{"id":8412,"date":"2015-12-10T12:00:47","date_gmt":"2015-12-10T17:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=8412"},"modified":"2015-12-09T13:32:56","modified_gmt":"2015-12-09T18:32:56","slug":"whats-in-your-garden-soil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2015\/12\/10\/whats-in-your-garden-soil\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s In Your Garden Soil"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Tilled<\/a>

Tilled Garden Bed<\/p><\/div>\n

\"10-10-10<\/a>

Choice of 10-10-10\u00a0or 6-12-12 Blended Fertilizer at this garden center<\/p><\/div>\n

There are two<\/strong> basic rules\u00a0in gardening:<\/p>\n

1. the right plant in the right place, and<\/p>\n

2. properly feeding the soil that nourishes the plants.<\/p>\n

Many problems in lawns and gardens can be avoided if\u00a0the gardener knows what\u00a0the fertility and pH of\u00a0the soil is.<\/p>\n

What is soil pH? It is a measure of the soil acidity or alkalinity. A pH meter will accurately measure this.\u00a0Soil pH range varies\u00a0from 0 – 7 – 14. Readings from 0 to 7.0 are acidic, 7.0 is neutral, and above 7.0 is alkaline. Most (not all)\u00a0garden flowers, vegetables, and landscape plants (shrubs, trees and vines) grow best in the mild acidic\u00a0range between 6.0 and 7.0. Outside this pH range,\u00a0some minor nutrients like iron (Fe) and manganese (Mn)\u00a0may become\u00a0unavailable above 7.0 or\u00a0in over supply below 5.0.<\/p>\n

Soil tests are available from a number of sources: DIY kits sold at garden centers, on-line, or through mail order sources. The results obtained from these\u00a0test kits are “ball park”. Soil testing from university soil labs\u00a0or\u00a0private labs\u00a0is\u00a0more accurate. For information about soil testing\u00a0from university soil labs, contact your\u00a0local Extension office in your state or county.\u00a0For an extra fee, the lab may also determine\u00a0your soil type: sand, silt, or clay.<\/p>\n

Results from a soil lab should list: soil pH and suggest amounts of fertilizers and lime to apply to each area of your garden. Blended fertilizers contain nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K). The analysis\u00a0may suggest adding only nitrogen. Lawns may benefit from extra calcium and\/or magnesium by liming. Dolomitic limestone (Dolomite) contains magnesium (Mg) and hydrated lime supplies calcium (Ca). If you need to lower soil pH, say for growing blueberries or azaleas, how much sulfur (S) should you apply per 1000 square feet.<\/p>\n

Frequently, autumn through mid-winter period\u00a0is the best time to test rather that in the spring. Labs are very busy at that time and a report may take 4-6 weeks to process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are two basic rules\u00a0in gardening: 1. the right plant in the right place, and 2. properly feeding the soil that nourishes the plants. Many problems in lawns and gardens can be avoided if\u00a0the gardener knows what\u00a0the fertility and pH of\u00a0the soil is. What is soil pH? It is a measure of the soil acidity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[444,357,398,356,605,665,9,551,74,202,777,1210,1287,630],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8412"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8412"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8445,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8412\/revisions\/8445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}