A healthy environment and plants depend on healthy soil. If the soil in your garden is in good condition, you do not need to use fertilizer or pesticide. As cited by author and respected gardener Frank Tozer, “When you build soil, you are not just improving the health of plants, but you are also enhancing your own.”.
Humus comprises compost, leaves, grass clippings, and other decaying materials. Humus provides organic soil with its richness. But it keeps moisture in a while, draining thoroughly. Our premium quality professional soil treatment services will get your gardens off to a healthy start. Keep them productive throughout the growing season.
Garden soil that is organic is loose, fluffy, and full of the air plants need to grow. It also contains minerals vital for the healthy growth of plants. A wide variety of living organisms live in the soil, including worms, fungi, and bacteria. Keeping the land healthy also requires a suitable pH.
Types of soil and their textures
To assure maximum soil health, you need to inspect pH, macronutrient levels, and mineral content. The soil texture depends on its sand, silt, and clay. On NASA’s Soil Science Education Page, you can find a description of the three primary soil components and a simple quiz to determine your soil type.
Larger soil particles like sand are gritty to touch and make up the most significant pieces of soil. The gravel particles are small, smooth when wet, and powdery when dry. The smallest particles appear to be clay particles.
Plates or sheets of paper stack on top of each other as clay particles do. You can tell the soil texture without consulting an expert.
Pick a small amount up and rub it between your fingers. Sandy soil feels gritty. When talcum powder looks smooth, the soil is silty. In wet weather, clay soil becomes slippery and sticky and feels dry.
The composition of clay soils usually falls somewhere in the middle. Sand particles evaporate rapidly, causing nutrient lacks in the soil.
These soils lack beneficial microbes and organic matter, which plants need. Sand and clay are more fertile than silty soil, which is dense and poorly drained. Instead, you can take advantage of professional Soil Treatment Services to resolve your issue quickly. Heavy clay soil is thick, does not drain well, and cracks when dry.
Clay particles have a limited amount of space between them. Organic matter and microorganisms are not very common in soils. It’s difficult for plants to grow in hard soil.
The Cover Crops
It is a type of temporary vegetation sown in the fall that protects soil from erosion and wind. They also add valuable organic material. The roots of these plants develop a dense structure as they grow, which improves soil texture.
A cover crop prevents weed growth, deters insects and diseases, and adds nitrogen to the soil. Plants that are turned into the soil are called green manures.
Alfalfa is the most common cover crop, followed by rye. Wintertime cover crops and summertime cover crops are sown at the end of the individual season.
You can add nitrogen and organic matter to your soil by planting beans, lentils, sweet clover, cowpeas, or even cowpeas as a summer manure crop.
A non-legume like millet, forage sorghum, or buckwheat provides biomass and suppresses weeds. Protecting soil in the off-season is the goal of winter cover crops. Legumes fix nitrogen, making them effective choices for winter cover crops.
Choosing cold-tolerant crops, such as hairy vetch and rye, is wise for northern states, and Southern states have more winter cover crops. Some examples of these plants are clovers, vetches, medics, and field peas.
A mixture of winter cereal grains, usually oats, rye, or wheat, may be planted in order to benefit from the seeds. Following the crop of summer crops
Your soil may require additional adjustments (like lime). Cover crop seeds should be scattered lightly.
In between vegetable rows, plant cover crops about a month in advance.
Keep your cover crops from setting to seed, or they may become invasive.
Plant up to 2-3 weeks before tilling the harvest into the soil. By incorporating cover crops with a rototiller, you can prepare the soil.
The air
Air is also necessary to support plant photosynthesis in the soil and above ground. Soil carries atmospheric nitrogen, which plants can use. Oxygen in the soil is crucial for the survival of soil organisms that are beneficial to plants.
There is just enough space between the particles of rich soil so that plants can breathe. In clayey and silty soils, there are tiny particles tightly packed together. Sand has the opposite issue; its particles are too big and dispersed. Excessive air in sandy soil causes organic matter to decompose rapidly.
Compost is the main organic matter that helps balance the soil’s air supply, which should be about 25%. You should avoid stepping on or using heavy equipment to compact the soil, and please stay away from soaked soil when working it.
The Life of the Soil
For healthy soil, there must be a healthy population of organisms. Try contacting professional Soil Treatment Services to get the best result from your garden soil. Plants are able to get nutrients from the worms, and the worms bind soil particles into aggregates so that the soil remains fluffy and loose.
Several types of organisms can be found in soil, including worms, nematodes, springtails, bacteria, fungi, protozoa, mites, etc.
You can buy these organisms in the soil, but if you do not provide a suitable environment, they will languish.
The air, water, and food they need will allow them to flourish if they have the right environment.
Mulch is crucial
Mould has several benefits, including keeping soil moisture, preventing compaction, and reducing weed growth. Mulch also breaks down, releasing helpful nutrients into the soil. The effort will keep your garden healthy no matter what organic material you use, such as wood chips, leaves, or pine needles.
Analyze the soil
If you don’t test your soil, you’ll never know what’s happening. Professional Soil Treatment Services offers inexpensive, easy-to-use soil testing kits. If you understand your soil’s organic makeup, you’ll be able to choose the ways to improve it year after year.
Use aged animal manure
Increase soil health and fertility by adding aged animal manure. Fresh animal manure burns plants and harbors pathogens that can harm humans. To improve garden soil quality, allow the waste to age for a few months to a year.
Animal droppings include chicken manure, rabbit droppings, horse droppings, goat droppings, and sheep droppings, including bat droppings, which are rich in nutrients and improve soil structure.
Using animal dung in your vegetable garden can cause pesticide injury. They contain pesticides and herbicides, which may be difficult to remove from your soil.
Soil health assessment
Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium are the three most critical elements for plant growth. The plants take up the essential primary nutrients from the soil. So, they are known as macronutrients.
A complete fertilizer contains all three nutrients, but it is not complete. Many plants require secondary nutrients such as calcium, magnesium, and sulfur. Iron, Copper, manganese, and zinc tend to be inadequate micronutrients.
Micronutrients can have trained functions, like cobalt, which most plants don’t use. But legumes need to fix nitrogen. pH readings are another helpful indicator of the acid-alkaline balance in your soil. Healthy soil comprises these elements, as well as the right texture.
Finally
The information on the soil modifications should have answered your question about creating ideal soil for your garden and provide you with some quick and straightforward ideas. If you have any problems, reach out to professional Soil Treatment Services. Happy gardening!
Author – Dustin Pope, the President of Tree Doctor, wisdom is stored in the optimum health of the trees, plants, and shrubs in the landscape of San Diego. He is very passionate about creating awareness for tree health management and educating people about the consequences of ignoring the unique tree healthcare needs. He believes in sustainable results using advanced environmentally-friendly technology.
He loves to write about tree and plant health care problems, insect and disease diagnosis and treatment, soil and root care making people aware through his experience, and keeping the San Diego County landscape healthy and beautiful. Stay tuned to the recent articles to know all about harmful insects and diseases hampering tree health, tree nutrients, soil care, root management, deep root fertilization, and other stress to trees.