Bone meal and Blood meal ?

[TightenUp]

Originally Posted by nnjjohn

I tested my soil today again after a month ago tilling the beds and testing using the ph NPK color capsules.. Today I INCORPORATED vermiculite peat moss and blood meal and continue adding amendments... think of sprinkling on top 10-10-10 granule all purpose from home depot.. I still have a good month before planting. All my test results today showed good ph of about 7 the K is suffient to one color lower ,, P is low but not depleted N is depleted no color at all.. going to test again after a few weeks and see if what I add along with warmer weather changes for better test results. I did see a few garden worms so that is a good sign,, would like to have seen more but they are in there

John

i hope before you go crazy adding amendments you do a soil test with rutgers. it takes about 2 weeks but they will point you in the right direction. those "at home" kits aren't the same as a good soil test.

i know with my garden i was recommended a 2-1-2 fertilizer for this season and i found that in dr earth alfalfa meal. this is a very sandly loam with tons of organic matter so with out a doubt diff from you needs and your soil. i really do highly recommend a trusted soil test

here is a link
http://njaes.rutgers.edu/soiltestinglab/

[TightenUp]

if you do use rutgers please tell them exactly what you will be growing in the bed(ie tomatoes). they will give results specific to your crop

[nnjjohn]

Tightenup, I will certainly consider the rutgers soil test.. thanks for good advice

[matilda'skid]

Don't go overboard on the fertilizer. I did that with some plants in pots. Once you get too much you have a problem that is hard to fix.

I think your lack of nitrogen is due to the wood chips and horse manure. I got a small pick up load once of horse manure and wood shavings. That area did not grow things very well for a while. At first the urine in it works but that washes out or is used up and the wood chips take up nitrogen.

[nnjjohn]

Originally Posted by matilda'skid

Don't go overboard on the fertilizer. I did that with some plants in pots. Once you get too much you have a problem that is hard to fix.

I think your lack of nitrogen is due to the wood chips and horse manure. I got a small pick up load once of horse manure and wood shavings. That area did not grow things very well for a while. At first the urine in it works but that washes out or is used up and the wood chips take up nitrogen.

Yes, after learning here about the wood chips depleting the nitrogen here, it makes sense.. I remember my tomato plant getting tall and viney and hardly any flowers .. just a green plant..only until late in the season did some plants in that one bed produced scarce and small fruit.. the other problem bed was pretty much the same.. but two fresh new beds yielded nicely compared to the old depleted beds.. i really never added nitrogen other than the 15-30-15 KGO plant concentrate..one teaspoon per gallon.. I'm going to send a soil sample in to rutgers.. i want to know if i put too much lime last few seasons or not enough of amendments.. thanks for sharing, John