You know how you always love going back home after a long work day? It’s just the perfect environment to destress and recharge.
That’s what soil is like to plants. So, if your soil isn’t perfect, forget about growing healthy crops.
How do you mix the perfect soil? Well, there’s one mistake gardeners make that ruins their soil.
If you can avoid that, you’ll end up with the perfect soil that prompts optimal growth.
Not Optimizing Your Soil for Long-Term Plant Growth
You’d be surprised how many home gardeners make that mistake. They buy a large bag of soil from a gardening store and apply it to their garden right away.
At first glance, it doesn’t seem like that big of a mistake, but it has dire consequences. I know what you’re thinking: “What does ‘not optimizing the soil’ even mean?”
- Failing to Mulch
A gardener who doesn’t use mulch is like a math teacher who doesn’t teach their students long division. Are you even doing your job at this point?
On a serious note, though, mulch is an essential factor in preparing a proper soil mixture. Why?
Because, to plants, water is the magical elixir of life.
If the soil doesn’t hold enough water, your plants won’t grow healthy, and you’ll end up with immature crops. Can you guess what helps soil hold more water?
Yes! mulch!
Not only does it prevent water evaporation, but it also adds organic matter, prompting the formation of humus. If you don’t know, humus prevents diseases in vegetables and helps water and air to flow easily through the soil.
Besides, mulch suppresses grass and weed growth, preventing them from absorbing nutrients from the soil and prompting optimal growth for your crops.
- Neglecting Your Soil’s Draining System
Your soil is like a toilet. If it doesn’t have proper drainage, you’ll be in for a world of trouble. What kind of trouble?
Well, the pore spaces inside the soil will overflow with water. Imagine sleeping in a hot tub with your face under the water.
In other words, your plants will suffocate. We don’t want that, do we?
It’ll cause root rot, prompt fungus growth, and spread numerous diseases. You can probably tell your crops won’t turn out so good.
- Not Aerating the Soil
Like humans, plants need oxygen to survive. Not aerating the soil prevents the roots from absorbing enough oxygen, and I think we all know nobody likes a breath-holding competition, not even plants.
Here’s the catch: Not aerating the soil doesn’t just cause an oxygen blockage. It also prevents it from performing photosynthesis properly, stunts the roots’ growth, and prevents water drainage.
- Ignoring the Testing Phase
Most home gardeners skip the testing phase. Trust me, though. It’ll save you a lot of time and effort.
By “testing,” I don’t mean buying science lab equipment and making chemical experiments. You just want to make sure your soil has the right pH levels.
After all, that dictates how many nutrients your soil can absorb. If it’s not within the acceptable range for your plant, it won’t promote optimal growth.
How to Optimize Your Soil for Long-Term Plant Growth?
The obvious answer is to avoid making all the mistakes I previously mentioned, but it’s easier said than done. So, I’ll take you through the optimization process.
- Mulch Your Soil Properly
Mulching isn’t rocket science, but it involves careful planning and research. When you choose your mulch, go with a type that offers a dense cover to maintain enough water to keep your plants hydrated.
If you’re looking for a specific recommendation, Miracle-Gro Organic All Natural Mulch seems to be a popular choice.
All you have to do is choose the site you want to apply mulch to, take all the existing weeds out, and water the ground thoroughly. Now, cover that area with at least 2 cm of mulch and keep turning it over every once in a while.
- Use Well-Draining Soil
Don’t settle for the classic soil mixture you get from the store. Add organic materials, like compost, farm manure, or perlite, to improve its draining abilities.
- Aerate Your Soil
Soil aeration sounds like a complicated chemical process where you use modern technology to pump oxygen into the soil, but that’s not true. It can be as simple as using a pitchfork to make small holes in the soil, allowing air to flow deeper into it.
- Test Your Soil’s pH
Testing your soil’s pH is easier than you think. The most straightforward way to go about it is to pay someone to do all the work for you.
You see, state universities usually have a soil lab. You can mail them a soil sample and ask them to examine its pH, fertility, nutrient content, etc.
If you want to do it yourself, though, you can always buy a pH meter. I’m not asking you to spend a lot of money on it, but the more expensive it is, the more accurate it gets.
So, set your budget and identify the ones that offer the most value in your acceptable range.
Final Thoughts
Ultimately, you want to avoid applying soil right from the bag. There’s so much more you can do with it to improve its properties and get the best results.
So, use all the available resources to optimize it and offer your plants proper care.
Growing up with a mom who filled her home (inside and out) with all sorts of plants, Lisa got her start in gardening at a young age. Living now on her own with a home and yard full of plants (including an indoor greenhouse), she shares all the gardening tips she’s gained over the years.