Plant something to see what it is telling you.

A soil test will tell you more than educated guessing by us.

Soil testing in Portugal, as well as most of Europe, appears to be less about nutrients than pollution or suitability for construction. However, you can uses these simple soil tests to learn some about the soil you have and what needs to be done to make it better.

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.

You want about 6 to 8 percent organic matter in that soil.

kimmq is kimmsr

If the soil is gray and even weeds are struggling, it seems to need organic matter and nutrients. Concentrate on adding compost and/or degradable mulches (weeds, leaves, grass clippings, wood chips) on top. Don't be too concerned about growing the 'right' fungi. Give them what they want to eat and they will come.

Is the grey stuff crystalline like salt? If so, the previous allotment user was not watering deeply enough and you have salts built up. Or over-fertlilizing and you have the excess on the surface. Or they were annoyed and deliberately salted the allotment so no one could use it.

If it's a powdery mold-like substance, don't worry.

Try loosening it with a spading fork, watering it slowly and thoroughly, then apply a thick layer of mulch to keep the moisture in. Use whatever you have that is cheap or free.

What do you want to grow there?

I read that test yesterday kim and found it to be great, thanks for reposting. i'll do that and repost aswell.

I think the soil rested for some years.

Looking back to the pictures below it's not that bad after all.

My fungi bag will eventually be ACT brewed to inoculate the soil who knows.

I want to grow everything nice & nutritious. An independent study found that our practices are criminal i would say. It was found that glyphosate limits are 20x off.

The best thing you can do is to get organic matter into the soil as soon as possible, as much as possible. Very poor soil can benefit from several inches of compost tilled in. In my humble opinion you can wait to fuss with teas until later. That's just trying to use a teaspoon where a bulldozer is required.

Yep, my neighbor has a roto-tiller wich is great. it will save some time.

I also know a landscaping company where I did IT stuff since 5€ for 45kg of horse manure or potting compost seems expensive at the seed store.

I'm thinking of the cheap leaf mold stuff since leaves are all about to fall :D

Please keep us posted. I would really like to see how your garden turn out. Thanks.

If you can, a good strategy to take advantage of nature's own tillers (worms and other critters) is the following. Till in compost first. Lay other materials on top such as more compost, half-composted material, leaves, wood chips. If you have more than one material put them roughly in that order. If you can mix browns and greens (grass clippings or fresh manure + leaves for example), put that down between compost and leaves/wood chips. The soil food web will work from the bottom over the winter. You can till or dig again in spring, if the material is close enough to being totally decomposed, or rake off whatever is not, or dig holes through to plant tomatoes, etc. Whatever works best. Over time as you do this you will find yourself tilling less and less.

hi ppl's, it's great to be here again with good news and pictures :D

November looked like this .

In December they installed the water lines and added manure, so it seems that by January we will finally start to plant.

I meanwhile got a network job at the local university, and guess what, I will have my soil to be tested on a lab. I talked to a professor working on a biofortification project ( Zinc in wheat & Selenium in apples) and she offered to do that for my convenience. I'm a lucky guy these days.

I suspect that the oats had nothing to do with the fact that your soil doesn't want to grow plants without a struggle. A soil analysis will tell you why. Oats is indeed a source of nitrogen, but not plant-usable nitrogen. Basically, you need to compost it first to nitrify the organics in it. Oats can be a LONG TERM source of nitrogen, but not a short term source.

You might plant stuff where you applied the potting soil+oats, and where you didn't. I suspect the struggle will look the same in both cases.

The oat soil was bought. Commercial topsoil I believe so I just added the oats to check the flora. The soil has been decomposing since October undisturbed.