[Garden] soil test results

[Candace Wormsbecker]

Awesome!  Thanks for doing the testing Alicia:-)  

 

I would advise against adding chemical fertilizers and stick to organic
principles if this is what you are referring to, this is very important to
me and others I'm sure.  

 

Other potential options could include.

 

We could get another load of compost if people are in agreement of using
another $80 for this.  Remember we only have $400 and about $120 has been
used thus far.  We could potentially get compost from the University, it is
a lower quality but they have provided it for free in the past.

 

We could plant more nitrogen fixing plants as well, particularly in beds
that have lower nitrogen (if tests were done for each bed) and we want to
plant on what the soils needs vs. what we would like to see growing. 

 

I would also suggest we continue with the green manuring that we did a
couple years ago and sow all the beds with alfalfa or winter rye which can
fix more nitrogen for next year.

 

Great to finally have this done!!

 

Best.
Candace

 

 

________________________

 

Candace Wormsbecker

Community Garden Capacity Builder

 

Opportunities Waterloo Region

235  King St. E., Main Floor

Kitchener, ON

N2G 4N5

 

Tel: 519-883-2353 ext. 5984

Fax: 519-568-8587

 

"The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today".
     ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

  _____  

From: garden-bounces at lists.wpirg.org [mailto:garden-bounces at lists.wpirg.org]
On Behalf Of Alicia Mah
Sent: May-08-09 2:28 PM
To: garden at lists.wpirg.org
Subject: [Garden] soil test results

 

HI everybody,

You will find below the results of the soil testing that we did on Tuesday
(thanks, Ludmila and Ashley!). I haven't interpreted them as yet, although
we can see that nitrogen levels are extremely low. Hence, planting
nitrogen-intensive plants like corn and roses might not be the best plan.

We could potentially add nitrogen-rich fertilizer to some of the plots. It
was suggested that we experiment and plant the same species in two different
plots, one with nitrogen added and one without, to see if it will make a
difference.

Cheers,
Alicia

UW Community Garden Soil test results May 2009

Humus over 5
pH 7.6-7.8
Nitrate very low, under 10
Phosphorus high over 200
Potassium
Sample #    Location in garden    Potassium
1    Lower right    220
2    Upper right    200
3    middle    180
4    Lower left    220
5    Lower right    200

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