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soil tests for vegetable beds, pecans

14 years ago

So I got the first soil tests of my garden. I hope a gardenweb guru can help me make sense of this and what I should do moving forward. Sorry this is so long...

In 2007, I made a 60 sq ft raised veggie bed between the pecan trees in sandy eastern NC. In 2009 I made another raised bed that is about 325 sq ft in the only other sunny spot. I've added occasional organic matter, buckets of mushroom compost and manure, and ash from the wood stove. I till with a Mantis before new plantings, and stumbled along growing food throughout the year. Now I want to get serious and turn the two veggie plots and the pecans into bigger producers.

2007 bed: spring and fall garden, now planted with peas, spring greens, radishes, bunching onions, etc

HM% 0.56, W/V 1.11, CEC 15.8, BS% 100.0, Ac 0.0, pH 7.3, P-I 272, K-I 40, Ca% 88.0, Mg% 10.0, Mn-I 107, Zn-1 606, Zn-AI 606, Cu-I 291, S-I 52, Na 0.1, recommendation 7 lbs 15-0-14 per 1000 sq ft per 1st and 2nd crop

2009 bed: summer garden, currently bare. Tomatoes, peppers, beans, cukes, and melons do pretty good. Trying okra this year.

HM% 0.51, W/V 1.10, CEC 12.3, BS 100.0, Ac 0.0, pH 7.3, P-I 197, K-I 43, Ca% 87.0, Mg% 12.0, Mn-I 108, Zn-I 319, Zn-AI 319, Cu-I 132, S-I 37, Na 0.1, recommendation 7 lbs 15-0-14 per 1000 sq ft per 1st and 2nd crop

the pecans: aka the rest of the yard under these dozen or so pecans about 14" at the ground and 30 ft tall that never produce enough nuts to bother with.

HM% 0.56, W/V 1.15, CEC 8.1, BS 95.0, Ac 0.4, pH 6.9, P-I 98, K-I 32, Ca% 65.0, Mg 29.0, Mn-I 65, Zn-I 528, Zn-AI 528, Cu-I 43, S-I 27, Na 0.1, recommendation is a N (note), P 0, K 20-40. The note is a pamphlet on annual fertilizing for trees with 14-0-14 depending on trunk diameter.

My take from these results and the explanatory pamphlets: I have sandy, heavy soil, with cation exchange increasing in the vegetable beds the longer I work them. pH is neutral. Phosophorus is high (all that wood ash?). Potassium is medium. Ca, Mn, Zn, Cu, S are all good (ash?).

What should I do to improve these soils and my food production? I grow by using whatever I can collect myself/avoid buying (cedar trunks for the raised beds, bamboo for trellises and cages) and I have never used store-bought fertilizer in the ground. In addition to my wood ash, I have access to mountains of mushroom compost and manure that farmer neighbors always have and a mound of composted pine bark from trees that were knocked down in a hurricane almost 10 years ago. I don't have a pickup or a tractor to move lots of compost or manure, so I have only ever added a few buckets at time.

Please tell me what to do. To the beds, keep adding ash, add much more compost, manure, and pine bark to increase organic content, N, and K? Use a cover crop in the winter when the big bed is bare? Something else?

Fot the pecans and the (productive when pruned) pear tree, start fertilize with commercial 14-0-14 every February and after fruit set like the pamphlet says? Should I give them some of that wood ash each winter, too?

Thanks.

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