Whether you have a garden or are getting ready to start one, the success of your plants depends on the soil. Amendments are beneficial materials that you can add to soil to improve its physical or chemical properties, which can help make up for nutrients that are currently missing, help change the composition so it’s not too sandy or too hard, and change the water retention characteristics of your native soil.
Here are the top 5 reasons you should consider amending your soil:
Improve Soil Texture
If your soil is too hard, has too much clay, or too sandy and won’t hold water well, you can amend the soil to improve the size of the soil particles and their cohesiveness.
Add Nutrients
All plants need three primary nutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Nitrogen gets used up quickly by plants, as it’s responsible for healthy leaf and stem growth. You may need to add some to your soil after a season. Potassium is good for the plants overall health but it’s water-soluble and gets depleted quickly; it’s a good idea to add some to the soil after a season or two. Potassium is used to boost the plants immune system and should be replaced after a season to help keep your plants healthy.
Adjust the pH
You should test your soil after each season; the optimal pH range for most plants is between 5.5 and 7.0 – though some plants do well in more acidic soil, such as tomatoes. You can adjust these levels by adding either lime to make your soil less acidic, or sulfur to lower the pH and raise the acidity of the soil.
Encourage Beneficial Microbes
These microbes stimulate the health and growth of your plants, and adding compost and natural matter like mulch will give them plenty to eat, which they in turn into good stuff for your plants such as carbon dioxide.
Conserve Water
When the soil is loosened up and nutrients are added, the plants are able to take in more water and will need less of it because they’re can now use it more efficiently.
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Amending your soil is like doing a ‘spring cleaning’ for your garden – your plants have a refreshed space to grow in, and you’ll be rewarded with a better yield at harvest time. If you’re not sure where to start, Geoflora VEG and Geoflora BLOOM have the perfect mix of nutrients to add to the soil through your whole grow cycle, so go ahead and amend your way to happier plants!
