Biodiverse Polyculture (USDA 8a Zone Pasture) - sounds better than "My Acres of Weeds"

[NanaK]

This has inspired me to order soil test kits. 'Bout time too... I've been here 30 years, had a garden for about 28 of them. I've done the $5 tests from the garden store, not really learned anything.

I ordered one for the heavy soil garden, and one for sandy soil garden. The soils are very different.

This is what they test for:

"What soil test results/fertilizer information will you receive?

• Nutrient levels for phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), and magnesium (Mg)
• pH value and cation exchange capacity (CEC)
• The soil organic matter (OM) level
• Personalized recommendations for fertilizer and any needed pH modifications"

This is through Michigan State University, which is a big ag school here. Long ago (50 years or so), it was a joke to call it, "Moo U."

This will be more accurate than the garden store type tests.

 

[fuzzi]

I had to learn too. My first couple years with the veggie garden was disastrous. BIL set me straight.
We live and learn.

My water is extremely soft, too. My aquarium snails kept dying until I checked the hardness, and started adding buffers. Now their shells don't disintegrate.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

We're very acidic here, too, but when I had the soil tested (15 years ago?) it was not as low as yours, but 5-something pH. Blueberries, azaleas, gardenias love it. I don't add lime but I do dig in organic material, compost, including decomposed leaf/grass clippings. And coop cleanings, though I let those age.

honestly, high 5-something would be the "sweet spot" for a lot of what I'd like to grow. We also have roses and blueberries and other acid loving plants. My grapes and olives both prefer 5.5 to a little over 6. Apples like high 5s to 7, so they struggle on property - I sweetened a lot before I planted. Peaches 6-7, again, I sweetened. Citrus likes 6ish - I should have sweetened.

 

[allenw]

The lime should give you a good kick and release some nutrients that are bound up by the low ph. My understanding is that the pelletized lime is finely ground and pressed into granular form like fertilizer so I don't see a problem with availability when you use it.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Seed arrived today. Still waiting on the lime, the fertilizer, and some way to spread it

 

[saysfaa]

Do you have the way to spread it on the way?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Do you have the way to spread it on the way?

I think I'm driving up the road and buying a spreader that holds 80#, throws 12' and gets towed behind a tractor, ATV, or car.

Or I'll save $100 and get the one that holds 50#. I need to look at them side by side to compare axles and gear boxes.

 

[Molpet]

I think I'm driving up the road and buying a spreader that holds 80#, throws 12' and gets towed behind a tractor, ATV, or car.

Or I'll save $100 and get the one that holds 50#. I need to look at them side by side to compare axles and gear boxes.

Shame you couldn't rent one

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Shame you couldn't rent one

given rental prices, and that its an hour 15 each way to my closest rental location... if I use it twice, maybe three times, it pays for itself. Which is why I now own a small concrete mixer.

and I got the weights wrong - this is the one I'm looking at, and this is the one whose price I can't justify. Obviously, if I had 20-30 acres under cultivation, different decision (and bigger tractor)!

 

[Sally PB]

given rental prices, and that its an hour 15 each way to my closest rental location... if I use it twice, maybe three times, it pays for itself. Which is why I now own a small concrete mixer.

Which you can use when you want to, not when it's available for rent, and you don't have to be done and have it back by a certain time.

That was a big part of why we bought a wood splitter. That, and we were tired of getting "the wimpy splitter" when we went to the rental place. They had two, and the bigger one was always gone.

Even so, we spent more on buying a splitter ($2000) than we would have paid in rental fees. But wow! that thing is a beast (40 ton). Nothing has fazed it.