the reason why you have rhododendrons is that they are one of the few that will thrive in such an acidic soil. If you want to change the pH, you will have to apply a lot of lime.

How much lime would you recommend and what type? Is the soil unusually high?

What was the recommendation from UMASS for making needed corrections to the soil?

What is the amount of organic matter in the soil?

Perhaps these simple soil tests may be of some help.

1) Soil test for organic
material. From that soil sample put enough of the rest to make a 4 inch level in
a clear 1 quart jar, with a tight fitting lid. Fill that jar with water and
replace the lid, tightly. Shake the jar vigorously and then let it stand for 24
hours. Your soil will settle out according to soil particle size and weight.
For example, a good loam will have about 1-3/4 inch (about 45%) of sand on the
bottom. about 1 inch (about 25%) of silt next, about 1 inch (25%) of clay above
that, and about 1/4 inch (about 5%) of organic matter on the top.

2) Drainage. Dig a hole
1 foot square and 1 foot deep and fill that with water. After that water drains
away refill the hole with more water and time how long it takes that to drain
away. Anything less than 2 hours and your soil drains’ too quickly and needs
more organic matter to slow that drainage down. Anything over 6 hours and the
soil drains too slowly and needs lots of organic matter to speed it up.

3) Tilth. Take a handful
of your slightly damp soil and squeeze it tightly. When the pressure is
released the soil should hold together in that clump, but when poked with a
finger that clump should fall apart.

4) Smell. What does your
soil smell like? A pleasant, rich earthy odor? Putrid, offensive, repugnant
odor? The more organic matter in your soil the more active the soil bacteria
will be and the nicer your soil will smell, to a point. Too much organic matter
can be bad as well.

5) Life. How many
earthworms per shovel full were there? 5 or more indicates a pretty healthy soil. Fewer than 5,
according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, indicates a soil that
is not healthy.

kimmq is kimmsr

UMass recommends in lbs/100 sq feet for Limestone: 30, Nitrogen: 0.1 - 0.2, Phosphorus: 0.1 and Potassium: 0.25.

the test didn't indicate the amount of OM. There are no earthworms in the soil and the soil doesn't smell offensive. I am adding coffee grounds, free compost from the city, cover crops and sheet mulching.

what else would you suggest?

I will do the other tests you mentioned

Bump :)

there's an issue with acidity. Any time you do a soil test and the recommendations are to apply less than 1 lb/100ft2, you're in good shape. If the recommendations are to apply more than 10 lb/100ft2, there's a problem.

you state almost no sun. What is the reason for no sun? buildings? trees? what is soil moisture like?

So what is your question. What else you can do? to what end? What problems are you having?

By the way, they aren't stones in the ground...they're new England potatoes.

What you need to add depends on what you want to grow. For example... if you want to grow blueberries, you don't need to add as much lime as you would for other plants because they prefer acidic environments. Same as with azaleas and rhododendrons.

You mentioned that you don't care for the rhodos and hostas. Both of those plantings do well in shady areas. So, before you think about amending the soil, you need to think about:

A. Do you want to, or even, can you change or affect the amount of direct sunlight. I'm not saying you have to, just... is it an option, or do you like it to stay shady.

and...

B. What plants/flowers do you want to plant. This sounds like an area where you want, or there are shrubs, but you may want to add perennials and maybe a few annuals. First you need to design what you would like the area to look and feel like, then you choose the plants that bring those characteristics, then you amend the soil to nurture the needs of the plantings.

So, now that you know the soil profile, before we discuss how to amend the soil, you need to decide on the plants you want - then we'll cater the soil to fit the plants.

There is a caveat though... if you are open to different plants other than the ones you already have, you can look at finding other plants that like the soil as it is now.

Thanks for all the replies. Wayne, Lol at New England potatoes. Sun is blocked by trees, but there are patches that's get 4-6 hours. Soil is dry.

My main question is what steps to take as a result of the soil test.

Also what does 30 lb/100 ft2 mean? What type of lime should I use? How much? Rough guess re yard size is 1/6 acre since plot is 1/3 acre.

Would you recommend adding an organic fertilizer? What type?

rgreen, I would like more sun, but that is not an option. I guess the plants I want are limited by how little sun i get. So i guess anything that needs full sun is out.

ideally, I'd like to have flowers in every season

Thanks

The soil test just gives you a baseline for what you have, and a starting point for how to amend the soil to get it where your new plants will be happy.

