spent some time searching for natural solutions that were also quick fixes.  Basically, there aren’t any.  You usually can’t just throw a banana peel or orange rind next to a plant to give it what it needs.  (But adding a crushed eggshell to the soil when you put in tomato plants will quickly provide calcium to tomatoes and help prevent blossom end rot.)  Composting these items and the other kitchen and yard waste, however, will give your garden what it needs over time.  Finished compost is close to neutral, adds organic matter to the soil, and improves the soil texture and fertility. 

Links to related posts:

Three DIY Soil Sample Tests

DIY Potting Soil Mixes 

References:

[1] Barbara Pleasant, Building garden soil with wood mulch, Mother Earth News, https://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/gardening-techniques/building-garden-soil-wood-mulch-zmaz10onzraw (accessed 6 April 2022).

18 april 2022