Having already discribed how poor the soil is at my place, I thought I should elaborate on how I am trying to fix it up.
Along the way I'll write about the exciting successes & disheartening failures, all the tests, trials & comparisons. Like the one I'm currently doing using plain old super phosphate.
Firstly how I get a bed started. There were already 2 old vegie garden areas when I came here over 8yrs ago but the soil had me stumped so those areas became overgrown weed places that I let the horses onto now & then to mow it all down.
I use some things that are way out of the norm & the first might shock some people.
I call it humipee. We humans discard so much nitrogen, phosphate, etc that it is a crying shame.
Nitrogen capture is the easiest. The other nutrients are much harder to capture in a hygienic manner.
I use a camping bucket loo in the bathroom & empty it twice weekly into a 44gal drum with tight fitting full width lid.
I make a fertilizer for the paddocks out of it with humic acid & lucerne tea added, but some goes on the garden to kick start a new bed.
Nitrogen has to be applied in combo with humic acid onto wet soil so I use half a 9lt bucket of humipee, 1 tblsp humic acid granules & top up with water. I apply at the rate of 1 bucket per m2.
I cover the bed with black plastic & a week later I apply the dry fertilizer component, water in well, recover & weigh the plastic down with bricks to exclude light to kill the greenery & let it brew for 4-8wks until required.
The soil is then so soft it hardly needs to be dug over but I do fork it to get rid of the grass & incorporate the compost which I apply as thickly as I can spare. I make compost by the m3. If I can keep the soil wet during the growth cycle, I generally don't have to refork before next crop. It stays spongy. If it dries out it will go hard & after rewetting will need forking again.
This is my dry fertilizer mix:- in a large concreting barrow, 1/3 filled with Kaytek Super Organic pellets, 1/3 Searles 5in1, 2 big shovel fulls of fresh wood ash, 2 shovel fulls of blood & bone, 2 double handfulls of humic acid granules, 2 small handfuls of epsom salts, 1 small handful each of borax, sulphur, copper, crystalline potassium. I think that's all although sometimes other things find their way in depending on what the soil is lacking.
That brew is well mixed with a shovel & 1-2 heaped shovel full is applied per square meter depending on how bad that bed is. I often also apply gypsum at the recommended rate if the soil is a bit 'crisp'. There's generally some fertilizer mix left over to thinly scatter around other parts of the flower garden or exotic trees. After the seedlings have been planted into the new bed I mulch with lucerne hay. I previously mulched with any old hay or dead grass or old horse hay or whatever but since I began using the pure lucerne hay, the soil has really responded by holding some moisture. Previously it did not hold anything & went hard under the mulch.
I don't need to apply any lime generally unless in readiness for brassicas. The natural pH is around 6-7. I use the same fertilizer mix to top up the beds about halfway through the growth cycle of that crop & apply at rate of a heaped double handful per row meter, scuffled in & recovered with a thin scattering of lucerne hay.
In the last month I have also been applying fresh live mushroom compost at the rate of a heaped shovel full per row meter. It is scuffled in & thinly covered with lucerne hay for mulch.
I also apply Manutec Complete Trace Elements with a watering can when I see any sort of deficiency. I also make lucerne tea for the biology plus sheep & chicken manure tea to feed the biology.
In total it's a helluvalot of fertilizer & it is clear that each bed runs out of fertility by the end of that crop.
Hopefully after another year the soil should be a lot better.
In the potato bed I am working towards that by alternating layers of fertilized soil & lucerne hay to build depth for the spuds to grow in. My hope is that bed will be amazingly fertile with super quality soil after the spuds are harvested. Clarification, I don't use my general fertilizer mix in the potato bed for the sol top-up. I keep the pH up & just add kaytek pellets.
If I may I want to include the link to the local fertilizer manufacturer at Gympie, Kaytek, for those who may not have heard of or used this brand. It is very price competitive with other pelleted ferts & has been very beneficial for my poor soil. Its based on chicken manure & they do a certified organic version (Kaytek Super) which is the one I use. http://katekfertilizers.com.au/
I'll take some photos of the vegie garden tomorrow to post here.