As you state, the plants you choose will need to be happy enough with the shady/sun ratio you have now.

I really think you need to start in the landscape design forum, or shrubs, or flowers... etc. and post pictures of the space as it is now, and an idea of what you want. Maybe take a drive to a couple of good nurseries in your area. Right now is a good time to find fall flowering plants, or plants whose leaves will bring color to the location. For winter, ask about trees with interesting limb and bark formations. You might be surprised how attractive some plants can be in winter. A landscape designer will help you 'pose' the plants with upper, and lower story plantings.

As you say, get names of plants and flowers for ALL seasons, and look them up on the web. In your design, try to group them by soil preference. Then, once you have a working idea abut plant specimens, we can use your soil test to adjust the soil to fit the plants you've chosen. If you bring the soil to a neutral pH, then fall in love with an acid loving plant, we, and you, have wasted all of our time.

Both Calcium and Magnesium are low so yoiur best choice of lime to add would be Dolomitic Lime and you would apply 30 pounds of that lime to 100 square feet.

Most all plants grow best in a soil with a pH in the 6.0 to 7.0 range where most all nutrients are most readily available. Some plants do better in soils with a different soil pH because they evolved growing in those conditions.

The best plant food is organic material, compost, shredded leaves, hay, along with animal manures in a ratio of 1 part animal manure to 3 parts organic material.

Most all of the articles about plants I have seen on the web lately have little to no information about soil or soil pH, as if that did not matter anymore.

kimmq is kimmsr

it sounds like you are at the start of learning how to work a garden. no big deal, we've all been there. And as we've learned, spometimes, what we know has changed.

The best advice I have is, start. Do. I'd keep notes and review them periodically, so you know what you did and what the result was, and in doing so, you'll learn. And over time, you may change certain things.

Sometimes, we get too caught up in wanting to know every possible detail and don't let ourselves just learn.

For instance, spread lime at a rate of 30#/100ft2. What kind? I'd say, one that also has some calcium, but honestly, it may just be more important to spread some lime. There's got to be a garden center, an agway, or something local where people go for lawn and garden products, bird seed, mulch, topsoil...these are good places to start.

Find a product that you want to apply, and a suitable spreader, and measure out 100ft2, and whatever the applied volume is, in this case, 30lb. Adjust the spreader to get even coverage over this area. This is called calibrating the equipment. I usually try to calibrate for a half rate, and cover the area twice, once side to side and once front to back.

Over time, you may change products, equipment, or technique as your experience grows, as your familiarity with specific products and your specific conditions expands. This is a journey and a process. And as much as you may want every answer up front, I cannot emphasize this enough, do. You'll learn the rest.

Lime will be helpful, but there's something else that will be more helpful to get you able to grow other things...water. Existing trees are thirsty things, with massive root systems that newly established plants just aren't able to compete with. If you can supplement water, the list of what you are able to grow becomes much, much larger.

Dry shade is a tough place to grow. I highly recommend looking into some kind of irrigation.

Your soil test reports fine fertility...I've seen enough soil test results where the fertility components have recs to apply less than 1/2#/100ft2. CEC is fine...it's a measurement of how the soil exchanges cations, which basically means, how fertile the soil is. Too low, things struggle, too high...well, higher is generally better, but I'm not going to segue into a monologue about a very technical process. The kicker is the pH...and that is adjustable.

Pretty much, whenever you are trying to grow something, add compost. Mulch keeps weeds down, and over time, decomposes into compost. There's a local product called sweet peat, something I hadn't run across until I moved to new England (southern ct), that is a composted material used as a mulch. There's a bagged product line out of maine or vermont called moodoo...a little pricey, but a) you don't have that big an area and b) you don't have to solve the entire area at once.

Have sandy soil, compost adds volume, improves water retention, and improves fertility. Have clay soil, compost increases drainage, buffers some of the high technical capacities of clay, improves fertility.

have I mentioned you may want to look into supplementing water?

Thanks for the replies!

kimmq, I applied pelletized dolomitic lime yesterday. I couldn't figure out how to adjust the spreader and it jammed anyway, but I just sprinkled it manually.

