Beware Of These FIVE Soil Amending Mistakes

When it comes to amending your soil, it couldn't be more important. But if you do it wrong you can not only waste a bunch of money, but also time. Watch out for these 5 mistakes and get it right! :)

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[brianmoore]

Good info! Off topic Luke. I'm a cancer patient currently going through another round of chemotherapy. It is very difficult for me and I try to sleep a lot to not feel the pain and discomfort. A couple of days ago I woke up from what was a dream but it sure felt real during the experience. My dream was that you showed up at my door first thing in the morning with some sort of gardening project "we" were going to do in my garden. (We never revealed what that was because I woke up). Because of my condition I am living again with my parents at 63yo. In the dream I was so excited to see you I kept telling my mother how you were all the way from MI. ( I live in So Cal). It was such a real dream I was terribly disappointed to wake up and realize it was a dream. God bless you Luke for what you do in the gardening world and for making that morning for me less painful. Even if it was a dream.

[gracerandolph]

My father just straight buried (and still does) all of our non meat/dairy food scraps straight into the ground maybe a foot or so down. It drives my mom nuts. But it must work because his garden is always thriving. He will just bury it in random places not sure if he has a grid system or if he just remembers.

[annespun]

Hey—just a quick comment that you also need to know the pH of your water when you are trying to do the soil test. Might want to use distilled water for the most accurate results. Scientist hubby overheard this and made the comment! 😂

[joanschutter]

What a relief! I dumped my compost bins onto the garden and realized the compost wasn't finished. I wasn't sure what to do but now I think I can make it work as a mulch. I'll pull it back away from my plantings and use bloodmeal to boost the nitrogen. Learning soil science is a steep learning curve for this non-science major. You make a great teacher!

[GeorgeLucas]

The end lesson is something we all need to remember and embody throughout the season: we WILL make mistakes but we WILL learn from them and be better. Dont be afraid to break some eggs and learn.

[nastytechniquez]

When it comes to leeching nutrients, many nutrients are actually not easily leeched. The 2 that are leech-able are nitrogen and phosphorus, which are both macronutrients so people worry about it a lot. You can help counter that by adding those 2 nutrients in early spring right before planting.
I live in a semi arid climate so leeching isn’t a big concern.
Having a good mulch layer on top seriously helps prevent that compaction as well.
I amend really early so that the soil biology can start the cycling process of nutrients as soon as it reaches warm enough temperatures.
But not using immature compost is 100% a great tip. It’s also one of the most common mistakes made by gardeners

[shadfangoriginal]

One thing I do to help maintain my garden soil is use fallen leaves during the fall.
I will collect the leaves and spread them over the garden bed to protect the soil and provide the good insects a food source over our long winters.
In the spring I will remove most of the leaves and put them into my compost.

[doloresreynolds]

You can also find pH test strips where live fish and fish tanks are sold. Just fyi.😊
In my soil, which is sand (like in sand dunes), I don’t want to dig in any amendments, or else they just disappear down through the sand. Building a soil layer on top of the sand seems to be working better for me; I add amendments on top, then mulch, and gravity handles the rest!

[aprildegele]

The one thing that will keep nutrients from leeching (which I need because I have clay soil under the good stuff) is Bio char. It's a permanent soil amendment that will provide nutrients for years and years without having to replace compost or whatever. I also noted that when you're demonstrating the compost, you have no topsoil. That makes a difference in rain-proofing the leeching.
If you amend early, why wouldn't you expect compaction? I would till before planting.
"You don't have permanently good soil" ... bio char claims to resolve this.
I get the OCD gardener, but my grandparent and great grandparents didn't go through all of this. They didn't have a way to check pH. But they knew to rotate crops in a bed. They knew when to lime and when to add manure. They just knew because of the way the weeds came up.
Watch the weeds.
Soil high in calcium (which can signal an alkaline pH), will have a lot of dandelions for instance. Dandelions are calcium pumps, taking the calcium out during blooming and replacing it back when the blooms die back.
Know your weeds, don't just pull them! Weeds will tell you what the soil composition is without having to have the soil tested.
Be your great grandparents! Don't rely on testing and guessing on amendments. Just learn to watch the weeds. They'll tell you everything you need to know.
Learn about the weeds first. That will tell you the composition of your soil better than any commercial soil test will.

