Home Soil Test - No Equipment Needed

[kevinw]

I added ALOT of 8 year old horse manure this spring with some other compost to my garden. Hand sifting all the manure into large buckets and them spreading and turning over my garden has made a huge difference. I have also noticed an increase in earthworms and find it is much easier to turn the garden "over" now. This spring in Ohio has been so much more enjoyable!

[BackYardGardeningTip]

When I first tried digging into our soil it was like concrete. I couldn't even get the shovel to stick in the soil and stand on it's own. It would just fall over. I seriously thought about just going with raised beds.

It was so hard that our first veggie garden was only 4x4 foot.

Since then I have been adding compost and peat moss. Now we have a 10x20 foot vegetable garden and it's the difference between night and day compared to that first shovel full of clay.

[Cat-oorz]

This is my first year trying to garden and at first, everything is great. i planted everything in pots and got lots of peppers and greens. Then I put it in the raised garden bed. When I put my plants in the dirt, they stopped growing. they never got any bigger. And my tomato plant just suddenly, after about 1 month, turned dry as if it had been burned. I'm not sure what I need to do now. Can you help me? I tried digging in the soil, it's not hard to dig. how can i improve my soil?

[maryobrien]

Very informative! It is very nice that you explain everything so clearly and thoroughly, including WHY you are doing what you are doing - in this case, carefully examining the soil we are using with the knowledge that it is the foundation for everything else we will be doing. Thank you!

[gunamonyimmanuel]

For about a month I have had beautiful luscious growing Egg-plants and all of a sudden the whole plant has become droopy and fading away just overnight.  These are plants I planted in 3 gallon pots and always had successful growth and harvests, This year I have added some Peat moss for Moisture retention and Mycorrhizae Fungi powder dissolved in water and poured for the plants, and it was doing very well until now.  I see the same result with some Beans plants as well. I make sure the soil is well drained and remove excess water from the bottom overflow containers. I cannot figure out what is wrong.    Please advise. 

[wesleymoore]

How can I test for any pesticides or herbicides in my soil that may have be present? If I do have some, how long does it stay there and do I not need to grow there?

[normamead]

Thank you for the great information 😻😸😺I am going to do that for the back garden. I have raise beds in the front of my house 🏡 but I have been filling them with store organic soil.

[littgaia]

My clay soil is mostly red and loaded with rocks. Since we also live on a fairly steep hill, I' like your recommendation for keeping it from washing away in heavy rains. Are we better off planting grass or trees to prevent erosion>.

[SuperModerngranny]

what about potted plants? How do you test soil for potted plants since it already has a plant in it from the nursery.

[bartacomuskidd]

I have nothing but clay, hard sticky clay. Can I apply gypsum to the surface and see better drainage? How long? What product? Whole yard application

[MrStugatz]

I was told to put some blood & bone meal under the plants when I first plant them in the spring. Is that a good idea? Planted tomatoes, peppers, beans, cucumbers and eggplant this year.

[WastedTalent]

Hello! Just a question, is it possible to grow vegetables potatoes and similar things in the soil of a hill or mountain?
Provided of course you make room for the plants to get enough sunlight.

[leephysics]

I have clay soil that varies in color from tan to dark grey. It holds moisture well under the surface, but it's very compacted. I don't have much compost made. Local topsoil, leaves and straw are available to use. How would you suggest I best prepare the soil?

[fieryhorsehealing]

Last year was our veggie gardens first year and our vegetables did not fruit well. Small fruits that took a long time to come in, past harvest time. Much of the soil we put down was compost so I was rather surprised by this. Any idea what we might amend with to get better veggies? Thanks so much.

[BackYardGardeningTip]

Ran out of characters on that last response. :)

I know we have plenty of garden worms but I will do your test of the soil and see how many I come up with and how our soil compacts or crumbles in my hands.

For the first couple of years I was double digging to get deeper so our garden would drain better. Last year a friend tilled it for us and what an amazing garden we had. This year another friend is helping me till.

I'm learning about PH balance this year as well.

thanks for the tips

[imacheetah]

I live in the dryest part of texas. the soil is like rock. So if I just dig around may lawn and make the dirt really soft, can I just buy worms and add them into my lawn? I heard they can make it better...

[roberts.]

Home Test. Take 2 small cups.In the 1st cup put 1/4 cup of white vinegar and in the 2nd cup put 1 tablespoon baking soda into 1/4 cup warm (not hot) water and mix well. Add a clean soil sample (no rocks, bark, sticks, leaves, etc) of approx 1 level tablespoon in to each container making sure the cup with the baking soda/water is still well mixed. If the cup with the vinegar fizzes the soil is alkaline, if the baking soda mixture fizzes it is acidic, if neither happens you soil is neutral. As for how to fix one or the other, i'm still learning that part. :) just so many complaints on him not showing, so here ya all go. Hope this helped..

[jacquespierrerossouw]

hi I'm from Namibia and the piece of ground I got to garden with is super hard (not even weads grow there)...any advice on how I can keep it permanently "workable" throughout the year

[SarehRajabi]

Hi Phil, I bought garden compost soil and forest litter (3:1) to fill in my raised garden beds. The forest litter was very hot inside the pile when I had it delivered to me and I poured it into my garden beds right away. Now after 3 months I see my soil has a pH of 5 and my vegetables has not grown more than a couple of centimeters. Is this only the pH that is making trouble or the decomposing forest litter?

[nancyannenesteriak-gentili]

Thanks! I am pretty much the greenest greenhorn when it comes to gardening! So this video is great!