Along the way I'll write about the exciting successes & disheartening failures, all the tests, trials & comparisons. Like the one I'm currently doing using plain old super phosphate.
Firstly how I get a bed started. There were already 2 old vegie garden areas when I came here over 8yrs ago but the soil had me stumped so those areas became overgrown weed places that I let the horses onto now & then to mow it all down.
I use some things that are way out of the norm & the first might shock some people.
I call it humipee. We humans discard so much nitrogen, phosphate, etc that it is a crying shame.
Nitrogen capture is the easiest. The other nutrients are much harder to capture in a hygienic manner.
I use a camping bucket loo in the bathroom & empty it twice weekly into a 44gal drum with tight fitting full width lid.
I make a fertilizer for the paddocks out of it with humic acid & lucerne tea added, but some goes on the garden to kick start a new bed.
Nitrogen has to be applied in combo with humic acid onto wet soil so I use half a 9lt bucket of humipee, 1 tblsp humic acid granules & top up with water. I apply at the rate of 1 bucket per m2.
I cover the bed with black plastic & a week later I apply the dry fertilizer component, water in well, recover & weigh the plastic down with bricks to exclude light to kill the greenery & let it brew for 4-8wks until required.
The soil is then so soft it hardly needs to be dug over but I do fork it to get rid of the grass & incorporate the compost which I apply as thickly as I can spare. I make compost by the m3. If I can keep the soil wet during the growth cycle, I generally don't have to refork before next crop. It stays spongy. If it dries out it will go hard & after rewetting will need forking again.
This is my dry fertilizer mix:- in a large concreting barrow, 1/3 filled with Kaytek Super Organic pellets, 1/3 Searles 5in1, 2 big shovel fulls of fresh wood ash, 2 shovel fulls of blood & bone, 2 double handfulls of humic acid granules, 2 small handfuls of epsom salts, 1 small handful each of borax, sulphur, copper, crystalline potassium. I think that's all although sometimes other things find their way in depending on what the soil is lacking.
That brew is well mixed with a shovel & 1-2 heaped shovel full is applied per square meter depending on how bad that bed is. I often also apply gypsum at the recommended rate if the soil is a bit 'crisp'. There's generally some fertilizer mix left over to thinly scatter around other parts of the flower garden or exotic trees. After the seedlings have been planted into the new bed I mulch with lucerne hay. I previously mulched with any old hay or dead grass or old horse hay or whatever but since I began using the pure lucerne hay, the soil has really responded by holding some moisture. Previously it did not hold anything & went hard under the mulch.
I don't need to apply any lime generally unless in readiness for brassicas. The natural pH is around 6-7. I use the same fertilizer mix to top up the beds about halfway through the growth cycle of that crop & apply at rate of a heaped double handful per row meter, scuffled in & recovered with a thin scattering of lucerne hay.
In the last month I have also been applying fresh live mushroom compost at the rate of a heaped shovel full per row meter. It is scuffled in & thinly covered with lucerne hay for mulch.
I also apply Manutec Complete Trace Elements with a watering can when I see any sort of deficiency. I also make lucerne tea for the biology plus sheep & chicken manure tea to feed the biology.
In total it's a helluvalot of fertilizer & it is clear that each bed runs out of fertility by the end of that crop.
Hopefully after another year the soil should be a lot better.
In the potato bed I am working towards that by alternating layers of fertilized soil & lucerne hay to build depth for the spuds to grow in. My hope is that bed will be amazingly fertile with super quality soil after the spuds are harvested. Clarification, I don't use my general fertilizer mix in the potato bed for the sol top-up. I keep the pH up & just add kaytek pellets.
If I may I want to include the link to the local fertilizer manufacturer at Gympie, Kaytek, for those who may not have heard of or used this brand. It is very price competitive with other pelleted ferts & has been very beneficial for my poor soil. Its based on chicken manure & they do a certified organic version (Kaytek Super) which is the one I use. http://katekfertilizers.com.au/
I'll take some photos of the vegie garden tomorrow to post here.