How to Amend Soil

Manifest What you Want, Whenever you Want....

Learning how to amend your soil is a very important thing to learn when you start to garden. Most plants prefer a pH level which is neutral, however some plants such as rhododendron, azalea, and blueberries are exceptions. If your soild is to one side or another of neutral, it is important to understand how to resolve this.

Soil is a fairly complex subject. Unless you are one of the very small parts of our country who have perfect soil, you will most likely have to learn a few trick to deal with it. If you have clay soil, you may have to add a lot of compost and mulch to get it to the point of being ideal. Those with sand should also add mulch and compost to help it to retain water.

You not only want to consider your soil type, but also you nutrient levels, and pH. To determin your pH, nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus levels you can purchase a soil testing kit.

These are all very important considerations for growing plants. Those with high pH levels may want to get a soil acidifier such as aluminum sulfate. If you are too low you can add garden lime.

You might also determin that your soil is lacking any one of the nutrients (phosphorus, potassium, nitrogen).

You might need to add fertilizer  When purchasing a bag of fertilzer you will notice three different numbers.

For example a feterilzer bag with 10-4-11 would mean 10% nitrogen, 4% phosphorus, and 11% potassium. This clearly doesn’t add up to 100%, the rest of the bag is made up of materials that are inert.

It can be very handy to know the break down of your soil. It could be that you have soil low in nitrogen and high in phosphorus and potassium. In this case you would want to find a fertilizer high in nitrogen and low to no phosphorus / potassium. By finding what your soil needs and not adding extra you will remain more environmentally responsible.