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Old June 15, 2020   #19
TomNJ
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Join Date: May 2009
Location: Floyd VA
Posts: 767
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jhp View Post
Nice garlic! Do you mind sharing what you do to make your soil rich?

Thanks!

Jen
The plot I am gardening was previously tended to by my wife's late husband, who incorporated lots of compost and manures. When I started it up again four years ago I had soil samples analyzed and found it to be rather high in essential elements and organics.

I continue to till dehydrated chicken manure (Harmony) in each row before planting, and cover the entire garden with 2-3" of grass clippings that decompose and get tilled in. For nitrogen loving plants like garlic, onions, and corn I also add blood meal.

It's time for another analysis so I plan to pull more soil samples at the end of the season and make additions accordingly. Any pH adjustments I would rather make in the fall tilling to give the limestone time to become effective, and if the essential elements are still very high I may skip the Harmony next year and just use blood meal.
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