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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Will applying twenty year old cow manure hurt my vegetable garden?

I'm cleaning out my barn. It's old cow manure that's been in there for 20 years. I put a bunch of it on the garden, which has clay soil. I'm growing tomatoes, peppers and onions. Will this hurt my vegetable garden?
Daniel Cole
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Is charcoal good for use as a soil amendment?

I came across an article the other day on wikipedia about Terra preta. Has anyone used charcoal like this to enhance sandy soil, like we have in Florida? Does this really work, and what is the best method for applying it?
psusi
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How do I improve the soil around a plant after it has grown considerably?

We planted a whole bunch of plants and trees when we first moved in, without any consideration for the soil condition. Now that a year has passed, I see some plants are taking off really well and some have stunted growth. This has to do with the…
Lorem Ipsum
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Is it safe to change the entire soil surrounding the roots?

Usually when you buy plants from the store, the soil type might not be suitable to them. Is it safe to change the soil completely? I mean to remove all the soil around most of the roots, then put it into a pot with new soil. I can think of 2…
lamwaiman1988
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How can the "soils" be improved on coral atolls.

My Parents are currently living on a small pacific coral atoll. Coral atolls, for the most part don't have much soil. Mostly they just have coral sands. These "soils" are very well drained (and they get hot during the day), and highly alkaline, with…
naught101
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Should I have added dead leaves directly to my garden?

With all the fallen leaves that were on our field I picked them up with my lawnmower with the pouch and them put that in my garden and worked the rototiller afterwards. I thought it would be good for the garden but then some people made me…
mateoc
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How can I clean up soil mixed with spruce needles?

I have some garden soil that has decaying spruce needles mixed through it. What should I do to the soil in order to grow vegetables in it normally?
J. Musser
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How can mushrooms be used to enhance a vegetable garden?

I have read in various places that mushrooms in lawns are an indication of woody compostable material that is being eaten by the mushrooms and that the by-product of this process will be additional nutrients for the lawn. Can this same process be…
Om Patange
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How can I amend clay soil with soil, without digging?

I live in a USDA hardiness zone 5 temperate area. Our soil is definitely heavy clay. I have bags and bags of dirt that I can use to amend it, but I'm stuck as to how. See, the clay is very heavy, and the temperature is quite hot (25-30° Celsius…
ashes999
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Excess Zinc in garden soil

I had the soil in one of my garden beds tested for a wide spectrum of minerals. This bed was originally filled with bought topsoil and mushroom compost, then it was cultivated with parsnips and spinach, finally I have added some homemade compost.…
usumdelphini
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What type of dirt to use for filling the backyard before preparing the vegetable beds?

The backyard of my house has a small slope and because of that little puddles of rain water are accumulating. Because of this, the mulch in the nearby vegetable beds are wet all the time. I want to fill this slope with some dirt. I would like to…
yasouser
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What are the pros and cons of different rock dusts?

Rockdust is powdered rock that helps give plants extra minerals (such as silica for strong leaves and stems), trace minerals, calcium, iron etc. They can increase the soil pH somewhat, too. Rockdust is not fertilizer, as it does not directly contain…
Brōtsyorfuzthrāx
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How much ash can I use on a lawn?

On occasion I end up burning some oak branches in my firepit, which gives me some ash that I typically throw out. At times I have heard it may be beneficial to use it in the lawn, although I already have suspicions that my lawn is slightly acidic…
MichaelF
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How do you figure out if you have Rhizobia bacteria in your soil?

I have prepared a leaf-rich garden patch (see here). To promote decomposition of the leaves I have planted a lot of beans and peas to promote nitrogen fixation in the soil. However, I don't know if there are any Rhizobia bacteria in the soil. How…
Om Patange
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how to fix soil with too little sand and clay?

I made a stupid mistake that has ruined my garden which I didn't realize until now. When moving in to my current house years ago, I tried to "improve" my garden soil by removing lots of soil and adding lots of free sewage sludge "compost" from my…
Jon
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