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Any opinions on this soil?

JustSumTomatoes

Indicas make dreams happen
Saw this native soil near a swamp I plan to grow in. It is muck type soil that is fairly dark, nearly black and has a lot of earthworms in it. Haven't tested the ph yet but it will probably need to be amended with lime. This is my first time using native soil (instead of bagged premade) and wondered if anyone had an opinion of the quality based on appearance and what else I should do to amend it if needed (peat, pearlite, etc.) The plants growing nearby are skunk cabbage. The soil will be put in swamp tubes in the near future.
 

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Ibechillin

Masochist Educator
For native soil/guerrilla knowing the characteristics of the strain you intend to plant will be more important than what you amend the soil with. That being said abundance of worms is usually a sign of good soil fertility (it means there is organic material there to eat), Schrews' native soil plants did great last year with im pretty sure just weekly foliar sprays.

Read through page 4 (recommend reading all) of the Tons Of Information On Max Efficiency Growing, Root Systems and Breeding: thread in my signature as it applies heavily to this.
 

AgentPothead

Just this guy, ya know?
Depending on your location, the local state college should be able to do a soil test for 10-20$. Our local college tests for NPK levels, CA, MG, S, AL, PB, micronutrients, ph, Cation Exchange Capacity, and Exchangeable Acidity, whatever that is. They take 1-2 weeks and the start of June is their normal busy season, so if you do want one do do it sooner than later.
 

Easy7

Active member
Veteran
There's a spot here that has skunk cabbage. They like it wet. I see lot's of organic matter in the soil pictured posted.

Something like perlite or pumice as suggested above would help.
 

JustSumTomatoes

Indicas make dreams happen
It's wet but crumples in my hands. Not so much cakey or mucky, though I'm sure it will be deeper into the swamp where it is more wet. It has that composted smell and seems very workable. Like I mentioned it's full of worms. One handful had tons of worms crawling out. I was going to add perlite to it to help with drainage and to create air pockets in the soil.

I'm guessing that peat will not be necessary in this case cause of the moisture retention? I'm going to collect a soil sample and also a sample of the water in the area in a few days to see where it stands on the ph scale. From what I could find skunk cabbage usually likes acidic nutrient rich soils with the ph ranging from 5.6 to 7.5. I might need to add a little lime if it's too acidic but it is possible it could fall into the ideal ph range.
 
Adding some perlite and lime if its too acidic is probably all you'll have to do I bet. Getting it tested is still a good idea but if the skunk cabbage and other nearby plants are growing vigorously that's a good sign your ladies should too. Good luck man let us know how it turns out in the end.
 
I'm a huge advocate of soil testing. There is no substitute for having a reference point that measures your values and their relationships, pH and CEC. Even if you only do it once a soil test provides information that is super useful as a starting point.



Knowing these values is information that you can use to learn more about making improvements to your mix and it educates you against stoner dogma like cal-mag , epsom, compost etc, that may be harmful to your grow.
 

JustSumTomatoes

Indicas make dreams happen
I believe there is a nursery about 20 minutes from where I live that does testing. I know that they do ph tests but I'm not sure if they test for nutrients present in soil. Guess I'll have to stop up and see.

If I can't find a place that tests for nutrient levels does anyone know of a reliable kit for home testing?
 
Logan lab
Spectrum Analytics
International ag lab

And most university agricultural departments do testing. Do some research on understanding a soil report watch some hefty bros YouTube's. There is lots of interesting, useful info that helps you grow dank.
 
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I believe there is a nursery about 20 minutes from where I live that does testing. I know that they do ph tests but I'm not sure if they test for nutrients present in soil. Guess I'll have to stop up and see.

If I can't find a place that tests for nutrient levels does anyone know of a reliable kit for home testing?

