Heidlberg said:I finally got the soil test done. Not really sure what to do with the info though. I tested two spots. One where the plants seem healthy, and one where they are "sick". It seems that I have highly alkaline soil in both places. The variants being that where the plants are "sick" I need to add nitrogen but where they are "well" I need to add phosphorus? It seems I'm also low in potash, but I don't even know what that does for the garden....
... I would normally till in manure (which I thought was in the compost mixture I amended with, but apparently not) in the spring.
I guess spot-treating each deficient spot is best for now.
Super-phosphate is all phosphate, so that's an easy spot treatment. The "sick spots" sound like they would benefit from almost any fertilizer, but if they DON'T need phosphorus, maybe a fertilizer with a low middle number would be best.
Since you always add compost, your soil probably has plenty of organic matter. So you can afford to add moderate amounts of some concentrated mineral nutrients (bagged "chemical" fertilizer). If you have so many nutrient deficiencies, a "one-time-fix" seems appropriate. If the soil is rich in organic matter, it may be able to hold on to minerals. That's one thing clayey soils are good at: holding minerals tightly.
It does sound like the whole yard is far too alkaline, so you can start treating that everywhere (it's supposed to be slow and difficult to fix). . How about raking in a little agricultural sulfur once or twice a year? Over time, that will counteract some of the alkalinity. (Or whatever your local ag extension agent advises for your soil type.
One thing that I would do, this fall and next spring, is to till the plots, moving soil around horizontally, so that the spots that have one thing and lack another will all have some of what they need. You might even wheelbarrow a few loads of soil from one bed to another, to dilute the problems and share the wealth around. Then (or maybe after a year of "mellowing") you could re-sample a few spots and get another test done to see what the soil looks like after "averaging" it.
I think my yard has the same issue: each raised bed was filled with soil I made that year, and each bed probably has very different strengths and weaknesses (except that they all have too much clay, and not enough compost, silt, sand and grit).
