Soil Test Analysis - Help

Hello first time posting.

Last fall I stumped a piece of land that I wanted to use to create a vegetable garden roughly 30'x 40'.

After the clearing was complete I had the soil tested.

I have attached the report.

In the fall the soil seemed to be pretty muddy, I do not know whether this was because of the clearing of the land.

Based on the soil test results is it worth planting vegetables this year or should I use cover crops for a year to build up the organic matter?

If you do not want to plant this year, lupine and buckwheat are two good crops for increasing the availability of phosphorus in your soil. There is a good article about increasing phosphorus availability at No Till Veggies. From the looks of it, they only commented on the phosphorus being low and that everything else was mostly good. Here is a Guide to Understanding Soil Tests. Also, by looking at the tests, I think they are biased towards wanting to sell people fertilizers. *sigh*

Read Steve Solomon's The Intelligent Gardener or Michael Astera's The Ideal Soil.

I think you are low in P, Zn and Cu and B.

Dave Rogers

Hi Andrew
You might consider wood ashes as part of your solution. I suggest you contact your local agricultural university for their recommendations for ash from regional trees. It would not work unless your soil is also acidic by nature. Ash is high in phosphorus and many of the trace elements are there also. I am in Virginia and use wood ash in place of limestone to offset acid soil. If soil test recommends lime, I double the amount in ashes. Seems to work very well.

I am attaching a PDF from the University of Georgia about ashes as a soil amendment
Dan

hau Andrew, first off your pH is slightly acidic, this is a good thing, most plants actually like a pH of around 6.0 to 6.5 so your ok with the 6.06 pH.
your organic matter is 3.7, this could be improved with mulching an organic matter of closer to 5 would be a good first year goal.
the P and K are good, Calcium is good Boron is a tad low at less than .50, copper is fair, manganese is a little low.

If you were going to be putting in figs, blueberries, your pH is still a little high. For most vegetables, this soil is amendable and will support a this year's garden.

I would go with wood ashes (hardwoods over conifers) if you want to move the pH a little closer to the magical 6.5 (this is where most veggies thrive).
They will do quite well with where it is at now and the plants will actually help adjust the pH up a bit (which is all it really needs).

If you want to make an amendment to get your trace minerals up, see if you can buy some Sea-90 from a SeaAgri local dealer (check the website for the closest one to you. It won't take a lot (5 lbs. for the whole plot) of this to give you healthy plants and vegetables.
I would dissolve half of it for watering and use the other half as a direct amendment.

Since I am late in seeing your post you may have already done some improvements.