A beginners study guide to soil

[mad librettist]

I once made a grid out of boards to make a little square-foot garden. when i stepped on the boards my weight was well distributed.

just making a point of always stepping in the same place makes a huge difference.

also a board to kneel on.

 

[jaykush]

just making a point of always stepping in the same place makes a huge difference.

that's how the stepping stones work.

but this thread about soil, and id like to keep it on track.

 

[RipVanWeed]

Thanks JayKush,

Your a great resource for us noobians out here.

Much Respect,

 

[mad librettist]

well Jay you can tell me if this counts.

I've noticed with the new living mulch, even though it just sprouted, that there is already lots more visible life crawling around. I have some very fast mites, spiders, springtails, and wigglers at the surface. When the lights came on yesterday in the tent, the surface was disturbed quite violently by the worms. As they flee downward at "dawn", they are aerating my soil among other things.

All this I attribute to having plants in the soil and having a small portion of native soil (it could be more)

Which bring me to my point about soil: it has a bad rap in containers, but those critics will often concede that once roots colonize a medium, they can make up for any problems with porosity, etc... So I think one thing we can do to help us use real soil is to have companion plants that can aerate the pot and move water around.

Mine are i a scrog situation, so I figure that the living mulch roots will grow weaker as the light gets blocked out, and they will give way to the star of the show.

 

[jaykush]

well i don't grow indoors so i cant really give my opinion on that.

so I figure that the living mulch roots will grow weaker as the light gets blocked out, and they will give way to the star of the show.

hmm never thought of it that way. let us know how it works!

 

[jaykush]

Which bring me to my point about soil: it has a bad rap in containers, but those critics will often concede that once roots colonize a medium, they can make up for any problems with porosity, etc... So I think one thing we can do to help us use real soil is to have companion plants that can aerate the pot and move water around.

now that i think of it, a good trick to this would be to grow the clover, and cut it regularly. this way you get top mulch from the cuttings, clover loves to be cut and grows better when you do so, and you get the benefit of root tips dying off to compensate. which in turn adds organic matter directly to the soil where its eventually consumed or turned into humus. i do this outside, but not sure if it would work indoors. sounds good on paper as they say.

 

[apep]

Heres a nice link, titled sustainable soil management actually everything on this site is awsome http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/soilmgmt.html

 

[CC_2U]

JayKush

I screwed up my log-in deal - this is Clackamas Coot.

I bought an organic planting mix which was delivered this week. This soil is OTCO (Oregon Tilth Certified Organic). From their filing with Oregon Tilth the product contains: 20% Planet Earth Portland Compost - 20% Oregon’s Own Portland Topsoil - 15% Steer compost - 15% Mushroom compost - 20% Pumice - 10% Coarse Sand - Worm castings - VAM mycorrhizal fungi

The compost is made from materials sourced from a few organic orchards in the Columbia River Gorge which would be the leaves, branch trimmings, etc. The woody parts are run through a wood chipper which eliminates any 'sticks' resulting in a very consistent product.

I bought a total of 10 yards and I plan on keeping 2 yards for the medical garden. The rest is going into raised beds.

I filled a #5 SmartPot with the product straight - no additional aeration amendments at all. I watered it with 3 gallons of water to make sure that it was completely hydrated. I had 2 observations - the water did not penetrate the strata at the same rate that you expect with peat or coir as the base BUT when I let the water drain off and I dumped the hydrated soil onto a tarp I noticed that the soil still had a good 'crumb level' (lack of a better word) and when I took a handful and squeezed no water came out.

At any rate this soil mix contains no peat, no coir, no perlite and I'm most grateful that it does not contain any Dolomite Lime.

$44.00 per 1 c.y. - $1.66 per 1 c.f. of soil. A real budget buster, eh?

My next cycle is being transplanted today into this soil with a few amendments but not much. The specific organic steer manure and organic mushroom compost (not SMS) used in this soil are the base materials used in both the compost and earthworm castings I've been using for the past 3 years or so from a farm in Oregon's Wilamette Valley.

CC

Edit: The pH was 6.8 when it was tested last Saturday. The company does weekly pH tests on their soils.

 

[guest2012y]

Still got about 10 gallons of sifted rain forest duff 4 ya' Coot. "Rain Forest Duff"...(my name brand) I can post a couple pix if anyone wants to see it. Basically just broken down leaf matter full of fungi,etc.,and the soil just under these leaves. Mostly forest humus is what it is.

 

[CC_2U]

Still got about 10 gallons of sifted rain forest duff 4 ya' Coot. "Rain Forest Duff"...(my name brand) I can post a couple pix if anyone wants to see it. Basically just broken down leaf matter full of fungi,etc.,and the soil just under these leaves.

Kewl!

BTW - I was given a bag of a new product from Sun Gro Horticulture (Sunshine Mix) called 'Rain Forest' - it's one of several 'new & improved' versions of peat moss. LMAO

I'll trade ya! I'll toss in a full bale of the Alaska Peat product - 3.8 c.f. - good stuff!

CC_2U

 

[guest2012y]

Hey Jay,what do you think about posting pix of soil types?

 

[jaykush]

go for it

 

[Mountain High]

Great thread Jaykush

 

[GDK]

You must spread some reputation around before giving it to Jaykush again

Stay Safe

 

[Ashley11]

Jay - thanks for the informative list of what I need to know. This is exactly what I was looking for.

 

[silver hawaiian]

alright! here we go!

one thing i'm struggling with in my veggie garden right now is how to move around without compacting the soil.

i've laid down 4-6" of alfalfa hay to disperse the pressure of my footprints, and i think it helps a bit. any other suggestions?

..a little late, but FWIW

For that (and others) reason, I'm going to plant in rows this year. 16 feet long by 3 feet deep, with 2 feet of "workspace" between each row.

That oughtta minimize the foot traffic around the plants, ..

 

[mad librettist]

make sure you use a mulch or plant groundcover. 2 feet is a lot of space.

 

[mad librettist]

and I meant to mention, floating row covers take almost no effort, and they can get you a whole extra month in some cases. If it's full sun, it can easily get 20 degrees warmer under the cover during the day, and when the sun goes down some of the heat is trapped. You get a few degrees frost protection, exclude flying insects (including beneficial ones), hide your plants from grazers and shoot nibblers, and in most cases you can put plants directly outside under row covers without hardening them off.

 

[timoslav]

Good thread

 

[jaykush]

wow so many views already, what would everyone love to make this thread just a bit more helpful?