Figured it would be worth posting this here.
The short story of my post is that I am wondering if any wonderful human reader of this would have any input about these soil and well-water test results: do you see any yellow or red flags about this soil sample; and what would you do to this soil to make it more fertile for veggie production (specific cover crops, or types of compost or manure, mineral inputs); do you see any issues with using this well water in a drip irrigation system for veggies and for seedlings in a greenhouse context. Below, long story, the context of our soil fertility needs.
My wife and I have been market gardening on rented land here in Zone 5 southern Ontario for a couple of years now (on nice rich sandy loam) and are in the process of hopefully buying a property to move residence and business to this fall (zone 6, further south southern Ontario). We may have a signed purchase agreement in two days from when I am writing this, knock on wood. The 5-acre field space where we would do 1-3 acres of annual market gardening (a balance of quick growing/fruiting intensive production like JM Fortier, Neversink, etc, and of less profitable-per-square-foot crops like squash, potatoes, cabbage, etc) and 2-4 acres of berries, other perennial edibles, and pollinator-supporting species is largely sandy loam. It’s a hay field which apparently hasn’t been tilled or sprayed with anything for 5-6 years, and before that may have been used for other cash crops like corn/soy, though we are not quite sure. The current hay crop seems to be grass- dominant with some red clover and alfalfa, like one plant or cluster every 5-10’, and overall they hay mix seems a little sparse (you can see some bare soil under the foliage, it’s not thick sod).
We would hope to (this fall) till and amend(with compost/manure) at least some space for garlic and overwintering spinach, mizuna etc under row cover (something we have had success with before) and to have some space (1/4 to 1/2 acre) tarped for early spring planting. We will save other bed prep and amending for the spring, keeping the hay in place as an overwinter cover-crop. Come spring I want to experiment with tilling in the hay in some places, in others just mowing and tarping (with the help of a balanced compost tea maybe) and in others also doing other cover cropping for fall crops or future years. Overall we plan on adding as much compost as is feasible on our first year heavy production beds (quick succession greens and roots, and fruiting crops) but eventually maybe rely more on a rotation of cover cropping and production.
Overall we have a general idea of just building up the organic matter content as much as possible, being low till to maintain and improve soil biology, and wanting to provide adequate nutrients through compost and cover cropping. But getting to specifics, we have gaps in our knowledge about matter like minerals (other than, I know calcium and magnesium play an important role in healthy fruiting crops, and avoiding blossom end rot in nightshades), micro-nutrients, and pH, and appropriate amendments to correct severe or minor issues.
So again, any context or advice people might have in regards to our soil and water tests would be very welcome.
Thank you all for reading.
