How to Diagnose Deficiencies in Soil and Garden

In order to grow a great vegetable or flower garden, your soil needs to provide the plants the optimal level of nutrition. You can diagnose soil deficiencies with a soil testing kit, which will tell you what to add by way of fertilizers or amendments for the best growing conditions in your gardens. You should test your soil at least two weeks before you plant your garden so you can give your new plants a good start.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• A soil testing kit
• A gardening book
• A digging tool
• Soil amendments

Determining the Soil's Nutrient Levels

1. Buy or order a soil testing kit online. One place where you can find one is listed under the references section at the bottom of the page.A basic soil testing kit will let you know if you have nitrogen, phosphorus, or potassium deficiencies. A test kit might also include a pH test, which could be as important to your garden's health as the nutrients, themselves. See the link at the bottom of this article for a recommended site from which to purchase a kit.

2. Follow the directions found on the soil testing kit that you purchased. Miscalculating the amounts of dirt and water to mix could give you false results, with disastrous results for your garden's plants.

3. Check the soil's pH. When the pH is too high or too low, it changes the availability of the elements in the soil. For example, a soil that is very alkaline will not release iron as easily as a lower pH soil. Acidifying the highly alkaline soil will solve the iron uptake problem for plants. Instead of adding more iron to the soil, you are making what iron is already there easier for the plants' roots to use.

4. Run the other tests for nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

5. Use amendments to bring up the essential soil elements into the good range. If you want to start an organic garden, your choice of soil amendments will be completely different than if you decide to continue using garden chemicals. The choice is yours, but other gardeners have discovered that vegetables grown in organic conditions taste so much better than those grown using chemical fertilizers.

Tips & Warnings

• Test your soil a few weeks before you plant your garden. By adding the amendments before you plant, you give the soil a chance to absorb the new materials, promoting healthier conditions for your plants.
• If your nitrogen levels are fine, do not add a fertilizer with nitrogen in it. Too much nitrogen can burn the plant's roots or it can contribute to lots of leaf growth, but few flowers and fruits.
• Do not use wood ash on alkaline soils. It will worsen the alkalinity.

Resources

• Soil Testing Kit Suggestion