tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post7453582591482032683..comments2024-03-11T02:25:25.123-05:00Comments on Living Low in the Lou: Corny work: A garden science experiment and what I learned from itSLClairehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17307602613058790026noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-63024151988747671672019-04-12T06:54:05.015-05:002019-04-12T06:54:05.015-05:00Claire:
Thank you for the soil analysis interpret...Claire:<br /><br />Thank you for the soil analysis interpretation offer. We have so much going on right now I'm not likely to get a round to it till winter.<br /><br />PamPam in Virginiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00895842137691734477noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-91941144280474067702019-04-10T17:11:27.762-05:002019-04-10T17:11:27.762-05:00Good luck with the plastic forks as squirrel banes...Good luck with the plastic forks as squirrel banes! I'm sorry to hear garlic didn't work. It would have served them right if it had. It's not like they don't have their own food, but no, they have to eat ours too.<br /><br />ClaireSLClairehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17307602613058790026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-83837322152749495022019-04-10T17:07:15.622-05:002019-04-10T17:07:15.622-05:00Hi, Pam!
It sounds like you have a good feel for ...Hi, Pam!<br /><br />It sounds like you have a good feel for your soil and what it needs. If you want to find out more about it, you could take a sample (a pint or so is enough) and send it to your state Extension's soil testing office, or to Logan Labs. Each of them will tell you how to take the sample and submit it, and what it will cost. If you do that and want some help interpreting the results, I'll be happy to look at them.<br /><br />If you decide to add borax (a source of boron), be very careful about how much you add. It's easy to add too much, so make sure you measure the square feet of the area where you want to add borax. This year I'm adding 2 teaspoons of borax to a 100 square foot bed - you should follow the same proportions. Dissolve the borax in some hot water and then add that water to a watering can, fill the can with plain water, and water the entire area from the can. I always water with another watering can of plain water, nothing else, after that, to make sure the borax water enters the soil.<br /><br />My worm bin is one of those blue Rubbermaid boxes with holes drilled in the bottom. I feed the worms some of the kitchen scraps (they can't eat all of them), with the rest of the scraps and weeds going to the compost pile. The new lawn mower I bought last year has a bag, so I may be able to catch lawn cuttings and shred leaves to make more compost this year. It's time to get the mower operating again!<br /><br />I direct-seeded two pea varieties, only one of which came up, so I re-seeded the other one. Otherwise, I haven't planted anything yet, though I have plenty of seedlings ready for planting and expect to start planting them next week. Good luck with your garden!<br /><br />ClaireSLClairehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17307602613058790026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-51548777707662691442019-04-10T16:48:02.173-05:002019-04-10T16:48:02.173-05:00Hi Chris,
Thanks for the compliment! I'm help...Hi Chris,<br /><br />Thanks for the compliment! I'm helped by being comfortable with and good at basic math and in having two chemistry degrees. <br /><br />To discuss the organic matter issue, I have to bring in precision and accuracy and the fact that when scientists use these terms, they mean different things. Precision means how close the result of the same test repeated on two identical samples is. The report I'm given from the lab implies that the precision of the test is in hundredths of a percent (the smallest of the three figures reported) but I doubt it's that precise. In fact, Erica Reinheimer and Steve Solomon say that the reported organic matter level on two different samples of the same soil, sent to the same lab and done the same way, can vary by a factor of 2! (In other words, the OM could have read between 1.5% and 6% for the spring 2019 sample, so reporting it to three significant figures doesn't make sense.) Accuracy, on the other hand, means how close the experimental result is to the "true" value (I put quotes on "true" because there is no way to know what it is). What I read from the data is that the OM % has remained roughly the same, somewhere in the 2-6% range, during these several years, with minimal compost application. Hot, humid summers burn up OM so I am probably near the maximum OM that my soil can hold. Still, if I can make more compost or find another source of OM to add, I'll use it and see what succeeding soil samples say.<br /><br />As it happens (and I'll mention this again in the next post), I applied wood ashes and seed meal to the bed with the garlic and potato onions last autumn before I planted it. While I don't have a control bed, I can and will draw some tentative ideas about using wood ashes from that bed.<br /><br />Since my soil was already pretty good (thank you, glaciation processes) before I raised a garden on it, I can't tell you how long it would take for someone in the US on soil comparable to yours to make it better. The data above suggest that it only took two years to correct the ratio of calcium to magnesium in my soil but much longer to get the phosphorus level up. I'll have more to say about this in the next post.<br /><br />ClaireSLClairehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17307602613058790026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-27447890414805861802019-04-07T06:11:35.115-05:002019-04-07T06:11:35.115-05:00Claire:
Forget garlic as a squirrel bane. They ar...Claire:<br /><br />Forget garlic as a squirrel bane. They are now in that bed, too. They have dug up about half the lettuces and radishes in their search for the last nuts (I could have told them there were no nuts as I had just dug up those beds . . .). I am trying a trick that I think Lew mentioned last year: Setting plastic forks with their prongs upward all over the bed. It looks like some medieval torture contraption. I am very glad that I have been saving forks from Chinese take-out for so long.<br /><br />PamPam in Virginiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00895842137691734477noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-1433407068752934932019-04-06T06:41:31.485-05:002019-04-06T06:41:31.485-05:00Hi, Claire!
