Feeding the soil

willnbirdie · « **on:** June 11, 2008, 19:47 »

Hi All

As we are new to all of this we are not sure how best to treat the soil. We are aiming to rotate crops as much as possible, we have had our delivery of horse manure, currently rotting nicely away, ready for digging in when the autumn comes.

We also have been adding growmore when some plants are going in the ground.

I know balance of nutrients is essential - is there anything else that we should be feeding the soil with?

How do you rate green manure (think that's what it's called), the stuff you grow and when ready dig in - does it helps with keeping weeds down?

Cheers

willnbirdie

Caretaker · « **Reply #1 on:** June 11, 2008, 20:31 »

I am fairly new to allotment five years now, I have grown green manure for the last two years, when the last crop in a section is finished say late September / October, I dig it over and broadcast the seed over it give it a watering and thats it till early spring, the frost kills most of it, then dig it in.
I just get a packet of six different variety's, clover, buck wheat to name two.
I have stopped getting farm yard manure, as something in it attacked my legs.
I do use comfree (spell wrong) plant as I grow lots of that at the bottom of the plot.
I suppose it all depends on the soil you have in the first place but green manure works for me.
I forgot to add, I use chicken pellets when planting and as a feed.
Do what ever works for you and what you can get hold off or try different things.
Ask what others use on your plot as well.
All the best.
Reg

DD. · « **Reply #2 on:** June 11, 2008, 20:35 »

Whatever else you do, do NOT sow root crops in freshly manured soil.

gobs · « **Reply #3 on:** June 11, 2008, 21:44 »

You don't want to over-do it, either. You only going to know if your soil is depleted of something and what it needs, once you are growing things, unless you fool enough to order an expensive analysis, exceptfor suspecting serious probs for some reason.

The manure and green manure should be more than enough, for appropriate crops as DD says. You will need to add potassium for flowering crops next season. You chose green manure according to soil type and time of year, a good catalogue should be all you need, winter green manure is frost hardy and not supposed to be killed off, etc. And all keep weeds out if sown as recommended, some can become weeds if you don't tend to them at the right time,so consider well, what you can do.

lincspoacher · « **Reply #4 on:** June 11, 2008, 22:07 »

Ok, let me explain the deep technicals of soil nutrients.

Most compost makers arent too bothered aboutt he balance of nutrients, because most times its correctable. The problem thats more pressing is the levels of nutrients, and this is usually measured by the conductivity of the damp compost/soil - its a measure of the rate at which nutrients Ions can travel though the medium. Normal soil has a conductivity of about 150-300 Ms/cm. My home made compost is 2400 (i got the lab to check it

)

The point about this is that at high enough levels of ion conductivity, you can have the same effect as dipping the plants in battery acid. The massive ion flux just destroys the surface molecules of the plant, it literally corrodes the plant away. Home made compost and horse poo has such high nutrients you have to dilute it with something else, like peat, or loam, or coir - if i mix sterilised loam and grit with my home made compost at a ratio of 7:2:1 the conductivity is about 350, and anything placed in it grows like mad. Ditto horse poo. You need to put it where the plants roots wont directly touch it, so thats the idea of digging a trench, putting it at the bottom and covering it with soil. The nutrients will leach up at a steady rate. Growmore is a 1:1:1 fertiliser, by the way, which means if you put it on something that needs a different balance, then you need to correct with other feeds like Fish Blood and Bone or Sulphate of Ammonia.

In order of importance, its 1. Conductivity, 2. NPK balance 3. pH

Ok, thats the free science lesson over

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Feeding the soil

lincspoacher