Better late than never.
A soil ph test is very cheap. Ground should be close to 6.5 ph for most general crops. Where I live we are 6.2 to over 8, which is too high mostly, but hard to fix.
With low ph as you might probably have, easy to spread some lime and make it right. The lime takes a 1/2 year to start working, and lasts 5-6 years maybe, then you add a little more.
If your soil is too low in ph, it is very acid, and the acids in the soil will cling onto your plant nutrients. No matter how hard your plant roots try, and no matter how much is in the soil, the plant just won't get enough nutrients away from the acid in the soil.
So, ph is very important to test for that. You don't want it too low, you don't want it too high, so you shouldn't just add some for good luck - you should know where the ph is and how much correcting you need to do. Not a good place to guess.
For soil building, the stuff you mention will help with organic matter and adding some nutrients, but... They are better composted in a pile with some manure for a year. That makes a much better mix to spread on the field.
If you spread on the stuff you mention and work it in, it will want to use a whole lot of nitrogen as it breaks down and turns into good stuff in your soil. So you might think you are doing your soil a favor, but you might make it very very poor ground for a couple of years, starving for nitrogen. And your crops won't have any N to grow with, even if you add a little N - the stuff breaking down in your soil will take it all leaving none for the plants.
A compost pile of that stuff with manure will have N from the manure, and as it breaks down many of the weed seeds in both materials will also break down. A win win situation.
As long as you are getting a ph test, you might as well get a soil test, won't cost much more, maybe $25 or so, if not even free from some local extension offices. Then you can concentrate on adding the right types of fertilizer.
Manure is a really really good one. Any type.
But what the manure has never exactly matches what your soil needs in N, P, K.
So of you don't mind, a good commercial fertilizer added can really bring your soil up to healthy in a hurry, on top of all the good lime, manure, and composting you do first. Otherwise, there are organic ways to get your soil built up to a healthy balance, but they cost more and take longer.
Planting legumes (beans, clover, alfalfa...) will add N if you let them grow a full season - if they are inoculated. Those are little bugs on the roots of those type plants that pull N out of the ground/air and fix it in bumps on the roots, adding 40-100 lbs of extra N to your soils. But to get these crops to grow, you need the ph and the P and K levels right to start with....
Rye and buckwheat are also interesting cover crops you can plant, let grow a season, and they will build the soil some for you. Again it depends on what you start with, they can't create new fertilizer in the ground, but they can move it around and add organic matter and be very helpful in creating a better field.
This is a topic that could fill an encyclopedia and not cover it all, there are so many directions to go....
Get your ph right. That is the first priority, and takes time to work. Nothing else you do will work right if you don't make your ph right......
A soil test will help you know how low your ground is in this and that (mostly your organic matter, your N, your P, and your K are the good numbers to know....), and from there you can add compost, raw manure, cover crops, and commercial fertilizers to create a healthy, living field. It might take a few years, would have been nice to start 15 years ago, but this spring is a good start too and have fun with it.
Paul
