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Entry Date
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Location
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Monday, March 16, 2020
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big moon
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Bethlehem CT
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Entry 1 of 103 |
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Just got my soil test back. The pH is at 5.0! Yikes! I can't believe I grew my 1,201 in that spot. It may have been a little higher last summer as I used some hydrated lime to try and get the pH up in a hurry. I suppose it could have dropped over the winter. But I doubt I was growing in soil with a pH above 6. The state lab recommends 150 pounds of lime per 1,000 square feet. I will see if I can get some tomorrow. The joys of growing in New England we have a granite based soil, and get lots of rain.(50" annually) The granite brings with it lots of radon to fill our basements and imparts an acid nature to our sandy loam soil. Cross the line into New York state and the soils are shale based. The New York soil has lots more calcium and is ideally a silt loam. The New York silt holds the moisture and fertility very well, it also tends to have a more balanced pH. Much of New York was once covered with a large sea. It is not uncommon to find sea shell and trilobite fossils in the sedimentary rock there. (It is fun to crack open the rocks and see the surprises inside) That same soil type is what yields the natural gas that they are controversially fracking. The Marcellus shale belt goes down through Pennsylvania and into the south. Places like Tennessee and West Virginia. Oftentimes the land above the Marcellus shale land can be very good for farming, there are many large farms on New York's and Pennsylvania's rolling hills.
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