I’ve just been reading “Soil Science Simplified” by Kohnke & Franzmeier and that reminded me of some insight that I now take for granted, but which was originally one of those ‘blinding flash of light’ moments for me.

On the second page, they point out that “A green plant is made up of about 80% water and 20% dry matter. The largest part of the dry matter is composed of the elements hydrogen, oxygen, carbon and nitrogen which occur in air and water, while the rest consists of a great variety of elements that originate in the soil. In spite of the small amounts of these components, they are absolutely essential and the complete absence of only one of them makes plant growth impossible.” (emphasis added)

Buried in that paragraph is a nugget of information that is vital to the organic grower: the essential nature of trace minerals.

Lowly compost does the heavy lifting in my garden

Trees, like any other plant, generally take up only the nutrients they can use and they do so in the precise ratios needed for growth. The proof of this is that these ratios DID result in growth.

Tree leaves are abundant now in many locations around the world and they represent an incredible storehouse of those trace minerals brought from deep below ground in an easy to collect and use form. This isn’t rocket science, folks, the trace minerals have already been mixed and proportioned and packaged for you. The brain part is done: now all that is needed is a little grunt work.

Although there are a number of subtle shadings about how to use them, let’s look at just a couple: decomposition in situ and decomposing before incorporation.

Firstly, let’s tackle ‘in situ’. All this means is to mulch the leaves directly into your lawn, to dig them into your garden or to layer them on top of the soil so as to provide a blanket over it. This will use a goodly number of leaves and is a recommended practice. A mulching mower set to a low cutting height is ideal for the task of mulching leaves into the sod, as the grass should in any case be cut short this time of year to avoid fungal diseases over the winter. The less green you see, the fewer sugars to tempt snow mold and other fungi.

The second general manner of using tree leaves is to decompose them somewhere other than the point of final use. You might want to finish off a compost pile begun earlier in the year by turning leaves in to it, mixing them thoroughly as you do to prevent them from forming a water-shedding layer. You might also take a tip from others and, after shredding them somewhat with a mower, stack them against a fence or other structure to allow them to begin decomposing there. To the extent that weather permits, earthworms will gladly turn the bottom layers into something called “leaf mold”, which makes an excellent mulch or soil amendment in the spring. Also, in the spring, you can use the dried top layers as the initial ‘browns’ charge for a fresh compost pile.

Fall is also important because soil amendments applied now … lime, bone meal, sulphur, green sand, compost and so on, will have time to be incorporated into the root zone before spring planting. This allows the moderating influences of chemistry (organic chemistry can be gosh-awful slow) and microbiota to be felt, leaving the soil in a more ‘settled’ state. For instance, adding lime or sulphur will change the soil pH (that’s generally WHY they are added) and that will cause distress for the biota that thrived at one extreme or the other. Having winter to work in allows the other biota favoring the new pH to re-establish themselves. You want your soil fully populated by the time it is warm enough to plant. Applying amendments in the fall assists in that goal.

Now is the time to discard leftover plant parts. If the plant simply died because of the cold, it can be sent to the compost. If it died because of disease, send it straight to the trash hopper. Compost cures a lot of stuff but if you add diseased plant material to a late-fall pile, it may never get hot enough long enough to sterilize the pathogens. In that case, you need to allow the pile at least one, and preferably two, years to sit and mature.

Unless beans, peas or other legumes died from disease, do not pull them up by the roots. Rather, cut them off at the soil surface so as to leave their rhizomes in the ground. A quick flick with a sharp hoe will do the trick as will running over them with the mower if you have planted alfalfa or buckwheat and intend to use the top portions as green manure.

Look for some quotes from Kohnke & Franzmeier’s book in the sidebar. I’m liking what I see.

(Revised 2/26/09)

If you’ve never started a garden from seed, you’re in for a treat … if you do it right.

Here are a handful of links and some useful commentary to help you do it right.

The first thing you need to know (to a reasonable degree of certainty) is the last frost date in your location. While the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAH) keeps the detailed records, you’ll probably find that this list, at Victory Seeds, works well enough for your needs. I don’t have any financial association with them but, since they had already did the grunt work with the tables from NOAH, why not give them the credit?

Then, when you’ve got that handled, head on over to Little House in the Suburbs for a little calendar / planner to help you use those dates you got from Victory Seeds.

If you don’t already have seed catalogs filling your mail box, surf on over to Jungs Seeds and Plants, Hirts Greenhouse or Totally Tomatoes and either order the seeds and plants directly or at least get your name in the hat for their catalogs. Hirts claims to have the world’s hottest pepper, the Bhut Jolokia.