[cherylannebarillartist]

In #5, the way you explained compost that is not yet ready is SUCH good information!!!! Thank you!!!
❤

[Utah_Mike]

I cover my beds with at least 6” leaves in the fall, then grass clippings thru out the growing season. Seems to keep organic material up.

[whiskybar]

Cool! Really enjoy your videos! Just a small one, now you may want to use distilled water for your pH test as your tap water may already be slightly off neutral and this would affect the result. (my water pH is 5.5)

[dianabasinger]

I can't believe how much your videos align with the information I need when I need it😊

[sazji]

As a good gardening friend says, “what we’re really growing is good living soil.”

[mhouston]

I'm in zone 8b and just topped off my beds this last week with 3-4" of finished compost. I also regularly bury kitchen scraps in the garden. In the next 2 weeks when the weather dries a litte, I will turn the 3-4" of compost down into the soil. After this I will go ahead and plant my early cold weather crops and cover my tropical beds with clear plastic hoop houses for later planting. I also regularly use mycorrizae granules and also add ash from my fire pit, seasoned chicken manure from my hens, and azomite to boost vegetable and fruit flavor. Works well! 🎉

[MrEmericatoy]

Migardener over the years has helped me go from a beginner gardener to highly educated gardener. One thing i have always wished was that Migardener would make some sort of space for gardening questions or help. Like a gardening hot line, a gardening forum, or even just more Q&A's. You know how doctors can do telehealth over video chat nowadays. I wish we had a gardening telehealth that we could video call to help with gardening issues. This could be a million dollar idea, or it could be a complete flop. Nevertheless, i would (and do) intrust my garden health with Luke and Migardener. Even if their advice doesn't completely fix an issue, they have always steered me in the right direction.

[searchbeautyhawaii]

Last season I had so many red wrigglers I decided to add them to my beds. They love organic matter, and need it to sustain themselves. I mixed sifted manure, straw and coffee chaff together put on the beds and cover with a thick layer of straw. A fertile, earthworm casting filled bed results. The trick is to keep adding food as it disappears!

[friendlybello]

I've always added finished compost in the fall, not spring. It used to be because it needed the winter to decompose, but now I fall compost intentionally. Then I bag up the last mowing on our acre, which is all the fallen leaves and grass clippings, and mulch over it thickly to tuck in the beds for the winter. Nutrient leaching occurs, but for seedlings you've got them raring to go in fresh potting mix anyway. By the time you've got a bigger plant that's been growing in your fall composted garden, their roots should be big enough to reach deeper and access additional nutrients that way. I'd be interested to see some variable testing about rates of nutrient leaching in home gardens with and without mulch in cold climates. I'd also be interested to know if compost's NPK ratio is really the important part for a plant that's already gotten a great start in rich potting mix, or if it's the networks of fungi, bacteria, insects etc that makes fall composted gardens so productive.

[fishingpinky]

MY LORD MY LORD MY LORD! The light just came on for me! I started 8 raised garden beds 3 years ago in Central FL. I did the lasagna method. BUT, nothing was growing well. I used wood chips, Black Cow and Oak leaves for the top. Uggg..now I know the plants were being robbed of NITROGEN. No wonder I was getting such a poor production of crops. Thank you! Even though I am in 9B central Fl and our seasons vary, your principals apply to all of us all over the country!

[brianseybert]

I do different ways in enriching my garden soil. Cover crops, leave the roots in the soil over winter, cover the soils with mulch, worm castings, compost, leaf mold and different teas. For me it is all about maintaining the biology in the soils to feed my plants.
Stay Well!!!