Spring is in sight and it’s time to wake up your garden. Seasoned home gardeners most likely have already completed the first step in garden preparation — the soil test. Your soil test results will give you a baseline from which to make decisions about what each plot requires and in what quantities.

Stop by your local extension office to obtain the brown cardboard boxes that are required to transport your soil samples. Get several of these boxes so you can take samples from various areas of your garden. Last year I sampled soil from my blueberry bushes, raspberry patch, flower garden and established vegetable plots. And thank your lucky stars that you live in North Carolina because it is one of only two states that offers soil testing to the home gardener at no charge. It takes approximately 8 weeks to receive your results in the mail, so if you want them to arrive in a timely manner, you best turn in your soil samples sometime in October or November when the demand is low. A soil test is required every year as the vegetables you grow in your garden will remove from the soil the minerals and nutrients needed to produce healthy and nutritious plants.

Typically, soil test results have focused on the NPK (nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium) that reside in your soil. These numbers are represented as a high number on most chemical fertilizer bags (10- 10- 10 or 18-18-18). These high numbers represent salt-based synthetic or chemical fertilizers. The higher the number the faster the release of NPK. The organic gardening practitioner would use those carbon based inputs with lower numbers like 5-5-4. These lower numbers indicate a slow release of elements into the soil just like nature would provide. Other things nature would provide are leaves, manures, compost and various organic inputs. These days less and less emphasis is being placed on NPK and more and more on the minerals and microbes that exist in our soils. Defining organic when referring to fertilizers might be better accomplished by adding the word natural. Raw ingredients used to make natural fertilizers are inherently rich in trace nutrients. These are the key ingredients along with that rich and vital organic matter that produces healthy vibrant soil that, in turn, will provide you with abundantly nutritious vegetables and fruits.

So what exactly does it mean when someone says he grows using organic practices? Simply put, the grower has set in place a well thought out soil-building program using organic inputs; practices crop rotation each year and uses organic and mechanical methods to control insects and disease. Another way to say it, the organic grower uses no chemical fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides or herbicides. Although chemical inputs serve to bring about a quick result, at the same time they reduce the microbial matter in the soil to zero and eventually seep into the water table. Although that ear of corn looks perfect, there are reports which indicate that vegetables produced on chemically laden soil render crops deficient in minerals and nutrients. Makes sense.

If you haven’t gotten your soil test boxes into the Extension Office yet, you’re late! Take the time this week to begin your spring soil preparations, remove debris from your beds and start your next compost pile.

See you in the garden!

(Kathleen Lamont is president of the Mountains Chapter of Carolina Farm Stewardship Association as well as a seasoned speaker on organic gardening. She can be reached at garden_girrl@yahoo. com)

 

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The Smoky Mountain News