Soil Mixes & Conditioners

Why Condition Soil? | Types of Soil Conditioner or Mix

How Much Do I Mix | Organic or Sand | Soil Testing Info | Cultivating Methods

The question is - what is a soil conditioner? And why is conditioning soil important? A soil conditioner can be any form of organic or nonorganic medias used to blend into and alter any soil for a variety of gardening project. Since we highly advise the use of organic soil conditioners, we'll focus on various types of organic soil conditioners that can be used to increase the quality and performance of various local soils.

The following are the main benefits provided by conditioning soils:

Adds organic matter to the soil to improve plant growth and performance
Adds and harbors natural beneficial bacteria to the soil for enhance root growth
Improves oxygen levels in the soil for improved root growth
Improves soil drainage preventing root rot and improving root growth
Enhances soil quality and texture making it easier and nicer to manage planting

Well, now that you know some of the main reasons that we promote conditioning your soil during planting projects, it's important to know a little about the various types of conditioner that you can utilize for mixing your planting soil

Types of Soil Conditioner

Daddy Pete's Composted Cow Manure

This is our best form of soil conditioner that is a high quality composted cow manure that not only provides a wonderful organic matter and great texture to the soil blend, but also has a .5-.5-.5 organic fertilizer value adding in the nutrient level to your soil.

Evergreen's landscape department utilizes this as their main soil blending conditioner during individual planting as well as total bed preparation when tilling to prepare great planting conditions. We have been having great success with this soil. Click on the Cow Manure image to the right to visit Daddy Pete's Farm Website to learn about their high quality composting production.

Sphagnum Peat Moss

For years, Sphagnum peat moss has been one of the most popular organic soil conditioners used by avid gardeners. This harvested decomposed Canadian moss is harvested in Canada and provides a organic conditioning media that also assist in retaining moisture. A great conditioner for heavy clays and often used to also blend into other soil mixes as a second mixing ingredient is used. An old time favorite of Evergreen is to utilize Pine Bark Humus, described below, with Sphagnum Peat Moss for mixing into hard heavy clay soils. You'll be amazed at it's ability to conform clay to a nice textured, less compact soil.

Pine Bark Humus

This is the finest grade of pine bark that somewhat resembles a texture to that of common saw dust. This fine but coarse conditioner provides a great airy feel to the soil providing great drainage to heavy compacted soils such as clay being common to our region. Often other conditioners, such as Daddy Pete's Composted Cow Manure, or Sphagnum Peat Moss, are used along with pine bark humus to blend into soil for planting preparation.

Bagged Topsoil Products

There is a wide range of bagged topsoil products on the market today. Some that actually don't even resemble actual topsoil and are man made blends, and other that are high quality screened topsoil blended with organic media. Be careful and weary of those low price advertised topsoil.

Any form of topsoil can be used to alter a soil's structure which will always benefit; however, there are higher quality blends of topsoil, such as Daddy Pete's Topsoil, that can be acquired for higher quality uses.

Potting Soil Mixes

Many potting soil blends are available that are a higher quality of mixed ingredients mostly being soil-less products. A soil-less mix is one that is comprises of non soil ingredients such as sphagnum peat moss, pine bark humus, perlite, vermiculite, etc. The mix of these ingredients in varying combinations create a very light and fluffy mix that is airy and well drained. This is great when directly filling pots or various containers especially when planting with annual flowers.

Potting soil mixes can be used when conditioning outdoor soils but are usually too expensive when using in higher volume.

Organic Compost

There are a lot of organic compost from natural derived compost from household foods and debris, grass clippings, and leaves being among a few of the most common compost types. As long as the organic matter used for composting is fully composted and produced, you'll find it one of the best organic levels that can be blended into soils and gardens.

The one drawback is that they are not as clean and uniform to manage and do not alter the structure of soils quite the same way with regards to making a consistent airy soil mix. If I had my choice of compost types, I'd utilize well composted and aged leaves from a natural woodsy environment.

How Much Do I Mix?

There is not exact equation as to the volume of soil conditioner to use when preparing a planting mix. Variances to soil conditioner types as well as soil types being amended will result in different mixing ratios The best guideline would be whatever it takes to provide a consistent soil structure change that will not only alter the soil's color, but also to improve the soil's overall texture or feel.

Directions that we, at Evergreen, often share with our customers instructions, when preparing a single planting hole for trees, shrubs, & perennials, to blend a soil conditioner and existing soil at a 50/50 or half and half ratio.

When cultivating larger bed areas by performing total bed preparation by machine tilling, Evergreen's landscape designers direct the use of 6 (50 lb.) bags of Daddy's Pete's Composted Cow Manure to each 100 sq.ft. of bed areas and in some situations will also add 1 (3.8 cub.ft.) Sphagnum peat moss to this same mix for extra amendment.

The best rule of thumb is simply mixing, placing your hand under the soil, and if a green thumb appears when you remove, then you've got it! Well, that's not really it, but your feel and judgement as to whatever amount provide you the confidence that you've improved the soil's structure, then you'll be OK.

