Basics of Growing Vegetables at Home: Testing Soil
The first and foremost step for your home garden is to test your soil for its type and quality before deciding what to plant. If you have started planting without knowing the drainage and fertility of the soil, then this can waist both your time and money.
Your garden soil should be well aerated and if it is clumpy, then you need to add a desirable amount of peat or coir to increase the vitality and texture of the soil. For this purpose, you can test the texture and the quality of the soil where you want to plant your home garden by;
Cont... Next "Basics of Growing Vegetables at Home: Selecting right vegetables to plant"
- By checking soil’s drainage. Soak the soil by watering and wait at least 12 hours. The next day, dig up a handful of soil to test drainage. Now, squeeze the soil and see if the water streams out or not. If yes, then add an organic fertilizer of decaying vegetation and manure to improve drainage and fertility of the soil.
- After squeezing hard open your hand to check if the has formed a ball or not. If the ball is too unstable and falls apart after touching it softly, then your soil is too sandy that is also not a suitable soil for planting vegetables. Adding natural or organic compost and a little amount of clay will improve its texture and quality by improving sandy soil.
In case, your soil is rich with clay, then by adding natural fertilizer (a mixture of decaying vegetation and manure) you can improve your soil’s quality.
- If the ball of your soil neither too sandy and nor rich with clay, then it must be broken into crumbs when you touch this ball or poke it. And it is the ideal soil for planting your home garden.
Leave a comment
Comments will be approved before showing up.