{"id":202,"date":"2014-04-30T20:40:39","date_gmt":"2014-05-01T00:40:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fivefurrow.net\/?p=202"},"modified":"2015-10-14T20:52:48","modified_gmt":"2015-10-15T00:52:48","slug":"2014-home-soil-tests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivefurrow.net\/?p=202","title":{"rendered":"2014 Home Soil Tests"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Separating<\/a>
Separating and drying soil samples for testing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When it comes to organic gardening, the wisdom seems to boil down to “add compost”. So the previous year, 2013, I added a TON of compost from various sources, along with several other healthy soil amendments to lighten and improve the soil. All in all, I added three inches of material over all the beds. I prepared for a bumper crop.<\/p>\n

In 2014 I rubbed my hands together in anticipation of the payoff. Figuratively. I did some home tests to see the results of my efforts. I also sent soil to a lab, which is for another post.<\/p>\n

The home tests were disappointing. Low nutrients in all four areas I tested. Clearly there was more to the story.<\/p>\n

Why so much phosphorus in one corner? Not sure.<\/p>\n

\"2014<\/a>
2014 home soil test showing Low N, highP, low K<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"2014<\/a>
2014 home soil test showing low N, P and K<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"2014<\/a>
2014 home soil test showing low N, P, K<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"2014<\/a>
2014 home soil test showing low N, P and K<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So I went about, over the course of the season and the next, adding more compost, more organic nutrients, and other amendments.<\/p>\n

Lesson learned: get the soil tested, and get it tested way before you need to plant.<\/p>\n

These kind of photos, showing the location and date, are handy to have in coming seasons as something to refer to. I have a little spreadsheet which helps me keep track of the nutrients and other factors\u00a0over time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When it comes to organic gardening, the wisdom seems to boil down to “add compost”. So the previous year, 2013, I added a TON of compost from various sources, along with several other healthy soil amendments to lighten and improve the soil. All in all, I added three inches of material over all the beds. … Continue reading 2014 Home Soil Tests<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[74,12],"tags":[24,21,23,22],"class_list":["post-202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-74","category-land-and-soil","tag-organic-gardening","tag-soil","tag-soil-amendments","tag-soil-tests"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivefurrow.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivefurrow.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivefurrow.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivefurrow.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivefurrow.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=202"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/fivefurrow.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":962,"href":"https:\/\/fivefurrow.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202\/revisions\/962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivefurrow.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivefurrow.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivefurrow.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}