Why does my soil kill some plants?

[MichelD]

My wife and I have been gardening in our back yard for 30 years. Original owners had stropped much of the top soil and we started with gravel and a thin layer of top soil. Over the years we've added lime (crushed limestone not the white stuff) peat moss, compost, mushroom manure, and this year aged mixed animal manure and the soil has got progressively worse not better.

Runner beans and bush beans seem to do well, the zuchinni and cucumber plants are okay, bok choy came up and despite usually having good kale plants, this year the seeds barely sprouted and many didn't. Most kale that came up died shortly afterwards and so did the broccoli.

Some carrot and parsnip seeds sprouted, but radish and lettuce seeds won't sprout and beets just will not grow for us.

I can't figure it out.

Last year I thought it was because my compost was not aged enough and this year I suspected that the manure a farmer sold me despite being dug from a four-year-old pile still had not decomposed enough.

 

[oneeye]

I would just use peat moss mixed in the soil in the areas you're plating fine seed. All the composted stuff you added to the soil will lock out the nitrogen while trying to break down itself down and decay. Seeds need a fine texture with a good pH to get off to a strong start. Now if your starting pH is acidic, then you would be better off using CoCo Coir to mix with the soil. However, I presume that since you are adding a lot of manures they you have an alkaline soil and the peat would be best. I mix peat to my alkaline soil and grow beets and other greens very easily. The soil is nitrogen short because of all the organic matter you added it. Hope that helps.

 

[skinyea]

maybe get the soil tested and see exactly what you got?

are the seeds from a trusted source?

 

[MichelD]

I live on the west coast in Vancouver BC.

Don't know how to get soil tested.

Seeds are mostly home-grown.

 

[DirtMechanic]

My wife and I have been gardening in our back yard for 30 years. Original owners had stropped much of the top soil and we started with gravel and a thin layer of top soil. Over the years we've added lime (crushed limestone not the white stuff) peat moss, compost, mushroom manure, and this year aged mixed animal manure and the soil has got progressively worse not better.

Runner beans and bush beans seem to do well, the zuchinni and cucumber plants are okay, bok choy came up and despite usually having good kale plants, this year the seeds barely sprouted and many didn't. Most kale that came up died shortly afterwards and so did the broccoli.

Some carrot and parsnip seeds sprouted, but radish and lettuce seeds won't sprout and beets just will not grow for us.

I can't figure it out.

Last year I thought it was because my compost was not aged enough and this year I suspected that the manure a farmer sold me despite being dug from a four-year-old pile still had not decomposed enough.

Modern manure is apt to have multi year herbicide and its sketchy to use it these days.

Can you spare some pictures?

 

[Chuck]

You have added crushed limestone. It is super slow acting and alkaline. You have added peat moss. It has zero nutrional value and is acidic. You have added compost which is good but not all that nutritious. Its great for soil microbes but its NPK is minimal. Mushrooms make a decent compost as the other compost you added. You have added animal manure. Manure is great but not fast acting and depending on how much you applied it could be minimal in NPK. You have not really fertilized your soil. The reason your beans are doing OK is that they don't require as much nitrogen as other vegetables as they are nitrogen fixing plants and put nitrogen into the soil, not take it away. You have built up the volume of soil in the past 30 years and I am sure if you added a good manufactured organic fertilizer before and at the time of planting you will see a world of difference. Manufactured organic fertilizer has added P, K, and trace minerals. Most manures are usually higher in N but are limited in P and K. Manufactured organic fertilizers are formulated to give plants enough of each macro-nutrient. You should have plenty of organic material in your soil and with added NPK you should have a very fertile soil.

British Columbia Agricultural Testing Laboratories | Farmwest

farmwest.com

 

[MichelD]

You have added crushed limestone. It is super slow acting and alkaline. You have added peat moss. It has zero nutrional value and is acidic. You have added compost which is good but not all that nutritious. Its great for soil microbes but its NPK is minimal. Mushrooms make a decent compost as the other compost you added. You have added animal manure. Manure is great but not fast acting and depending on how much you applied it could be minimal in NPK. You have not really fertilized your soil. The reason your beans are doing OK is that they don't require as much nitrogen as other vegetables as they are nitrogen fixing plants and put nitrogen into the soil, not take it away. You have built up the volume of soil in the past 30 years and I am sure if you added a good manufactured organic fertilizer before and at the time of planting you will see a world of difference. Manufactured organic fertilizer has added P, K, and trace minerals. Most manures are usually higher in N but are limited in P and K. Manufactured organic fertilizers are formulated to give plants enough of each macro-nutrient. You should have plenty of organic material in your soil and with added NPK you should have a very fertile soil.

British Columbia Agricultural Testing Laboratories | Farmwest

farmwest.com

Thanks for the info and the links.

I realize the limestone is slow acting. That's why I apply it every year.

My wife (who is the real gardener, I just do the bull work) says the brocolli for example and other plants started, but just won;t grow roots. She suspects that the manure is too "hot" or fresh. Seems like we had the same problem last year applying our compost.

I guess I should try to find a source of organic alfalfa meal in Vancouver.

 

[MichelD]

What about fish fertilizer? We've got a bucket of extremely stinky home made fish fertilizer from guts and heads and old forgotten freezer herring in a thick liquid. We dilute it it with a lot of water and water plants with it sometimes. Oh - and we add bone meal every year too.

But short of having the soil tested, I don't know how to tell the p balance of the soil.

 

[Chuck]

What about fish fertilizer? We've got a bucket of extremely stinky home made fish fertilizer from guts and heads and old forgotten freezer herring in a thick liquid. We dilute it it with a lot of water and water plants with it sometimes. Oh - and we add bone meal every year too.

But short of having the soil tested, I don't know how to tell the p balance of the soil.

Fish is an excellent fertilizer. NPK is 8.5, 7.4 and 0. But just fish by itself isn't enough. No potash or magnesium or iron or other needed trace mineras are present. And just sometimes isn't near enough. Even with fish emulsion you still should fertilize every 2 weeks. And bonemeal takes between 4 and 5 months to be active. Bonemeal is a great soil additive but it isn't a complete fertilizer. Its NPK is 5-17-0 and is used long term in soil. As I am sure you have found out, gardening is not just planting a seed in the ground.