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 dry sphagnum moss dead?

When you buy dried/dehydrated, compacted bricks of sphagnum moss from gardening suppliers and stores, etc., is it supposed to be alive, and/or able to grow, upon rehydration? Or is it dead? I bought some of this Brunnings brand, expanding sphagnum…
voices
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What is the benefit of using peat?

What is the point of adding peat (peat-moss/sphagnum-peat/sedge-peat/etc.) to soils and substrates? What benefit does it provide? I like the texture of it, and being that it's composed of partially decayed or decaying vegetation, I presumed that it…
voices
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How can I soften clay soil and enrich it for plants?

A few years ago, we used a clay type soil for filling holes in our garden. Later the soil became very hard and most of our plants and trees are not healthy. Only unwanted plants are growing. Is there any way we can make the soil healthy for garden…
johnie
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What to do with strawberry plants planted in a soil with lot of nitrogen in it?

When I planted my strawberry plants which I bought from Walmart into a 2.5' (Length) x 2.5' (Width) x 10" (Depth) cedar planter, I filled ~5" with top soil and then layered about an inch of steer manure and then topped it off with ~3" of top soil.…
yasouser
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For how much area should I amend the soil for a given plant?

My question is not about depth, but area. For a given individual plant, do I amend the soil for an area the size of its seed spacing recommendation (12 in., etc.)? Or is less required? I am a complete beginner. Thanks! Sarah
Sarah Torres
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What is the name of the French pioneer of organic/sustainable farming?

I can't remember his name. I think he was active in the 50's to 70's. His techniques involved creating berms of fallen branches and twigs, and later incorporating the decayed matter into his soils. Any help would be appreciated!
Jiminion
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When to apply amendments to blueberries

I've got a blueberry in a pot that was repotted without amending the soil. Now it seems to be growing okay but rather then repotting it again, I'm wondering if I can apply a coffee grounds mulch while it still has a few berries, and i mean only a…
Graham Chiu
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How should I fertilize to increase the Nitrogen in my soil?

I did a soil test and it says that I have lots of P and K but very little N. What kind of fertilizer is best to use to replace the nitrogen in my soil? It is almost time to plant, and I am already planning on using manure, probably a combination…
monica
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Will top dressing over moss kill the moss?

I have some very mossy areas in my lawn, I began to address this with soil samples, aeration, branch removal for more sun and of moss killer last summer/fall. This spring I plan to top dress areas of my lawn. Specifically the really poor areas…
treeNinja
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Should I use a mycorrhizal inoculant when transplanting 4.5" caliper white oaks?

The site is on the east end of Long Island. Zone 6b. It is actually a re-vegetation of a forested area from which we removed over 40 mature pitch pines that had succumbed to some pine beetle. There are currently some small black and scrub oaks in…
That Idiot
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How far down do I need to dig when sifting out rocks from a garden?

I'm still working on sifting through an area of my backyard in order to make a garden for next year. I'm pretty sure it used to be a gravel lot, since all the rocks are the ones found in gravel roads, and I've found various building materials like…
The Flash
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Would it be better for me to set up my garden in the fall, or wait until spring?

I recently moved into a house with a yard, and am eager to start getting a garden started. The ground here isn't really clay, but it's not really dirt that I would want to use for gardening. It's really heavy and compact, and there are gravel-like…
The Flash
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Should I do a soil test before or after amending soil?

I want to plant blackberries, raspberries, and a vegetable garden in the heavy clay soil in my backyard. So, I plan to heavily amend it by spreading 3" expanded shale and 6" of compost and working that 12" or more down by double digging. Since I…
Philip
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How do I prevent my soil from compacting?

I have several raised beds for vegetables and I don't walk on them but they still compact over time from watering. What can I add to the soil to keep it from compacting?
user19997
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How can I make a soiless mix for raised beds?

We are making numerous raised beds and have been playing around with various combinations of bagged garden soil, compost, etc. to fill them but this method is both expensive and providing less than perfect results. Just read a gardening book that…
Greenhouser
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