A few years ago I made the mistake of handling a number of habaneros with bare hands. I will NEVER, EVER repeat that mistake again. At well over 1,000,000 Scoville units, the Bhut Jolokia blows the Habs away. It deserves to be handled with extraordinary care.

In the past, planting a few extremely hot peppers scattered through my garden has seemed to repel a number of bugs. Apparently they know to avoid the aroma and having the hot peppers interspersed with the other plants makes the whole area smell ‘off limits’. I have seen exactly ONE bite taken from a habanero leaf. The Bhut Jolokia is pretty expensive … a show-off plant. But a dozen habaneros (or similar) would not be terribly expensive and could well pay for themselves via produce saved from bugs.

I would encourage you to give extra preference to open-pollinated and heirloom varieties. These do not fall under plant patent protection and will generally breed true … allowing you to save seed from one year to the next. You may need to select for disease or pest resistance if such are not controllable through other means (and they usually are – see the tip about hot peppers above), but the hybrid plants or seeds that you buy will not breed true the following year – if they will sprout at all.

Avoid GMO seeds and plants at all costs. Pandora’s box is being opened by the seed companies in a bid to monopolize all food production everywhere. (When their plants breed with your plants, your seeds end up carrying the patented genes added by their pollen. You, then, are held to have violated their patent on that gene. Is this unfair? ABSOLUTELY. But it is the way the law works.)

If you’ve got a favorite seed or plant vendor and I haven’t mentioned them, why not pass the word via a comment below? When we’ve collected enough to make things interesting (a dozen or so), I’ll create a list as a permanent page.

Just by visually examining soil, it can be hard to tell if there is enough organic matter in it to assure adequate levels of humic acids. These acids bind soils together, free up minerals for plant use and just generally help the soil along. Happy soil = happy plants … it’s just that simple.

However, even without expensive lab tests, you can get a ‘close enough’ estimate as to whether or not you have sufficient levels of humic acids in your soil simply by measuring the amount of organic material present.

The Fist Test

There are two means of getting this “guesstimate” of soil fertility that can be performed at home with next to no equipment or lab skills.

The first is sometimes called a ‘fist test’ and will take only a few seconds to run. It’s answers, though, are so broad that you really have to be familiar with your soil to make much use of it. Don’t despair, though: running this fist test is a big part of how you get to know your soil.

The fist test will tell you the approximate ratios of sand, clay and organic material. It gives you no clue what the soil chemistry might be on a finer level. When you get all done, you will be totally clueless about the NPK ratios and levels in your soil except that you will know if they are within reason.

Here’s How to do the Test

Take a handful of moist soil (water lightly if it is too dry at present) and squeeze it, making a fist with your hand. Then open your hand and poke the soil lump apart with your fingers. Take note how well it holds together.

When you first open your hand, the lump of soil should rest right where it is. Then, as you prod it lightly with your fingers, it should yield to the pressure, making jagged fracture lines. If it does, you’ve probably got good soil. Whatever you’ve been doing, keep doing it.

If it simply crumbles easily and essentially completely, there is not enough organic material and clay in it to hold the sand together. You’ll want to amend this soil because it won’t hold water and it won’t yield its nutrients to the plants, either. That’s the simple version, the technical reasons for these results would fill your average DVD.

We’re not going to get into that today, okay?

If the lump won’t hold together long enough for you to poke it at all, there is too much sand and you need to add both clay and organic material to this soil. Bags of crushed clay are commercially available as kitty litter (get the cheap, unscented, kind) and as driveway absorbent for gas stations. Either way, add a little, work it in, water well, wait a few days and test again until you get a nice lump that sticks together until you give it a good poke. From there, it’s all good.

On the other hand, if the lump takes a finger imprint without fracturing, there is not enough organic material and sand to hold the clay apart. Take a piece of such a lump and roll it between your fingers. If you can roll it between your fingers, or if you can smear it against your palm, there is definitely too much clay in the mix … add some sand to go with that compost!

Note that, whether you are adding sand or clay to the soil, you also want to add compost. Compost is a universal constituent of healthy soil and having too much of it is what is known as a ‘self-correcting problem’. If you have a lot of organic material in the soil you will get a lot of biota to eat it. There; problem solved.

The Shake Test

The second method is sometimes called a “shake test”. Yes, I am making these names up but only because I can’t remember what their proper technical name is.

Who cares?

A direct numerical measurement of soil condition is worth a thousand “maybe’s”. This test takes about 15 minutes once or twice a year and costs less than a penny per test.

This is a simple, albeit crude, method of testing the organic matter ratio in your soil. Since there is no need for more precision, and since it will take only a few minutes of your time, it is worth giving a try.

