RE:soil

Teresa,
A 8.0 pH is actually well within the acceptable range for most plants.  A perfect 7, like a perfect 10, is often hard to come by.
Working with what you have rather than trying to make the soil do as you wish is perhaps the true organic way.  A little compost, some manure, a little time....
Certainly if you are pressed for time there are remedial measures you can use for specific crops.  A through soil test will help as there is so much going on in that handful of earth and there is no one formula that will hold true for all of it.
A good place to start-
Soil Foodweb Incorporated

And as you start to work with the soil-
Compost! Master Composter Home Composting

You didn't mention where you were at but something I often think about is the relevance to organics of adding-say peat moss-to the soil here in Oklahoma from a bog in Canada to reduce the pH of the soil here.  What may work on paper and is organic lessens the bog nonetheless, and perhaps the peat soil may not be so attractive in 4 or 5 years.....

Best wishes,
John

John Herndon
Urban Harvest Coordinator
Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma
  
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index