(04-01-2025, 12:59 PM)Michigan Swamp Buck Wrote: As nice as my sandy loam soil is here in the swamp, it is fairly poor. Likely due to the variety of trees and plant life here before I carved a garden out of it.
Another thing to keep in mind is that some trees put out toxins via their roots into the soil that kills other plants, which is a strategy for killing off the nutrient competition. They also put out a lot of hydrogen via their roots, which usually has the effect of acidifying the soil, which then has to be limed to bring the Ph down to manageable levels.
A soil Ph test kit will assist some folks in determining whether a patch needs to be limed or not, depending on what they want to grow there - some plants are high Ph plants, others are low Ph, and yet others sit in the middle.
There are sections of my yard where even grass won't grow, because the tree roots encroaching from the surrounding woods are acidifying the soil. I can tell where those patches are because there is little to no grass there, but there is a carpet of moss, which is a high acid plant.
Old Timers used to taste the soil to determine how "sour" (acidic) it was, without using test kits, but modern folks worry about bugs and bacteria in the dirt, so they get test kits to avoid contaminating their tongues with potential toxins. Kids these days!
I planted some ginseng fall before last in some of those areas, because they are shady, which is where ginseng grows in the woods. It should sprout this spring if it's going to, because ginseng takes 18 months from seed planting to sprout. I got the seeds from wild ginseng berries in the woods just the other side of my yard fence, so it should be acclimated to local conditions already, and should stand a higher chance of sprouting if it's going to.
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