Here is a copy of the actual test...

Here is the test...

You can never be too rich, too thin, or have too much organic matter...

I just got my soil test results, which I will attach to this post.

First of all, this is not the soil that I have been using for the last 6 or 7 years. This is soil where I want to move the patch next year. 

Naturally, the soil that is part of my general garden gets less attention than the soil in my usual patch. It doesn't get "zero" attention, but it gets less. A few numbers in this report are quite a bit worse than ones from my soil test about five years ago. 

My pH is 7.9, up from 7.3!

My organic matter is 2.1, down from 2.3. 

Everything else seems pretty standard. One bright spot is that my salts are now 2.1, which is quite high, but a much better reading than 5 years ago when it was over 6!

At this point I'm not sure if I'm going to move the patch or not. I think what this tells me is what I already knew... just add organic matter. The difficult thing is that I live in a desert, and organic matter is sometimes hard to find in any volume. In fact, most agricultural activities around here are wheat and potatoes, and very little cattle, so again, sometimes it's hard to find manure other than from individual homeowners, one pickup load at a time. 

One thing has me puzzled. The test shows my sulphur to be very high. Of course, sulfur is something you add to reduce pH... I haven't added sulphur in years (other than ammonium sulfate for nitrogen) and so it looks like adding sulphur is not in the cards for reducing pH. 

Please comment, right here in the blog.

NOTE: I'm not at home, and I'm having difficulty posting the *.pdf file to the blog. I'll put it up soon.

Snow

Wow, we got walloped today, and it's still snowing. I'd say that we have 10 to 12 inches already.

I did receive email notice about my soil test. This was on Thursday, and said that I'd get the results in about one week. That would be Christmas... so unless I see it Tuesday, perhaps it will be a while. No hurry.

Soil test coming...

Here I am, on business in San Jose, CA. Bored... can't wait to get the results of my soil test. It is supposed to come via email, so it could come at any time. As soon as I get the results, I'll post them. One thing to look at, I need to know what's going on with my salts. Ece.

Some seeds to ponder, the annual winter dilemma

So what's going in the patch next year? Every year I look at the list of seeds I'd like to plant, and try to balance that with the fact that I typically can care for about four plants when the season really gets rolling.

Last year I started six plants, but in the end I ended up caring for only four. Barely. What I'd like to do is start five, and give each of them adequate care. So, what's going in?

My 779 is definitely going in. My personal best, 964 Wolf X 1092 Martin. That fruit was so trouble free. I can only imagine what it might do with an earlier pollination.

So naturally I also want to plant the 964 Wolf again. Why would I not plant the best seed I've ever grown?

Also in my possession is a 1121 Bobier (845 x 898). This one is certainly "proven", and is quickly becoming a highly regarded seed. I have to plant it.

So, that's three, and I still don't have any true orange. I would like to see some true orange in the remaining two spots, but at least one of them will be so. I have plenty of my own seeds that should be true orange, but I may need to do some horsetrading to find something with a little name recognition.

For Elise, I was going to encourage her to grow the 779, but maybe I'll just let her pick a few. There are so many good seeds to try.

Right now the most important thing is to keep working on the compost. Also, I've ordered up a soil test.