I am so haphazard with the garden soi...Hi, Claire!<br /><br />I am so haphazard with the garden soil here. It hasn't been tested since about the time we moved in here 27 years ago. You can imagine how much it has changed - I hope. We do have a copious source of cheap ($15 a pickup truck load) composted manure from the livestock market in the next county, though you do have to haul it yourself. <br /><br />Each year we add wood ash from our fireplace and wood stove. And thanks so much for the analysis of the wood ash. You mentioned that you have acidic soil (ours is, too) and you seem to have basically the same trees, so I'll bet that analysis applies to our ash also. I just bought a bag of rock phosphate; I usually try to add some of that. Every now and then, maybe every 3 years, we add some magnesium sulfate (Epsom Salts). I had not thought of adding boron; that certainly sounds like a good idea. I only add lime to the soil of plants that are on my pH list of those that need a more alkaline pH.<br /><br />We do make compost from kitchen scraps and garden refuse, and grass clippings and leaves. It doesn't end up as very much, though, and I hoard it for plants that especially need a boost, or for favorites like a special rose bush.<br /><br />What is your worm bin like? How big? Are you feeding them your kitchen scraps?<br /><br />In the garden we have planted: Seeds of lettuce, chard, radishes, and spinach. The lettuce and radishes and peas are up. The squirrels are causing havoc digging in the beds for the last nuts, except in one bed that has the garlic we planted last summer (which stayed green all winter). There are also radishes and peas in that bed - though I have some chicken wire over the peas - and it has not been squirrel-handled at all. I don't think it is just a coincidence, but am going to sprinkle some overripe garlic cloves from last year's crop in a test bed elsewhere to see if maybe squirrels are like vampires.<br /><br />PamPam in Virginiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00895842137691734477noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-46663408120044124502019-04-05T06:28:34.079-05:002019-04-05T06:28:34.079-05:00Hi Claire,
Awesome! I'm always impressed with...Hi Claire,<br /><br />Awesome! I'm always impressed with your re-mineralisation soil work, and it is way beyond what I've been able to achieve here.<br /><br />I was curious about the general decline in soil organic matter shown on the table and was wondering about why that occurred. Have you considered that side of the story and what it might mean? Incidentally, 3% organic matter is so much better than industrial agricultural soils which can be as low as 1%. Dunno. The rest of the numbers read like pure gold.<br /><br />Wood ash is plentiful here, and humans have used it on the soils down here for millennia. I tend to sprinkle it around the farm from a galvanised bucket in places where I feel that the plants need the minerals, but I do the same with the coffee grounds and husks which I have a huge supply of.<br /><br />Bulk minerals are very hard to come by down here, but mulches, rock crusher dust and manures are quite readily available at reasonable prices. So I have to chuck the stuff onto the ground and hope that the soil life knows what it is doing. And I am always in awe of your soil tests.<br /><br />I hear you about contributing the two different inputs, but still I reckon you might be able to draw some general conclusions from your experiments? There is a fine balance with experimenting whilst also producing an output from the garden. I face that issue with the seed saving because it reduces the produce from the garden and additionally slows the timing of replanting the next crop – and if the weather deteriorates I can be caught out. I've been giving some thought to some sort of building for raising seedlings in so that I can run both strategies (seed saving and getting the next crop started). Dunno.<br /><br />Not sure about your part of the world, but here it takes about three years of work to produce resilient soil for growing annual edible plants. And the longer I stick at the work, the more friable the clay soil becomes and the more water it holds. It is complicated stuff.<br /><br />Cheers<br /><br />Chris<br />Fernglade Farmhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06950962122594709186noreply@blogger.com