I will definitely apply shredded leaves in the fall. I found someone on Craigslist who is giving away composted horse manure free, but I don't have a pick up truck so I'll have to look into renting one. The bigger hurdle is convincing my SO!

In the meantime I planted cover crops 2 weeks ago and have been bringing coffee grounds

Wayne, completely agree about getting started and how tastes can evolve over time, so I appreciate your suggestions to get started now.

Good point about irrigation. I've been doing it manually, and while I like doing it, it is time consuming. From the little I've read, it seems like a drip irrigation is what I need? Feel free to make any recommendations on things to think about or read

Could you talk more about why you think I have fine fertility? I thought it was not that great :)

I will look into sweet peat and moodoo, depending on price. Thanks

recommended application rates of nutrients from the soil test. the suggested rates you received are less than 1#/100ft2...basically, over a 10x10 patch of ground, for the primary nutrients, the suggestion was you spread about a handful of fertilizer. that's almost a why bother kind of amount. Also, the cation exchange capacity comes back well within parameters.

now there is some room for your currently acceptable nutrient levels to become low, but that is going to be very plant specific. If you are growing landscape plants, this almost never comes into play.

So on the subject of plant nutrients, you're fine. If you want some winter reading to increase your understanding of all this, i'm sure various people here can direct you. Plants and soil and nutrient levels are less about exact numbers and more about presence and proportions.

How handy are you? It's certainly possible to buy the parts and set up your own irrigation system. However, especially for your scale, you may want to at least call a couple of people who do irrigation systems. Again, you're not looking at a major install, it's just a quarter of an acre (approx.). If not, you can get most of the parts from home depot...and that doesn't include what you can find with the internet. Look into the options, decide how much you want to chew off.

A couple of things to keep in mind:

Unless you want to get into all the nuts and bolts of the science and make your own adjustments, stick with the recommendations.

1. Lime recommendation is 30 lbs of per 100 sq feet. This is based on using pure limestone as the standard and incorporating it (tilling it in) to a depth of 6-7". As was previously stated, you also want to raise both your Calcium and Magnesium, so the easiest method to kill three birds (pH, Ca, and Mg) is to apply dolamitic limestone. It contains both Calcium and Magnesium carbonate and it's the carbonate that will raise the pH--the Ca. and Mg are gravy for you. The bag you buy will have a CCE % listed on the label. That's the Calcium Carbonate Equivalent. You'll need that to adjust for the differnce in amount needed to apply. so, take the lbs. recommendation and divide that by the bag CCE and multiply by 100.

Example:30lbs= recommended lime

Label on bag of dolamitic lime is 80%

30/80 times 100= 37.5 lbs of dolamitic lime needs to be applied to every 100 sq ft of garden to get the pH change. Keep in mind that most lab recommendations are normally intended to raise current pH to the 6.0-6.5 level.

Your potassium (K) and phosphorous (P) needs to be raise. Many garden stores carry Potassium sulfate (SOP, 0-0-50). If you can find that and a bag of lawn starter fertilizer, great. If not, try to find a triple NPK fertilizer. With a Triple 10, you would apply one pound of product over every 100 sq ft of garden.

How big is the garden?

Hope this is some help.

Thanks again. Yardtractor, the size is 750 sq ft that is landscaped and another 500 ft that is not. The CCE% on my bag of dolomitic lime is 95%, so using your formula, I'd need 31.5 lbs, correct?

wayne, not super handy, but drip irrigation seems reasonably straightforward, from what I've read, unless I'm missing something?

31.5 is correct. (750+500)/100=12.5X31.5=393.75. So you need 400lbs of that dolomitic limestone product to meet the recommendation for that whole area.

Wow, that seems like a lot of limestone!

for fertilizer, would I apply that now, later in the fall or in spring?

Apply lime in the fall since it takes some time for it to react in the soil and produce the results needed. For fertilizers it depends. If there is adequate levels of organic matter that can help hold those nutrients in the soil anytime will work. However, if there is little organic matter in the soil applying a fertilizer in the fall may be a waste of time, money, and energy since those nutrients could be washed out of the soil by the fall rains and winter snow.

