Even if you’re an outstanding gardener — adding a layer of compost before the rainy season, planting cover crops in the fall and tilling them in when spring comes — you’re probably also growing vegetables and fruit that pull nutrients from the soil. To do your part in your life-giving garden you need more information than you can pick up with your eyes, hands and nose. You need to make seasonal checks of your soil with a simple home soil test kit. For the full scan of your soil, it’s important to order a laboratory test of your home garden soil every 3 years (annually if you’re a farmer). The lab test gives you a wealth of detailed data on the state of your soil, with specific advice on the amount of amendments you need to bring it into balance. Once you have amended the soil, check again the next growing season with a home test kit to be sure you have not over-corrected or under-corrected. 

Testing your soil at home takes just over 12 hours. Green Web does a spot check on one of her raised beds. we takes soil samples and dries them outdoors for 12 hours. To collect the soil you can wield a trowel with measuring marks, like the Fiskars Big Grip trowel. If you’ll be taking a lot of soil samples, get greater depth with the Oakfield soil sampler.  

 With the big summer vegetable growing season ahead, it’s crucial to have good soil to produce great vegetables and fruit. Nitrogen will give green leaves. 

 Phosphorus is essential for robust flowers. Potassium supports basic functions of plants, including photosynthesis and protein synthesis. 

Once you have your home results, contact Green Web for directions on how much amendment to add to your soil, calculated by your exact test results. The Garden Guide Booklet has key advice. In the case of the more elaborate lab analysis of your soil, we e-mail you a personalized PDF about how to correct your soil. Curious about the lab soil test? We have anarticle for you. Get to know your soil better. Whether the soil is in a raised bed, a perennial border, or an undisturbed plot you have your eye on for your next vegetable patch — be sure to test your soil with a home test kitbefore each growing season.

The post Test Your Soil at Home first appeared on Green Web Institute.

An important but often overlooked mathematical fact about pH is that the values are “logarithmic.” For those of us that no longer remember trigonometry, this means that a pH of 5 is 10 times more acidic than a pH of 6, but 100 times more acidic than 7. Practically speaking, this means that small changes in pH numbers are actually large changes in the soil chemistry. Fortunately, getting the pH exactly right is not essential. All plants have a range of pH in which they can grow, although they do best at a specific pH level. Some plants tolerate a larger range of pH than others, so if your soil is less than perfect you may want to select from these tolerant plants. Good choices include serviceberry, hydrangea, bleeding hearts, ferns, and potatoes. Life in Balance It’s not just plants that need a healthy soil pH. Everything in the soil is affected by the levels of free hydrogen ions, especially microorganisms such as mycorrhizae and bacteria (both beneficial and disease-causing). Microorganisms that benefit plants tend to have the same pH requirements as the plants themselves. For example, both the beneficial bacteria that fix nitrogen in legumes and the legumes themselves prefer a range of 6.0 to 6.8. Many disease-causing organisms thrive in excessively acidic or alkaline soil. Further, the plant’s health is weakened when grown in suboptimal pH, making it even easier for plants grown in such soil to become diseased.

 pH also affects the availability of nutrients in the soil, because the H+ will bind to the other nutrients and thus alter their chemical structure. If your pH is out of balance, your plants may not be able to use the nitrogen in the soil, even if you apply an excessive amount. Hydrangeas, for example, change bloom color at different pH levels, in large part due to the changing availability of aluminum. Alkaline soils tend to be deficient in iron, copper, zinc and boron; acidic soils tend to be deficient in calcium, magnesium, and molybdenum. Naturally Changing Conditions The pH of your soil is constantly changing in response to the environment and the activity in your garden. For example, the decomposition of organic matter, addition of rainwater, and even root respiration result in the release of H+ ions into the soil, naturally decreasing pH and thus making the soil more acidic. Organic matter has a buffering effect on the soil, meaning that it makes the soil resistant to changes in pH. This is typically a good thing for your soil, as buffered soil is less likely to experience unhealthy swings in pH that could damage sensitive plants and microorganisms. However, it can make your job more challenging if you are actively trying to change the pH. Adjusting Your Soil’s pH

To adjust soil that is too acidic, you can add alkaline soil amendments such as limestone, oystershell, or dolomite lime. To adjust soil that is too alkaline, add acidic soil amendments such as cottonseed meal, an “acid-lovers mix,” or soil sulfur. Follow the guidelines on your soil amendment packaging, but be ready to adjust application levels if needed, as some soil types are more resistant to pH change than others. Remember not to overdo it, as it is much easier and healthier for your soil to bring it closer and closer to perfect over time rather than fluctuating between too acidic and too alkaline. Also, quick and large changes in pH can harm the beneficial microorganisms in your soil. For a more in depth look at the chemistry of soil pH, contact Green Amazon

The post Understanding Soil pH first appeared on Green Web Institute.

Barriers

Deer Fencing Deer are skilled jumpers, so a fence needs to be at least 7 feet tall to stop them.* Our Deer Fencing is 7.5 feet tall, and made of durable, black plastic mesh in 2 inch squares. Easy to work with, you just use zip-ties to attach the fencing to supports. Although deer are best known for jumping fences, they’re even more likely to crawl under or squeeze around the edge of a fence, so make sure your fence touches the ground and completely encloses your garden.  Have you ever seen rub marks on your tree trunks? Or had young trees pushed over by deer? Bucks rub against small trees and large shrubs to scrape the “velvet” off their antlers when the velvet dries up in late August or September. Our Products keep the bucks from contacting the trunks of your young trees.

Make Your Garden Unpleasant

Scare Tactics Startle the deer and they will seek a more peaceful cafeteria. Our Spray Away Motion Detection will send jets of water when it senses motion within 35 feet. Keep the deer guessing when you place Electronic Deer Repellent stakes in the yard. The deer sniff the acorn-scented top, get a tiny shock, and move on. Shifting the locations of the stakes makes your whole yard seem like a spooky place. Yucky Flavors You wouldn’t want to taste the ingredients in our Liquid Fence Deer and Rabbit Repellent either (unless you really like garlic and rotten eggs). This is the only Liquid Fence product approved for use on edible plants. For more rotten egg flavor, and less garlic, offer the deer a sample of Deer Off (for use on your ornamental plants, not edibles). With both these sprays, follow the directions about initial applications and note if you need to spray again after heavy rains or heavy overhead watering. The smell will be gone almost immediately to our poor human noses, but the nose of a deer will still be insulted when we can no longer detect an aroma. With all these tricks up your sleeve, you no longer have to put up with rude neighbors who want to raid your garden. Tell those deer, scat. And you won’t see that any more. *An intrepid deer can sometimes clear a 7 foot fence, so be sure you have an easy way to open the fenced area in case you have to shoo out a deer.

The post Protect Your Garden from Deer first appeared on Green Web Institute.

Hydroponic and Aquaponic Crops

Growing & Selling Microgreens

Aquaponic DWC: Design & Economics

Choosing Your Production Method

Understanding ZipGrow

Intro to Business Planning

Market Research for Farmers

HVAC Design for Indoor Growers

Humidity Management: Tools & Tech for Indoor Growers

Energy Efficient Heating & Cooling for Greenhouses

Insect Pest Management

Seeds & Seedlings

Intro to Hydroponics

Hydroponic Nutrients & Fertilizers

Intro to Aquaponics – Mini Course

Aquaponic System Design – Mini Course

The Farm to Food Truck Model – Mini Course

LED Lighting for Indoor Farmers – Mini Course

Intro to Organics – Mini Course

Green Walls for Restaurants – Mini Course 

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