Experienced gardeners are first and foremost identified by the fact that they study the soil very carefully, even to the point of conducting serious chemical analyses.
After such in-depth studies, it becomes clear what type of soil it is, whether it was worth changing it with fertilizers or planting plants that are suitable for this soil.
Our expert, agronomist, landscape designer and botanical artist Anastasia Kovrizhnykh , will tell you what you need to pay special attention to.
Determination of soil acidity
There are several options here. If you want to determine the acidity of the soil "by eye", then it is enough to buy a special set, which will contain litmus papers to determine the characteristics of the soil.
But the most reliable option is to submit soil samples to a laboratory for testing; the results will be more accurate.
Changes in soil properties
If the analysis shows that the soil pH is above 5, then you can forget about growing many types of vegetables, they will not sprout.
And here there are options: lime, dolomite flour, natural crushed limestone and much more can be added to the soil.
Or you can plant plants that will independently bring the soil back to normal, but this will take at least one season.
Vegetables that can grow in such soil
And before you start making changes to your soil characteristics, it's important to understand what you want to grow.
Moderately acidic soil is ideal for planting potatoes, sweet potatoes, parsley, radishes and many other plant crops.
The only important thing is that the acidity of the soil does not begin to increase for various reasons, because in most cases everything depends on groundwater.
We have previously written about how to get a good harvest of radishes without much hassle.
Author: Alexey Faleichik
Expert: Anastasia Kovrizhnykh
