Soil Management
Understanding soil and how best to manage it is key to a beautiful and productive garden and landscape. In this section, you’ll find information on soil management of home gardens. Topics covered include soil health, soil testing, nutritional requirements, irrigation, composting, fertilization, and pH. Find tips for container gardening and the nutritional needs of berries and fruits.
Garden Soil: Quality and Testing
When your soil is healthy, it provides plants with easy access to air, water, and nutrients. Proper soil conditions are essential throughout the life of your plants. Understanding your soil and how to manage it is vital.
The first step to creating optimum soil conditions is to gain an understanding of this valuable resource and how outside influences, such as road salt, can affect it.
Not all soils can produce plant growth in the same way, so you must determine the fertility of your soil, particularly its pH measurement. You could try to guess your soil’s quality, but the best way is to get your soil tested. Standard soil test kits are available from county offices of Penn State Extension, garden centers, or from commercial firms.
There are lots of things you can do to improve the quality of your soil. Cover crops can be used to improve soil and environmental conditions for other plants. If you’ve got a problem with soil erosion, cover crops can help when you plant them at the end of the harvest. You can use raised beds to provide a unique opportunity for soil health management. It’s also possible to give your plants the best start in life by making homemade potting media.
Garden Soil: Composting and Fertilization
Compost is something you can use to mix in with your garden soil or in potting mixes. You can purchase compost from your local garden center, but it’s much better to make your own. Composting is well-suited to agriculture, as farms produce large amounts of organic waste they can use to make it.
Home gardeners also have access to lots of materials that they can use for composting and vermicomposting. Fresh and dry leaves, plant cuttings, wood ash, sawdust, straw, and kitchen waste can be put to good use in a compost pile. If you’ve got poultry in your back yard, add their manure and soiled bedding to your compost pile or apply it as a soil amendment.
Different plants require certain nutrients so you have to consider this when you use the compost you’ve made. Over-fertilization of container-grown crops or commercial pot plants is a real risk. When you apply fertilizers, whether you’ve bought them or made them, it’s vital to check phosphorus and potassium levels.
You should also be testing and amending the soil regularly, depending on which crops you grow. For example, grapes prefer a soil pH of between 5.6 and 6.4. For stone fruits, you should try to maintain a pH of between 6.0 and 6.5. Apples, on the other hand, require nitrogen, and phosphorus, and potassium in relatively large amounts.
- Workshops
Urban Soils: Site Assessment, Testing, and Safe Management
Length 2 hours, 30 minutesJoin our Urban Soils workshop in Philadelphia to learn soil assessment, testing for contaminants, and safe gardening practices from Penn State Extension experts. Perfect for urban gardeners! - Articles
Neighborly Natural Landscaping in Residential Areas
Homeowners across America are changing the face of the typical American lawn. Learn strategies for the natural landscape homeowner who is looking for neighborly ways to garden for nature. - Articles
Wise Use of Manure in Home Vegetable Gardens
Find out the benefits of adding manure to vegetable garden soil, as well as caveats and cautions. - News
Changes in Pennsylvania Fertilizer Law: What Home Gardeners Need to Know
Date Posted 4/9/2024Pennsylvania's 2022 turfgrass fertilizer law places new responsibilities on home gardeners. Here is what you should know. - Articles
Abiotic Diseases Of Woody Ornamentals
Of the two major types of diseases of woody ornamentals—biotic and abiotic—abiotic diseases are by far the most important ones on landscape and nursery plants. - Articles
Composting Leaves
Before you bag up those fall leaves, consider their potential for your landscape. - Articles
Soil Testing
Soil testing is a soil-management tool used to determine the fertility of soil as well as the optimum lime and fertilizer requirements for crops. - Articles
Understanding Soil pH
The acidity or alkalinity of soil is indicated by its pH measurement. Learn how to determine what your soil pH is and how having the correct soil pH benefits your plants. - Articles
Understanding Soil Fertility
Your garden soil is much more than dirt! This beautiful brown material decides the success of your plants. This article discusses how to adjust nutrients for appropriate soil fertility. - Articles
Planting Pome Fruit in Home Fruit Plantings
The soil should be prepared thoroughly by deep cultivation either by hand or with a rototiller before planting. - Articles
Planting and Growing Stone Fruit in Home Plantings
Conduct a soil test, and lime and fertilize a 10-by-10-foot area where each tree will be planted. - Articles
Home Orchard - Site Selection
The success of an orchard is only as good as the planning and site preparation that go into it. - Articles
Nutritional Requirements of Apples in Home Fruit Plantings
Nutritional requirements of apple trees are best determined by nutritional analysis and observations of tree growth. - Articles
Nutritional Requirements of Stone Fruit in Home Fruit Plantings
Shortly after planting, apply 8 ounces of 10-10-10 per plant. - Articles
Home Orchard Calendar
Calendar applies to Zone 6, in the Mid-Atlantic Region. Apples bloom generally the last week of April. Adjust timings for other regions. - Articles
Container Grown Tomatoes
Tomatoes are probably the #1 container vegetable that interests gardeners after herbs. - Articles
Repotting Houseplants
As your houseplant grows larger and the roots either begin to grow through the drainage holes or become pot bound, repotting the plant into a larger pot will become necessary. - Articles
Plant Rotation in the Garden Based on Plant Families
Knowing what family a plant belongs to can be useful in making decisions about rotating plants for managing pests and soil fertility in the garden. - Articles
Home Composting: A Guide for Home Gardeners
Compost can be used in potting mixes or mixed in with garden soil. It has many benefits for your plants and recycles materials that may otherwise be thrown into landfills. - Articles
Homemade Potting Media
Many cost conscious home gardeners and do-it-yourselfers are often looking for cheaper ways of growing plants for home and garden use. One way to achieve this may be by making homemade potting media. - Articles
Growing Herbs Outdoors
Herbs are some of the easiest plants to grow because they tolerate a variety of soil types and have relatively few insect and disease pests. - Articles
Don't Guess... Soil Test
Proper soil fertility is the foundation for plant health. Different types of plants have specific nutritional requirements and soil pH and nutrient levels vary greatly from site to site. - Articles
Caring for Houseplants
Learning how to develop an ideal environment for houseplants will create lasting enjoyment. - Articles
Care and Maintenance of Perennials
There is some basic care needed to keep your perennials in their best form and to come back year after year.