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Pro tip: check your soil pH before planting anything expensive
I was putting in a $400 row of blueberry bushes for a client in Arlington last spring. Soil looked perfect, nice and dark. I just went ahead and planted them without testing. Two months later they were all yellow and stunted. Turns out the pH was way too high for blueberries. Had to dig them all up, amend the soil with sulfur, and replant. Client wasn't mad but I felt stupid. Now I test every single bed before I put a plant in. Has anyone else learned this lesson the hard way?
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the_rowan1mo ago
People forget that soil can look healthy and still be totally wrong for what you're growing. The color and texture don't tell you much about pH or nutrient levels. I've seen gardeners lose entire vegetable patches because their soil was perfect for tomatoes but terrible for carrots. A $10 test kit would have saved them hundreds in plants and labor. The lesson here is that soil amendments cost way less than replacing dead plants.
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eric_ramirez6729d ago
I mean yeah soil tests are fine and all but I feel like people make this out to be way more complicated than it really is... half the time you can just look at what's growing wild in your yard and figure it out from there. I've thrown seeds in the ground without any testing and got plenty of veggies just fine.
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