Soil in jar with water after 1 week.

Here’s how to ‘do the science’

You will need a trowel, some jars with straight sides, water and a ruler as long as the jars are tall. Pint canning jars or quart mayonnaise jars work just fine.

Using a trowel, select soil samples from a half-dozen locations in your garden. Since we aren’t paying for these tests, collect it from two strata: the first 6? / 150mm and the second 6? / 150mm just to examine the difference. Keep the strata separate. That is, all the top soil goes in one batch, all the deeper soil goes in another. Mix each batch separately and place a trowel full (the exact amount can vary without changing the results) from each batch in a quart jar, somewhat less in a smaller jar. Add water to just below the shoulder of the jar, cap tightly and shake vigorously. Unless you own a centrifuge, set the jars aside to wait for the water to clear. Clay is extremely fine and sinks slowly. Depending on the amount of clay in the soil, this could take anywhere from a couple of days to nearly a month. That’s okay, we are in no hurry.

Just for fun, you might also make up a third jar with a 50/50 mix of the leftover soil from the two strata.

When the water has cleared (or you have run out of patience!) measure the amount of soil on the bottom and the amount of organic material floating at the top. This is the ratio you were looking to quantify. Divide the inches / mm of the organic material by the inches / mm of the soil at the bottom to get the percentage of organic material.

How to Interpret the Results

If the organic level is below 3%, you need to take serious action soon. Add as much organic material as you can as deeply as you can and measure again in a few (3-6) months. Manure, food waste, compost, grass clippings, tree leaves … if it’s organic, in it goes!

If it is in the range of 3-10%, your soil is at a healthy maintenance level. Could it be better? Yes. But it will take considerable and constant effort to get it above this range and keep it there. Better to simply keep doing what you have been.

Somewhere around the 10 – 25% mark, either your sample got contaminated or you are testing too soon after applying fresh material. The more material you have in your soil, the more micro-organisms there will be to consume it. The more micro-organisms, the faster the material gets depleted. It takes a near-constant application of organic material to keep levels much above the 10% mark and this near-constant effort is enough to suck much of the fun out of casual gardening. More than that, going beyond the needs of the plants is never an improvement.

If you work really, really hard and get the organic material really, really high, your plants will look at you and say:
(cue Clare Peller)

“Where’s the soil?”

Practical and Educational

This simple measurement might also make a good earth sciences experiment in junior high school … simply compare the ratio found in fertile soils in open lawn and beneath trees with that found in barren soils such as parking lots or worn-down paths in the lawn. In senior high school, a chemistry class might want to take this further with a consideration of the various salts and acids present, the permeability and the pH levels found. A biology class might want to catalog the varieties of life present in the soil and consider how they interact. Ideally, the biology and chemistry classes could work from the same bulk soil samples and then compile an aggregate set of data to draw conclusions from.

(This post is very much a ‘work in progress’. It has enough information in it to be useful, but not enough to be definitive. For instance, the interpretation of the shake test needs more work. It’s useful now, but I need to double check some numbers and so on. Check back here from time to time as I continue to develop this idea.)

Fall is a good time for soil sampling … especially for organic gardeners who will be using rock powders to amend their soil (if, indeed, it needs amending at all).

Many of the changes needed to release these slow-acting nutrients happen slowly and can benefit from being in the soil during times when plant needs are low … that is; late fall and early spring.

So, here’s how to take soil samples.

Go to 4-6 different locations in the garden or lawn. We are looking for an average soil sample so, if you have wide variations in your actual soil (say, one end of the garden is sandy and the other is clay), you may want to collect multiple testing samples. At each location, remove the top 6 inches of soil and then remove 1/2 cup from below that level. Mix these 4-6 samples together so as to obtain one uniform sample of 2-3 cups volume.

If the mixed sample is wet, spread out on newspapers to dry. Do NOT dry it in the oven.

Place two cups of the sample in a non-metallic container and bring or ship it to a soil testing station. I recommend the use of a heavy plastic freezer bag with a tight seal placed in a sturdy container for shipping. Mark the sample clearly with your name, etc. and also the intended use, such as “flower garden”, “vegetable garden” or “lawn”. If you KNOW what you are going to grow in that space next year, you might also mention that with a note of “garlic only” “hydrangea only”. Thus there would be a chance that the specific nutrient needs of that plant would be taken into consideration in the recommendations.

Agricultural colleges such as Michigan State and Ohio State University will usually provide such testing for a very nominal fee of about $10 for a basic NPK Calcium check and also provide fertilizing suggestions. When submitting the sample, make certain to ask for organic recommendations if you need them or you will get those designed for chemical gardeners. If available, ask for the organic matter ratio*. Generally speaking, anywhere north of 3% is good up to around 10%. This ratio decreases naturally with the passage of time and needs to be renewed regularly with compost or other organic material worked in to a depth of several inches.

