Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Balancing Soil Nutrients and Acidity: The Real Dirt on Cultivating Crops, Compost, and a Healthier Home: The Ultimate Guide to Soil, #3
    Balancing Soil Nutrients and Acidity: The Real Dirt on Cultivating Crops, Compost, and a Healthier Home: The Ultimate Guide to Soil, #3
    Balancing Soil Nutrients and Acidity: The Real Dirt on Cultivating Crops, Compost, and a Healthier Home: The Ultimate Guide to Soil, #3
    Ebook78 pages1 hour

    Balancing Soil Nutrients and Acidity: The Real Dirt on Cultivating Crops, Compost, and a Healthier Home: The Ultimate Guide to Soil, #3

    By Anna Hess

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Grow twice the fruits and vegetables in half the space on the farm, in the backyard, or even in your window!

    Have you noticed the extraordinary flavors and yields emanating from even a small garden when the soil is just right? If you've ever been envious of your neighbor's dirt or just curious about homesteading, then The Ultimate Guide to Soil is the perfect fit for you.

    This third volume in the series walks new and experienced gardeners through bringing their soil into balance via remineralizion and pH correction. Learn chemical quick fixes for out-of-whack garden plots, then dive into slower-but-surer techniques utilizing cows, goats, chickens, mushrooms, cover crops, dynamic accumulators, and more.

    If merely adding compost to your soil isn't improving yields the way you think it should, then the simple approaches in this book should have you up and running in no time. Maybe next year your neighbor will be envious of you!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWetknee Books
    Release dateMay 8, 2016
    ISBN9781524284053
    Balancing Soil Nutrients and Acidity: The Real Dirt on Cultivating Crops, Compost, and a Healthier Home: The Ultimate Guide to Soil, #3

    Read more from Anna Hess

    Related to Balancing Soil Nutrients and Acidity

    Titles in the series (4)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    Agriculture For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Homemade Organic Fertilizers

      May 29, 2020

      Homemade Organic Fertilizers
      6 min read

    • Article

      Grow Green Manure

      Apr 10, 2020

      Grow Green Manure
      8 min read

    • Article

      Get The Soil To Do The Work

      Jun 13, 2018

      Get The Soil To Do The Work
      4 min read

    • Article

      BEST Organic Fertilizers

      Feb 13, 2018

      BEST Organic Fertilizers
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Importance Of Compost

      Sep 27, 2022

      The Importance Of Compost
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Secrets of Soil

      Oct 8, 2019

      The Secrets of Soil
      5 min read

    • Article

      Deep Litter MANAGEMENT

      Feb 7, 2020

      Repugnance for what comes out the far end of an animal is not merely cultural conditioning—our senses are warning us of potential danger: Feces can be a vector for disease. Joel’s quote above implicitly advises us to trust that repugnance: If it smel

      8 min read

    • Article

      Anise Hyssop: Herb of the Year

      Aug 30, 2019

      Anise Hyssop: Herb of the Year
      5 min read

    • Article

      Soil assessment 101

      Aug 27, 2018

      Soil assessment 101
      3 min read

    • Article

      Perennial VEGETABLES

      Mar 30, 2018

      Perennial VEGETABLES
      6 min read

    • Article

      Backyard Orchards: A Better Way

      Jun 9, 2021

      Backyard Orchards: A Better Way
      4 min read

    • Article

      Let’s Get Down To Earth

      Feb 22, 2022

      Let’s Get Down To Earth
      5 min read

    • Article

      Darren J. Doherty

      Oct 13, 2017

      Darren J. Doherty
      3 min read

    • Article

      Vermicomposting Basics

      Mar 19, 2021

      Vermicomposting Basics
      6 min read

    • Article

      Propagation For Beginners!

      Jan 25, 2022

      Propagation For Beginners!
      6 min read

    • Article

      Permaculture

      Aug 2, 2023

      Permaculture
      2 min read

    • Article

      Monty Ruffles Some Feathers

      Dec 1, 2020

      Monty Ruffles Some Feathers
      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Balancing Soil Nutrients and Acidity

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Balancing Soil Nutrients and Acidity - Anna Hess

      Introduction

      Remineralization adds nutrients back into your soil to ensure a bountiful, delicious harvest.

      In The Intelligent Gardener, Steve Solomon makes a solid case for balancing soil nutrients in a process known as remineralization. He based his recommendations on others' research, but also on his own experiences with discovering that homegrown food doesn't always lead to good health.

      Solomon's first-person account will likely resonate with other homesteaders. He and his wife lived for nine years in Oregon, where they grew most of their own food on worn-out soil that was deficient in several major nutrients. As a result, the couple began experiencing lowered energy levels, loose teeth, and soft fingernails.

      A six-month vacation in Fiji created dramatic changes in the Solomons' vitality, due (the husband believed) to the local produce grown in soil fertilized by silt from volcanic rocks. This experience led him to the work of Weston Price, who argued that we really need four (or more) times the recommended daily allowance of calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, and vitamins A, D, and E for optimal health. Next, Solomon turned to the work of remineralization guru William Albrecht, who explained that if we want to consume those high levels of vitamins and minerals, gardeners must plant into well-balanced soil chock-full of minerals.

      Many proponents of remineralization use a Brix meter to assess the nutrient density of their crops. However, you should be aware that Brix is simply a measurement of sugar content and you can get the same information with your own taste buds.

      While Solomon's tale is intriguing, many organic gardeners are rightfully leery of the similarities between remineralization and mainstream, non-organic farming since both utilize chemical fertilizers. In the latter scenario, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium are applied in their most basic form before each crop, creating a cycle of dependency in the soil. For example, if a farmer pours on chemical nitrogen fertilizers, the nitrogen-cycling microorganisms in his soil perish, and the farmer is forced to continue applying chemical nitrogen fertilizers if he wants subsequent crops to grow. The result is impoverished soil that decreases in quality every year.

      For that reason, most readers of this book will choose compost over chemicals for annual fertilization. So why would you apply deficient minerals in chemical form if remineralization is likely to produce the same decline in soil microorganisms that you'd see from traditional chemical farming? Proponents of the former method will rebut that remineralization is meant to be a one-time corrective action to combat the natural effects of leaching, so you can consider the fertilizer applications in this scenario as a bit like tilling up the ground before building permanent raised beds—a necessary short-term evil to produce long-term gains.

      In the end, remineralization is one of the most controversial topics covered in this book, and I'll admit that I'm not entirely sold on the concept myself. But it's worth understanding the whys and hows of this slightly fringe technique in order to decide which, if any, facets of remineralization you want to utilize in your own garden.

      Chapter 1: Correcting Soil pH

      When and why to shift pH

      Blueberries require a much more acidic soil than other common edibles.

      Even though this chapter is included under the remineralization umbrella, tweaking pH to suit your garden plants uses much more mainstream science than other parts of a remineralization campaign. In fact, most gardeners have a need to correct pH at some point in their growing careers and the task is generally accomplished in roughly the same manner. So why do I put pH under the remineralization umbrella? Because pH management utilizes the same science as topping up other garden paucities, which lends credence to the remineralization hypothesis and also helps you understand how to decide

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1