A much simpler way to calculate how much lije is needed to cover 750 square feet is to multiply the amount (here 30 pounds per one hundred square feet) by 7.5 (the number of 100 square feet), or 30 x 7.5 which is 225 pounds of lime.

kimmq is kimmsr

Or.... I think I read that you are going to add organic matter. Add your organic matter first. If you apply compost in appropriate amounts, you won't have to add as much lime. Compost buffers pH. In essence, by adding the compost (pH of almost neutral,) you'll be diluting the soil acidity of the entire space.

Personally, I would consider not going with ALL dolomitic. Some Ca-based lime will help balance the Ca-Mg ratio.

I still think the cart is ahead of the horse since you haven't decided which plants will find a home there, but your beginning to see the expenses involved. I'll drop that though, it is of course your space.

Edit... another option, if costs begin to get high... do you have a fire place or wood stove? For soils with low pH, wood ash is a perfectly acceptable soil amendment. Works in the same way as lime, and not only does it bring potassium, mg, and ca (plus other trace nutrients) to the party (saving you money,) it's free. Just be sure to burn hardwoods, and be sure to burn them down well. I sift mine through a window screen, but that's me. I would still add the compost first, but it won't matter as much. Here's a primer.

Wow, that seems like a lot of limestone!

Yes it is, but that is what it will take to raise your pH from 4.8 to about 6.0. That 400lbs is for the whole 1250 sq ft of garden.

The full 30-31.5lbs should not be applied at one time, unless you till it in to a depth of 6". If the land is barren and you don't plant until next May, then you could surface apply the full amount and let it work into the soil over winter (baring frozen soil impediment). If surface applied to soil with existing plants, you shouldn't apply more than 5lbs at a time and space apps out with 3 months between apps. Doing the latter will take a long time to get the full pH change. If surface applying 5lbs, you should wait at least 6 weeks before planting any seed.

As someone suggested, you may want to select what you want to plant and research what pH range they do best in.

for fertilizer, would I apply that now, later in the fall or in spring?

P and K are both very slow to work their way into the soil. So the early the better for them. If you are going to till and are going to leave the garden fallow until next Spring, you can add the P&K fertilizer with the lime and till them in together. If surface applying, separate lime and PK applications by a couple of weeks. N apps are only going to benefit existing plants, but as most sources for PK also contain N, it will be a casualty on barren soil. It's gone after about 6 weeks. Its loss is no problem though.

Kimmq, good point about fertilizer getting washed away if there's no OM

Rgreen, I already applied what finished compost I made, but that wasn't much. I have gotten free compost from the city, planted cover crops and I've added coffee grounds. Once I have leaves, I'll add shredded leaves as mulch. I do have a little wood ash, so I will add that too.

I found some blood meal and osmocote in the basement. It's a few years old and a small quantity but I might as well use it since its there

Yardtractor, the garden has cover crops or existing shrubs, so it will be surface applied. I planted Crimson clover and added limestone before seeing your post. It's sprouted but let's see what happens.

Thanks everyone for your replies!

So what about the high lead and aluminum levels?

"So what about the high lead and aluminum levels?"

Yeah, I saw that too. It's being used for perennials, so it shouldn't be a problem. Though, I don't know what levels are high enough for remediation. Lots of organic matter (assuming it doesn't contain such high amounts) will also dilute that down per tested quantity.

deburn: clover is pretty forgiving, In fact, the more alkali the better it seems to thrive, If anything the acidity would be more of a problem than the lime.

So what about the high lead and aluminum levels?

Aluminum is toxic to plants, but it usually isn't detrimental to plants at pH levels above 4.5. As pH raises much of it will wash out of the root zone. I've never seen anything about plants taking up lead nor any detrimental effects of lead on plant health so I'd guess it is minimal if any. No idea if it will leach out and how fast it will leach, if at all.

Before you start to put all this work into changing your soil you might want to decide what you want to grow. First I would recommend plants native to your area. These plants have already adapted to your soil conditions and will require much less care in the long run. One thing to note is your soil is contaminated with lead so make sure you are not growing any fruits or veg.

As a final note your soil PH is probably directly effecting the Aluminum in your soil. A PH below 5.0 is going to increase the amount of AL+++ (The Toxic Aluminum). You are going to want to till the lime in and get another soil test. If your Aluminum problem has not been fixed you may have to till in Gypsum . The Excess Ca allows the AL+++ to leach down to deeper subsoil. The process of leaching out the AL and increasing the PH is not something that is going to happen over night. It could take as long as 2 years.