They have this kit on Amazon where you mail them a soil sample and they test if in a lab for you.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GIMOG8...OA&pd_rd_r=W88RNC47TCJJ59XG1MMY&pd_rd_w=lJHq7

Then there's the common rapitest home kits I've never used them myself but have heard from a lot of people that do. If I had to guess a lab is the best way but the rapitest should at least give you a good NPK value.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000DI845/ref=psdc_3480689011_t1_B01GIMOG8A
 

AgentPothead

Just this guy, ya know?
I don't know how good those home test kits are, but they cost as much as an "official" test. I just googled for my state name + soil test and the very first hit was the umass soil laboratory. I heard a lot of good things bout Logan Labs, but umass uses the Modified Morgan process which was designed for New England soil, so I know I'll get recommendations pertinent to my soil.
 
I don't know how good those home test kits are, but they cost as much as an "official" test. I just googled for my state name + soil test and the very first hit was the umass soil laboratory. I heard a lot of good things bout Logan Labs, but umass uses the Modified Morgan process which was designed for New England soil, so I know I'll get recommendations pertinent to my soil.
Sounds like an excellent start.



These guys are pretty well respected and have loads of vids on YT
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-aO...e_gdata_player[/FONT]
 
I don't know how good those home test kits are, but they cost as much as an "official" test. I just googled for my state name + soil test and the very first hit was the umass soil laboratory. I heard a lot of good things bout Logan Labs, but umass uses the Modified Morgan process which was designed for New England soil, so I know I'll get recommendations pertinent to my soil.

Yeah I figured sending off to a lab is the best bet the home kits probably only give crude estimates I'd imagine. JST if you can't easily find anybody in your area that tests for NPK check out that first link I posted. The kit costs 30 bucks on Amazon and they say they should get the results back to you in 7-10 days. I'd imagine other labs have a similar service where you can mail them a sample for testing.
 

JustSumTomatoes

Indicas make dreams happen
Checked out all 3 and International Ag Labs sounds like they have good rep from what I could find, and for $25 their standard soil test seems to cover almost everything I need to know. This includes Calcium, Magnesium, Phosphorous, Potassium, Nitrate Nitrogen, Ammonia Nitrogen, Sodium, Ergs, Orp, pH, Humus, and Trace Minerals.

For an extra $25 you can get recommendations from them but I'll pass on that. There is also options for Boron, Sulfur and organic matter. Not really sure if I'm going to spend the extra money on those or not. It's $10 for each of them and I already know the soil in question has organic matter...

Also, one of the questions on the soil test order form is "garden size" as in length and width or in acres. I plan on collecting soil from this spot and loading it into buckets, as well as pots to grow the plants in. Not sure how I should answer this question.

Hopefully tomorrow I will get out to the site to collect my soil sample to send off, as well as a water sample (there's a creek flowing through the swamp that will provide a watering source) to test the pH of myself, and to do a little scouting.
 

AgentPothead

Just this guy, ya know?
I can link you to the instructions I was given.
https://ag.umass.edu/sites/ag.umass.../pdf/spttl_1_soil_sampling_instructions_2.pdf
It boils down to, take multiple samples from the inside of your area, ie not the edges, 6-8 inches down, mix them in a bucket, strain for big rocks, get 1 cup of soil and lay it out on a piece of newspaper overnight to dry out. As for garden size, the smallest I could get recommendations for was 100 square feet, take into mind whatever recommendations they give you will be for your reported garden size so you might have to do the maths to shrink their numbers down to something you can use, if it's less than 100 square feet or you have to use the acre recommendation.
 

JustSumTomatoes

Indicas make dreams happen
I can link you to the instructions I was given.
https://ag.umass.edu/sites/ag.umass.../pdf/spttl_1_soil_sampling_instructions_2.pdf
It boils down to, take multiple samples from the inside of your area, ie not the edges, 6-8 inches down, mix them in a bucket, strain for big rocks, get 1 cup of soil and lay it out on a piece of newspaper overnight to dry out. As for garden size, the smallest I could get recommendations for was 100 square feet, take into mind whatever recommendations they give you will be for your reported garden size so you might have to do the maths to shrink their numbers down to something you can use, if it's less than 100 square feet or you have to use the acre recommendation.

Thanks. Seems similar to the instructions they gave for collecting a sample. Ill probably say something like 100 square feet or something else in multiples of 10 so it is easy to work with in terms of the math.
 

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