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Old August 27, 2014   #1
Tracydr
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Laurinburg, North Carolina, zone 7
Posts: 3,207
Default Soil test results!

Here are the soil test results on my new property.
PH 4.8 and 4.9
Very low (. Iknew that it was low nitrogen,potassium, phosphorous and pH but this is even lower than I expected.
Any recommendations? I could maybe start some favas,clover, and some other cover crop on the area that I will do berries. But, what about the vegetable plot? I always find it difficult when I grow year-round. Perhaps divide the garden into two and do green manure on one half and the winter garden on the other?
I do have available a lot of partially composted pine straw and leaves. All the hardwood chips that I can possibly make, assuming my chipper keeps going. I will have a ton of leaves this fall.
I may be able to gather some manure but probably not real quickly. I do have a couple of bags of lime.
What should I do between now and next spring? I will be mixing in the leaves and pine straw for the veggie garden, along with some purchased fertilizer, since I don't have immediate access to a lot of manure.
I also have a bunch of water weeds which I will be pulling out as soon as we find a small jonboat. Plan is to compost that as well.
pH is 4.9 in vegetable garden site and 4.8 on the berry site
K index is 9
P index is 3 ( K and P are very low, optimum is 50-70.
Nitrogen is pretty low. They recommended 20 lbs per 1,000 square feet.
Obviously I won't put all the recommended lime down at one time. Should I even put any on the blueberries/strawberries? They recommend 80 lbs per 1,000 sq feet for the berries and 75 lbs on the site where I will plant vegetables.
Humic % is 0.27% on the berry garden and 0.41% on the vegetable garden. I suspect this is because the berry site is my new septic field and this was put in about 1 month ago, which means that the soil in the area was turned very deeply, leaving no organic matter in the upper levels.

Last edited by Tracydr; August 27, 2014 at 01:54 PM.
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