Thanks for bringing up the point about contaminants. The report said I had elevated levels of lead and recommend further testing but nothing about aluminum

Not fruit or veg because we don't have enough sun!

Here are my thoughts on planning: while I agree that planning is important, I feel none of what I'm doing right now precludes any plants unless they are extremely acid-loving. My pH is 4.8 and the recommended ph ranges from 5.5 for acid loving to 6.5 for flowers.

Changing the ph takes a long time and so far I've added 40lbs of limestone when I need 225 - 400 lbs!

I also agree that using native plants is preferable, but that is limited by availability and cost. It's going to be hard to justify buying native if he cost difference is substantial.

I have bought a few so far, listed below, from big box stores

New plants:

Gaura lindheimeri

Salvia nemorosa

Boneset chocolate eupatorium rugosum

Salix integra brocade willow

Pieris japonica

If anyone has recommendations or websites to learn about native plants, please share.

I feel like the far bigger limiting factor is the relatively small amount of sun I get, not my soil.

Also, for any new subject, by definition my tastes are going to evolve, so I don't see much value in creating a plan upfront, when it's almost guaranteed that my tastes will change as I learn more about gardening.

One example: I just learned about Swales and berms - something I'd never remotely heard of before. Now I want to learn how I can incorporate that in my garden!

The test you linked at the top shows a Aluminum level of 290 with a recommended level of less then 75. This is a cut and paste from one website that might explain Al and Al+++.

The soil pH is probably the single most important management factor controlling the amount of Al+++ in the soil solution. Soluble Al is present in the soil when the pH begins to drop below pH 6.0. However, it is inconsequential in the vast majority of soils until the pH drops below pH 5.5. Even then, it is rarely a problem until the soil pH drops below pH 5.0. However, the amount of soluble Al increases dramatically in nearly all soils as the soil pH drops below pH 5.0. In these extremely acid soils, only those species adapted to acid soils (such as blueberries, cranberries, and acid-loving ornamentals) or the few crop species bred to tolerate high soil Al levels can be expected to do well.

This is a link to said article

http://www.spectrumanalytic.com/support/library/ff/Soil_Aluminum_and_test_interpretation.htm

Just for reference, EPA considers anything less than 400 ppm Pb safe for residential yards, with children. Also safe to garden in. My state (MO) has a LOT of Pb mining and some areas with elevated blood lead as a result of a century of dropping Pb all over the place. So the acceptable Pb level in residential soil here is 260 ppm. At 64, yes you're probably a bit elevated over background levels, possibly due to lead paint from houses and/or decades of gasoline emissions (especially in urban areas). But I wouldn't worry about it.

Thanks for the link, John. Looks like I'd have to till after my cover crops are "done" or add gypsum. I didn't see any recommendations for the amount of gypsum that would be needed.

tox, if that's true, that's awesome! I do have a baby who will at some point be playing back there. uMass recommends getting a Total Sorbed Metals test if lead levels are > than 22ppm and the test costs 55.00! I was planning to get it, but now I won't.

can anything be done to reduce lead levels? Apart from increasing OM?

"can anything be done to reduce lead levels? Apart from increasing OM?"

If it were me, and I had concerns, and getting another test after making the planned changes, I would keep a thick mulch over the area. There may be other simple actions you can take, but I've never had to look into them deeply. Having a baby does make the issue a bit more important.

That's really the number one remediation approach: cover the soil with clean material. Followed by removing and replacing, which is obviously more expensive. If you're concerned about it, you might want to sample several spots around the yard. Metals analysis is cheap - probably <$20 per sample. Check with your local health dept. - they may have resources. Note it is usually higher within 2-3 feet of an older house because of the paint. Elsewhere it should be lower unless the natural background is actually that high. I'm not sure I'd do anything with a level of 64 in the soil. Levels that low have not been shown to correlate with elevated blood lead in children.

Thanks guys. The plan is to add a lot of mulch. And I have a few months to research that's till my son can walk in the spring

In areas with high soil Pb, they also recommend extra attention to some simple housekeeping and hygiene items. Wash after playing outside and before eating and drinking. Avoid tracking dirt into the house (like you can do THAT with kids!). Much of the exposure comes from hand-to-mouth passive ingestion, and it turns out also that dust inside the house has just as much high levels as what's outside, because most of it comes from outside.