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Old March 6, 2016   #1
marc108
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Default Bad soil test results, need some help with amendments

I did a rapitest on my garden today with some bad results. Ive heard it said on forums they arent accurate, but UC Davis ag tested is against their labs and it was >90% accurate.

Soil ended up being N depleted, super excessive P, deficient K. My soil is clay amended with Kellogg Amend (rice hulls, compost, manure), a little wood chips, and worm castings, which I amended about 3 weeks ago. Prior to me amending it , it was a thick clay bed with 2 daisy bushes that had probably not ever been fertilized. Id preference is to keep the garden organic if possible. I also have seedlings (tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, melons) growing that will be ready for transplant in 3-4 weeks.

The rapitest guidelines call for adding about 1 oz N and .6 oz K via sodium nitrate or blood meal, but I'm planning on going with 2 lbs of alfalfa meal (2-0-2) and 3oz blood meal (12-0-0).

Does that sounds good? How long do blood meal and alfalfa release for? I'm open to any input anyone has. Thanks.
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Old March 7, 2016   #2
RayR
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Assuming the Rapid Test is approximately correct, there are a lot of organics you could add to up the N and K availability, whether fast release or slow release, liquid or dry. If the soil was pretty crappy prior to amending it with the Kellogg Amend, it would take some time for microbes and other organisms to break some of them down into plant available nutrients and start improving the soil structure. 3 weeks isn't a long time, ideally with organics you would want to amend the bed back in the fall or whenever your off season is to get ready for spring planting. Heavy clay soils can take years to improve. The shortcut is to build a raised bed on top of that soil and fill it with a prepared mix.
If you are going to roll with what you've got, did you also get a PH test kit? PH is critical, if your PH is way of the mark, nutrient availability will suffer even if you have plenty of nutrients in the soil.
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Old March 7, 2016   #3
marc108
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....
New house so unfortunately I didn't get to prep the bed properly. on time. Good point about the time and microbes... maybe in a few more weeks the N will increase as the microbial activity increases. pH is 7.

I have a bunch of lettuce growing in that bed and they seem to be confirming low N. They are 1/3 the size of my container lettuce despite being planted at the same time.

It's hard to know what to do as there seems to be so many variables. I'd hate to add all this N and then have the microbes go into overdrive when it gets warm and have beautiful green tomato vines with no fruit.

Ive thought about just doing small doses of bloodmeal and potash on a weekly or bimonthly basis and sidedressing with calcium nitrate if I see any N deficiency.
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Old March 7, 2016   #4
Gerardo
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Alfalfa meal kick starts the microbes. You could add copious amounts of aerated compost tea to speed it up too. Don't forget you can also supplement via foliar.
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Old March 7, 2016   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by marc108 View Post
New house so unfortunately I didn't get to prep the bed properly. on time. Good point about the time and microbes... maybe in a few more weeks the N will increase as the microbial activity increases. pH is 7.

I have a bunch of lettuce growing in that bed and they seem to be confirming low N. They are 1/3 the size of my container lettuce despite being planted at the same time.

It's hard to know what to do as there seems to be so many variables. I'd hate to add all this N and then have the microbes go into overdrive when it gets warm and have beautiful green tomato vines with no fruit.

Ive thought about just doing small doses of bloodmeal and potash on a weekly or bimonthly basis and sidedressing with calcium nitrate if I see any N deficiency.
pH pf 7.0 is neutral. According to expert , tomatoes can thrive better in slightly acid soil , like 6.8 if almost ideal . My lab report say 5.6 to 6.8 is acceptable range.

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Old March 7, 2016   #6
creister
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If you add alfalfa, I would include some dry molasses. Molasses is a good kick start for microbes.
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Old March 7, 2016   #7
PhilaGardener
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Compost!
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Old March 7, 2016   #8
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Your tomato plants aren't going to go into over drive with no fruit.

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Old March 7, 2016   #9
maxjohnson
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I'm improving my soil slowly by adding mulch layers to my raised beds and letting them breakdown to compost by the bugs.
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Old March 7, 2016   #10
KarenO
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Time. And good organic matter/compost added yearly, forever, will solve the problems.
How did you go about collecting your soil sample to test? The test can be greatly affected by how the sample was collected.
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Old March 7, 2016   #11
ChiliPeppa
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Well, when I did one of those soil tests the NPK was so low that it didn't even register. Nada. And Ph was 8. I just keep adding whatever organics our farm produces. Horse manure, aged chicken manure mixed with pine shavings, compost, steer manure from my neighbor, and ALFALFA. I keep horses so I always have alfalfa fines on the barn floor and I use them in the beds and as mulch. Makes great mulch. I'm guessing, but it seems that of all things the alfalfa has done the most. If you are willing to pay, you can even buy a feed bag of alfalfa-molasses mix. I haven't re-tested but compared to just a couple years ago my beds are producing better.
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Old March 7, 2016   #12
Captain Neon
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I've moved lots of times and grown tomatoes in some pretty poor soils where I had no time to amend (winter moves). I dig a deep hole, transplant tomato, and fill the hole with compost. I've always gotten tomatoes following this method. I fertilize with Nitrogen until tomatoes start flowering, Phosphorus until fruit set, and Potassium the rest of the season.
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Old March 7, 2016   #13
RayR
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Quote:
Originally Posted by marc108 View Post
New house so unfortunately I didn't get to prep the bed properly. on time. Good point about the time and microbes... maybe in a few more weeks the N will increase as the microbial activity increases. pH is 7.

I have a bunch of lettuce growing in that bed and they seem to be confirming low N. They are 1/3 the size of my container lettuce despite being planted at the same time.

It's hard to know what to do as there seems to be so many variables. I'd hate to add all this N and then have the microbes go into overdrive when it gets warm and have beautiful green tomato vines with no fruit.

Ive thought about just doing small doses of bloodmeal and potash on a weekly or bimonthly basis and sidedressing with calcium nitrate if I see any N deficiency.
Lettuce growth is a good indicator of soil issues. Lack of nutrients are one thing but soil tilth is very important. Lettuce is a heavy drinker and needs consistent moisture. The roots are dense at the top but can go deep in search of water and nutrients if the soil structure is good. If they can't then the roots can dry out fast and they will wilt and start losing lower leaves. Lettuce grows very fast in containers because all the conditions are usually ideal in a soil-less mix.

You might consider a dry organic fertilizer that has a wide range of macro and micro nutrients as insurance because your soil test kit is only testing for NPK.
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Old March 7, 2016   #14
marc108
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How did you go about collecting your soil sample to test? The test can be greatly affected by how the sample was collected.
KarenO
4-6 inches down as instructed by the kit. I tested multiple areas with the same results
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