Organic Gardening Info from Peaceful Valley

Testing found high levels of lead in me. Since I do not know the source, I am testing first our well water. If we have lead in our water, can we assume that it will also be in our soil? I often have worked without gloves. Also, what is a reliable way to test the soil in our garden and fields for lead? There is a inexpensive test kit that is sold in hardwares. What would we do to remediate if there is lead in our soil? Thanks, Mary

Question 1:

Thanks very much for getting back to me and for being available to
have a look at my soil report. Below I’ve tried to outline my
concerns and what I’ve done, and typically do, to my garden beds.

I’m attaching my current soil analysis report (dated 2008). I’m also
attaching the reports that I had done for the same beds for the
previous three years, in case you wanted to be able to compare.

I’m most concerned with my soil pH being 7.5. I don’t know why it
would be so high; in the past three years, it has ranged between 6.4
and 7.1, and I haven’t done anything differently this year.

I’m also concerned about my K, Mg and Ca being too high. All three
have risen over the past four years.

In contrast, my CEC has also risen; it started at 9.7 when the beds
were new, and is now at 23, which is good. And my sodium/salinity
levels have dropped from 2007, when they were too high.

My sulphur level apparently is adequate (according to PVFS’s
“Understanding Your Soil Analysis Report,” which I’ve studied), but my
understanding is that I could use sulphur to lower the pH.

Finally, among the trace minerals, Manganese (Mn) always shows up in
my garden at around 2 or 3 ppm, while Boron has been rising over the
years to it now being 2.6, which apparently is quite high.

Just after sending in my soil sample (end of February), I applied and
watered in 50 lbs of CalCM+ (gypsum) to my 1,000 sq. feet of beds.
CalCM+ is apparently 18.6% sulphur and 23.2% calcium. I could try
another soil test now, but it might be too early for any changes to
show.

FYI, I typically amend my soil each year with good-quality compost
(New Era, last year), bat guano for nitrogen, and azomite and kelp
algit for trace minerals. I also do soil soaks throughout the growing
season of Omega 6-6-6/1-5-5 and Algamin, and compost tea. I also
apply gypsum in the winter to lower the sodium. I also typically grow
a cover crop, but did not this winter; I just covered my beds with
straw.

So that’s probably more information than you needed or wanted, but
there you have it.

Many thanks once again!

Answer 1:

Seems like you are doing a great job fertilizing and ensuring build up
of organic matter! One thought I have is that you don’t need to apply
Azomite every year, especially if you also use kelp (skip a couple of years).
Your report indicates that you have more than enough trace elements (except
Manganese), so I would hold off for a few years on the Azomite. I
wrote a bit about what happens when there’s too many micronutrients in the
soil on our blog, if you want to check it out here.

You can find a really informative web page about Mn- here.
Your question about sulfur is a good one, because the Mn deficiency
could be tied to your high pH (Mn could be there, but tied up) and the fact
that your sulfur level is also high makes it difficult to assess what to do. As
far as I understand, the more pressing matter is getting your pH where it should be. That is, the Sulfur content isn’t as important as pH, but still use
caution when applying Sulfur so that it doesn’t reach toxic levels.

I’m somewhat concerned about your very high levels of Phosphorus and
Potassium. You might consider growing corn and potatoes now, because
they will use up some of the excess. Also if you plant Sweet Clover as a
cover crop this winter (but don’t till it into the soil, just cut it down),
that will take out some of the excess as well.

Thank you for growing organically

Question 2:

Thanks for the reply, and for the interesting links. Indeed a good
idea to back off on the Azomite!

I guess I’m still not clear as to what I should do at this point about
the high pH. As I mentioned, I put out 50 lbs of gypsum (CalCM+) near
the end of February. Should that take care of it? Would another soil
test show any difference?

Answer 2:

Something I did not talk about is the fact that as K, Mg, and Ca (which
are considered “Base” cations) break down through weathering and are
released, they raise pH. The levels of these minerals in your soil are so
high it’s no wonder the pH continues to rise! Until those levels are
brought down, the pH will be alkaline. I would suggest that you do what you
can to leach out those excesses (lots of corn and potatoes!) and hopefully
the pH will balance out. The gypsum you recently applied might help for this
season, but perhaps take another soil test next season. You might consider
also using Soil Sulfur if your pH continues to increase.

Have a good day!

Results of my soil test came in, much earlier than expected.  As it turns out, the results were MUCH better that I had anticipated.

