Soil test kits and home gardens.

[northeast puller 1]

I bought a home soil test kit for my garden. It has never been tested.
My results are.
PH test = 6.5
N = adequate
K = depleted
P = depleted
I always add lime in with my composted leaves and grass clippings.
So what should I get for bagged fertilizer? My father’s caned answer always was 10-10-10 for every thing. But I suspect that is not really true as he was not much on spending money let alone on fertilizer. I know that pooped worked in is good but do not have a local source any more for it or the time too get it. The little women’s garden is 525 square feet. I have always heard application it tons to the acre .So how to I scale this down for my needs in bags and how many pounds. To get a starting point for this year.
Thanks
North east puller.

 

[36 Coupe]

5 10 10 will do.Manure tests about 1 1 1 so it takes a lot to do any good.Too much fertilizer will burn plants.Manure contains a lot of weed seeds.Fertilizers for home gardens usually have square foot info on the bag.We use more fertilizer because I think its foolish to put a lot of work into a garden and get a poor crop.I side dress potatoes and my wife uses a lot on corn.I have 2 friends that are new to gardening.They wont spend the money for a bag of 10 10 10.Much of the land here is worn out and needs a lot of fertilizer.Horse farms here give away manure and even load it on your truck.You may have to make time.Ive spread a lot of manure from an old trailer over the years.

 

[Captndanm]

Don't trust the do it yourself kits. Get a test done thru your County Extension Office. The cost is probably less than the kit. The results will also tell you exactly what needs to be applied.

 

[36 Coupe]

I have a story about soil tests.Will tell it another time.

 

[tomtirediron]

General FYI cost...I sent a sample 2 weeks ago to the University of Minnesota soil test lab. I'm still waiting results. Test cost $17.00 plus about $5.50 in shipping a priority mail envelope. I would think other state's extension-ag departments would be similar cost.

 

[VaTom]

I had my soil tested by the extension service many years ago. Did what they suggested and saw no difference whatsoever. That was the last time I used commercial fertilizer, or the extension service.

Since then I paid attention to soil people and started seriously composting using horse manure and weeds. Here, they"ll thank you to haul off as much manure as you can. Or easy enough to find a commercial hauler. I haul 6-7 tons per load. It is always loaded for free, and they ask me to come back as soon as possible.

After experimentation I concluded that low temp composting suits me best, unlike what is usually recommended. Here, horses are routinely de-wormed so I don"t use any manure before composting it. Also, the stables never know what herbicide (if any) was used on the hay fed to the horses. Some herbicides will survive long after the trip through the animal and wreak havoc in gardens.

I"m not taking any chances, low temp composting takes a few months to complete. Patience is best for gardening. My job is to make and distribute compost, everything else is left to the soil organisms. Works like a dream. The result is excellent plant growth and amazing tilth, with no tilling. Mountaintop here, I started with subsoil of decomposed schist, now harvest all year with glass over the beds for winter (average 12" snowfall). I recycled fogged sliding door lites, work very well until the temps get much below 20º, then more insulation is required.

With compost, more is better. If you want to mono-crop, high temperature composting might suit you better but it requires more than benign neglect that I provide. I"ve had certified Master Gardeners visit, standing atop a compost pile without their noticing it. The wife of one asked why my tomatoes were so much more vigorous than her Master Gardener husband"s tomatoes. He opined it was my dirt. He was right, but didn"t have a clue. You build good dirt unless you"re extremely fortunate.

If you can identify a specific need in your soil, you can create compost to fill that need. "More Other Homes and Garbage" is a wonderful free download. An engineering manual written at Stanford U. for non-engineers, it"s simple to create designed compost. Page 338 has a lengthy chart of compost ingredients.

 

[kj@junction]

be careful if applying bagged fertilizer not to over fertilize a 40# bag will be way too much for 525 sq ft. thats a very common mistake

 

[JMS/.MN]

An acre is 43,560 square feet, so a little math is in order.

 

[northeast puller 1]

Thanks folks for the taking the time to reply.
Northeat puller.

 

[Texasmark1]

I tried soil test kits from the big box stores several times and was a waste of time. I even got out a bag of balanced fertilizer and tested it looking for a limit on the color and it looked just like the dirt sample. At that you could hardly distinguish one shade from the other.

Mark