* Note - a special note that we'd like to share is that too much is not better. Always utilize at least

50% of your original soil in the blend when backfilling around a plants root ball. It's

important to allow the root system to become acquainted with the surrounding soil type.

Organic or Sand?

Many gardeners are directed to add sand to a soil mix to promote good soil drainage especially for those that prefer high drained soils. Contrary to this belief, most and many sands are man made meaning that they are made by crushing stone types such as brown coarse sand which is derived from crushing brown stone or river rock.

This process of man made sand often causes a flat sand particle which actually doesn't provide much enhancement at all for drainage and can, in places, actually cause poorer drainage than improvements. There are naturally derived sands, such as river bottom sands, that are actually round shaped in their habit and can improve soil's structure by improving drainage. Their weakness is, while altering soil structure, they add no organic value to the soil at the same time.

All in all, I rarely advise the use of sand in gardening projects.

Soil Testing Info

We highly recommend soil testing in conditions that you are simply having difficulty with various gardening projects. If you'll inquire about your crop's growing preferences, usually you can adjust soil conditions and add the necessary nutrients to fit their needs. There are times that serious deficiencies can cause failures not matter how hard you try and soil testing is needed. There is nothing wrong about simply inquiring about your soil's nutrient and pH level.

Generally, what is being tested during standard soil test are the Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potassium nutrient levels as well as the pH level which is one of the most important that I'd like to stress. Lawn conditions probably merit the most soil sampling conditions due to their sensitivity towards high or low pH levels and for deficient phosphorous or potassium levels.

Evergreen provides the service of soil testing for a reasonable fee to ensure our customer's success during their gardening projects. Also, soil test kits can be purchased at Evergreen if you desire to do your own soil testing. If you desire to have Evergreen provide a soil test for you, follow the below steps:

Take a single sample or multi samples for larger area averages
Samples should be roughly 1/2 size of a sandwich baggie or 1/2 pint
Label samples individually and identify type of sample....i.e..garden, lawn landscape bed
Utilize a sample container that is not clean and not contaminated with other substances
Bring into Evergreen of Johnson City and request a soil sample for either pH only or a full soil sample that include pH and phosphorous / potassium level check.

Cultivating Methods

Cultivating soils describes the method of tilling or turning over soils during a chopping like method often performed when attempting to loosen and break up a compacted body of soil. Often this process will be performed while amending the soil with an organic soil conditioner as described in the above topics on soil conditioners.

Cultivating can be performed by either hand or mechanical methods. A hand or manual method would comprise of using either hand trowels for smaller projects or larger hand tools such as a spade or hoe. Mechanical methods would be performed by using a engine powered rotary cultivator known as a rototiller. There are many forms of garden tillers available in small but powerful machines for small garden uses, and larger garden tillers requiring a heavier use of manual or muscular control to manage the tilling action. Outside of larger tractor tillers, these are the most common in home and business gardening projects.

Natural Guard Soil Activator

Natural Guard Soil Activator with 100% Humates

GENERAL BENEFITS OF HUMATES:

Humate is a natural product and has no chemical additives.
Humate is an organic compost containing a high concentration of humic acid which is recycled back into the soil.
Humate holds nutrients in a usable form and releases them to the growing plant as needed. It stretches out the food availability between feedings.
Humate helps aerate the soil. It assists in preventing formation of large lumps and stratification of the soil.
Humate activates the decomposition of plowed under crop remains, new compost and grass clippings.
Humate increases the water-holding capacity of soils. Soil containing humate resists drought more effectively and produces better yields where rainfall or irrigation may otherwise be insufficient. (Yields increase up to 1000% in sandy loam soils and 700% in clay soils.)
Humate is a supplement to crop rotation, green manures, animal manures and inoculation of the soil with micro-organisms such as those found in Natural Guard's Natural Granular Fertilizer (9-4-4).
Humate improves the workability of the soil. Heavy clay soils can be worked into satisfactory seed beds and marginal soils into profitable soils. Soils are more crumbly and suitably-sized particles are formed in the aggregate.
Humate reduces soil erosion by increasing the cohesive forces of very fine soil particle and promotes desirable drainage and water intake.

BENEFITS OF HUMATES ON YOUR LAWN:

Promotes decomposition of grass clippings and thatch, turning them into valuable soil nutrients
Improves soil structure (tight soils will become crumblier, sandy soils show improved moisture retention)
Improves soil life (better residue breakdown and more beneficial earthworm activity)
Increases availability of soil nutrients, improving plant nutrition
Enhances seed germination, emergence and survival
Improves root development
Improves plant vigor and appearance (visual quality)
Little or no increased frequency of mowing
Makes your plants less susceptible to stress

In addition to humates, Soil Activator contains 17 other trace elements for the health of your lawn. It is a 'must' product for anyone with a mulching blade mower. Use Natural Guard Soil Activator twice a year, once with the first spring feeding and again in the fall - at a rate of one bag per 2,000 sq. ft.

Why Condition Soil? | Types of Soil Conditioner or Mix

How Much Do I Mix | Organic or Sand | Soil Testing Info | Cultivating Methods

Natural Guard Soil Activator

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