This test can be beneficially done as often as twice a year, but an alternate year schedule will serve nearly as well since soil in not likely to change radically in that time frame. Before you apply fertilizers or soil amendments, (and spend big bucks!) why not find out what your soil actually needs and apply that, instead?

Was this post worth reading? If so, please Stumble it!

*This is a simple test that you can conduct at home. The next post tells how.

North of the Mason-Dixon line, fall is the time to plant garlic. Here’s how to get started.

Choice of planting stock:

Whether you bought gourmet stock online or just want to try your hand using garlic from the grocery store, look for large cloves from large bulbs. Garlic will quickly adapt to your soil and climate, but it helps to start with good stock. Choose only bulbs which are firm, show no sign of mold or bruised spots.

Soil Preparation:

The soil for a garlic bed can be prepared well in advance of the actual planting date. Choose soil that is reasonably well-drained. If it is not already loose, work organic material and / or sand into it with a manure fork or shovel. Either work deeply or set the top 3″ layer aside and work the lower layer separately. The bulbs are set in deeply, so the soil needs to be worked BELOW this level for best results. This can be a hassle the first time, but it gets better with each successive season.

Planting Time:

Wait until cold weather threatens. If there has already been a light snow, all is fine and good. We want to time this so that the bulbs begin to send out roots, but not give them time to send shoots above ground. For many of us, this will be the final planting of the season … and just in the nick of time, too!

Planting Details:

As you separated the individual cloves from the larger bulb, you probably noticed that the garlic has a pointed end and a stub end. The stub end is where the roots will emerge from, so plant the bulbs stub end down, roughly 3″ below the surface and about 3″ apart. I dig all the soil out of the planting bed, arrange the cloves, cover with an inch or so of compost to hold them upright and then return the soil to the bed. They will, however, be just fine if you simply push them into the soil and then cover them. Tamp the soil lightly and, when the bed is completely planted, apply a thick (6″ / 150mm or better) layer of mulch. Hay works well, as does compost or shredded tree leaves mixed with something else. (The tree leaves tend to mat down and keep water out.) The goal is not to keep the soil from freezing, but rather to keep it frozen until the weather is definitely settled in the spring to avoid frost heave. Frost heave can actually propel the cloves completely out of the ground and that is “Not”, as Martha would say, “a good thing.”

Spring Care:

In the spring, remove the excess mulch until the garlic shoots are seen. Then, after applying blood meal or other source of slow-release nitrogen, you can return the mulch around them if you wish. That’s it. Keep them watered until mid-summer.

Summer care:

Not too much here. Keep them from drying out until mid-summer. In mid-to-late summer, allow the soil to dry out. While there are some garlic-specific pests, the garlic can pretty well defend themselves in most gardens.

Harvest:

There are two harvests of garlic and their timing will depend on which varieties you planted and your local weather.

In late-spring / early summer the seed heads will form on stalks called “scapes”. While they are still young and tightly packed, cut the scapes off well down into the leaves and add them to salads, soups, stir fry, scrambled eggs and so on. They will add a mild garlic flavor that simply can’t be described but definitely shouldn’t be missed.

The second harvest happens when the leaves are about 1/3 to 1/2 brown. That’s when you’ll want to dig the mature bulbs and dry them. This can be done on a screen so that air can get to all sides or on a table. If done on a table, give them a turn once or twice while drying to avoid moisture collecting on the bottom side that could cause decay. They will need plenty of ventilation but should be shaded. There is earnest debate about whether to rinse them off before drying or to wait until after the tops have completely dried to rub the dried dirt from them. The take-home? Just choose one: both methods work. But most of the dirt needs to be gone before they are stored to avoid harboring tiny pests.

Storage:

After drying, keep the bulbs indoors in a cool, dark place … but NOT the refrigerator as this will speed their sprouting. Depending on the variety, storage times will vary, but are generally enough to get you through the winter and into the next planting season. Freezing, drying and pickling are all good choices. Packing them in oil for storage in excess of 3 weeks (refrigerated) is not a good idea as oil permits botulism poisoning. (Note that the link above also offers virus-free garlic. I have NO financial connection with them.)

This is just a thumbnail overview. It is possible to get into agonizing detail and make a obsession / specialty of growing garlic. I mostly grow it for my own table and that of friends, so it’s almost certain that I missed a useful trick or two. If so give me a shout in your comments!

Like this post? How about recommending it to a social bookmarking site?