Gardening and Landscaping Stack Exchange
Gardening and Landscaping Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [soil-amendment]

About modifying a soil's content.

Soil amendments are any additives which are added to a soil to change its characteristics. Amendments can include (but are not limited to):

  • Fertilizers
  • Compost
  • Lime
  • Rock chips
  • Sand
  • Bark chips
  • Biochar
  • Vermiculite

Amendments can change the acidity (pH), water-holding ability, drainage, nutritional content, and inoculate against some diseases.

Use this tag for all questions where a general soil amendment tag is appropriate. Questions about specific amendments should use the specific tag for the amendment.

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Is it really important to give blueberry plants acidic soil?

I have two blueberry bushes which I planted at the end of the summer. Although I had read online that they prefer acidic soil, I didn't have the time to check the pH of our soil, and go out to buy something to make it more acidic. My bushes seem…
thebluebelle
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Amending clay soil on a large scale

What would be the best way to amend clay soil on half an acre? We want to grow our usual garden plants like tomatoes, cucumbers and such but the soil on the land we just bought is small rocks and clay. Short of bringing in 4' of topsoil, is there…
NKY Homesteading
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My garden soil is devoid of nutrients, how should I improve it this winter?

The garden area in my yard has soil that even the weeds don't particularly love to grow in during the summer. They will make a half hearted attempt in the winter, but it definitely isn't as lush as the rest of my yard. I think decades of gardening…
Ben MacAskill
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Why it is bad to add sand to soil?

Motivation: this comment from stormy: And DO NOT ADD SAND to garden soil!!! ARRRGGHH. Again, when one takes clay soil, gravel, lime, gypsum, water and then ROTATE what does one get? Concrete. Sand is right in there. Does NOTHING for the soil. The…
Giacomo Catenazzi
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Does a pine needle mulch make your soil acidic?

This article from Colorado State University states that alkaline soils resist change but several years of heavy pine needle applications would create a somewhat more acid soil. This article states Freshly fallen needles, the type that are…
kevinskio
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Can I grow a fruit bearing pistachio tree?

I live in Zone 7 in Northwest Texas. It's pretty dry here and the soil is mostly hard clay. I'm very interested in growing fruit bearing pistachio trees, but haven't been able to find any local nurseries that know anything about them (maybe that's…
Shane
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How should I improve my extremely clayey soil?

I live in North Carolina and the soil here has an extremely high clay content. I have used soil conditioner that consists of composted pine fines to amend the soil. It does an excellent job of breaking the clay here and things now grow like mad in…
ncmathsadist
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What techniques can be used to manually sieve stones from the soil efficiently?

After our house was built there is quite a bit of hardfill (river pebbles) mixed up with the topsoil around the section (approx 180sq.m.). We want to level the section, and loosen the top layer of soil to ready it for laying a lawn and growing a…
Highly Irregular
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How do I improve drainage vertically through clayey soil?

I live on a hill where the soil has lots of clay. My back garden has been terraced with small (1m) retaining walls. The net result is that we have several lawns / gardens with the following properties: Surrounded on all sides by concrete…
John Fouhy
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Should I use aluminum sulfate (sulphate) to acidify my soil?

It is often recommended online or by nurseries to apply aluminum sulfate to plants like blueberries, rhododendrons, azaleas and to hydrangeas to make the flowers blue. Is this advice I should follow?
Randy
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Placing eggshells on top of potted plants?

In general, is there any benefit (growth, soil quality, etc) if I place eggshells on top of my potted plants? My mother often does it to provide it organic material. She's not much of a scientist. I always ask why she does it. She explains that…
chrisjlee
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Do any plants add nutrients back into the soil as they grow?

It seems reasonable that there ought to be at least a few symbiotic plant varieties that benefit from improving soil condition for other plants. If not that, are there plants that essentially improve soil conditions if not by improving land…
Enigma
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Adding worms to clay soil - worth it?

I have a large area of miserable clay soil which I'm looking to start rehabilitating. For the past 15 years it's been neglected and had nothing but some unwanted grass. It's very compacted due to driving machinery over it this summer to build a…
Drew
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How deep to dig for a new flowering pear tree?

Last year I planted 3 flowering pear trees. For those who have never heard of the tree (or do not grow these trees) they look like this: For 2 out of the 3 trees it was very simple to plant the tree as the soil was very good and to this day both…
JonH
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Why is it bad to mix layers of soil if you do it once at the start?

In the answer @bstpierre gave to this question on ammending soil he mentioned mixing layers of soil during double digging is a bad idea. I was wondering why is this? I imagine mixing the layers at the initialization of a vegetable patch (converting…
Om Patange
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