The minute I got my results, I consulted the Understanding Your Soil Analysis Report book, to see what I was dealing with.  As you can see, most of my levels are either good or great.  After a thorough reading of the book, I wanted to be sure that I understood what I was reading, so I employed the services of Amber, our friendly, knowledgeable store manager / garden consultant.  To be able to properly convey this information to you, the reader, I corresponded with her entirely through email:

 ”There are only a couple of things you need to do to improve your soil.  One is to increase your biological activity.  You can do that by using a soil inoculant and/or arctic humus, by cover cropping, and by using compost tea (start in the spring, not now, microbes aren’t very active in winter anyway).  Here’s a good website if you want to learn more about soil structure, biologically active soil and more.  As you increase bio activity and organic mater, your CEC (Cation Exchange Capacity) will go up, which is good.  The higher the better for CEC; it reveals your soil’s ability to hold onto nutrients to be used by plants.

Also in the spring, you should add a Nitrogen fertilizer. If you go by the Understanding your Soil Analysis Report booklet, you can choose Blood, Fish, Cottonseed, or Feather Meal at the “heavy” rate.  Your pH is nearly perfect, so it’s probably better not to use the cottonseed meal as it’s acidic.  Nitrogen is a nutrient that you’ll be adding each spring, because it gets used up quickly.

There are a few interesting things about your soil, like the Phosphorus is very high, which is unusual for our area.  I wonder if the previous caretakers fertilized the area in the past?  Potassium is also high, and Zinc is extremely high.  Watch out when plants are growing, the excess zinc might induce an iron deficiency.  It doesn’t necessarily mean you actually have an iron deficiency, just that if one nutrient is out of balance it can “bind” other nutrients.  Scientists have figured out which nutrients bind which, and zinc apparently binds iron.  If your plants show yellowing between the veins, especially on the young leaves, you might consider using a liquid iron chelate.

I’d suggest that you go ahead and work up the soil enough to plant the cover crop.  In Spring, look out over the area and when the crop is at 25-50% flower, chop it down and till it in.  At that time, add your nitrogen fertilizer (you could probably go with the Medium rate of application instead of the Heavy though) , and soil inoculant and/or arctic humus.  When you put in your garden or lawn, start using compost tea.  Voila! Before you know it, you’ll have a luscious garden!”

(By the way, anyone who gets a  soil test done can make an appointment for a phone consultation with Amber for a nominal charge)

So, my next step, since I apparently don’t need to amend anything (yay!), is to till up the ground and plant.  Hopefully, the time will be available this weekend to make this happen.  Stay tuned!

After many years of apartment dwelling, I was finally able to move my family into a house with a cozy front yard, and a (relatively) nice sized back yard for the kids to play in, and for my wife to have a nice garden.

But the problem looks like this (please forgive the mess, still in the moving-in process):

When I was a kid, I used to HATE yard work.  My parents didn’t garden at all, so our maintenance involved raking leaves, watering plants and mowing the lawn — for a kid who likes to see the fruits of his efforts, this wasn’t exactly fulfilling.  Looking out over this relative desolation, I didn’t feel dejected; quite the opposite, in fact.  I saw opportunity, in many forms.

First of all, I have been working at Peaceful Valley for going on 6 years.  When I first started here, I knew zilch about growing.  Nothing.  I’d never so much as planted a flower seed in a pot for Mother’s Day. In my time here, I have gained a vast amount of theoretical knowledge: I knew the hows and the whys, but never had the opportunity to apply what I’d learned.  Seeing this yard sent visions of sugarplums (and other fruits and veggies) dancing in my head.

What I am going to be doing over the next 5 or so months is getting this area cleaned up, put together and ready for growing.  Come Spring, I’m planting a lawn, and my wife is setting up a small vegetable garden, probably with raised beds.  As I do each step, I will be taking pictures and thoroughly documenting each phase.  The goal is not only to do my own yard, but to give a bit of direction for anyone else who wishes to do the same.

Here’s the plan:

(more…)

I talked to a guy in the Peaceful Valley store who found out through a soil test that he has really high levels of micronutrients (he was probably overzealous with the Azomite).

It’s kind of like what happens when I reach too often for the Girl Scout Cookies or Valentine chocolate.  My body gets overloaded then I crash and feel like I need more! A vicious cycle of wrong signals!

So in the soil if there’s too many micronutrient competitors, they antagonize each other.  Pretty soon an all out brawl breaks out!  Zinc has Copper in a head lock…Manganese is gouging Iron’s eye out…Nickel body slams Boron!

As a result of the overload below, the brawling micronutrients are unavailable to the plants, so the above ground symptom is that the plants need MORE micronutrients.  And the natural reaction is to reach for more Azomite.

Whew! I’m tired.  A Coke sounds really good (but maybe I should have some raw almonds instead…).