After you are done with the season's growth, you must already be thinking about ways to amend your soil for the next growth.

Or maybe the plants you have just need a little boost to start flowering, and it requires a little organic amendment to the soil to supercharge the bud development process.

There are several reasons you should fix your plants' quality because bad soil results in bad plants, which leads to bad fruits and bad flowers.

Before diving into when, why, and how you should be amending your soil, let's learn about the basics first.

What Does Soil Amendment Mean?

Soil amendment means reinvigorating the soil with new nutrients and added strength. This process is generally done by organic growers but can also be done by general growers to better the quality of the soil. But if you have been using liquid nutrients, then amending the soil won't be much of an issue.

Instead, you might not even need to refresh the soil at all and use it as it is by using new grow media, specifically if you are using Ocean Forest or some other kind of bagged soil. In this case, you might just need to refresh or top up your soil.

But most growers do not pay attention to such details and use the same soil either in raised beds or in the ground. Re-using the soil may not affect the plants initially, but after a certain point, it will start to.

The same cannot be said for every kind of plant, but here at GroIndoor.com, we acknowledge the broad audience we cater to and know that every grower's plants differ.

When you amend your soil, you are basically improving what it already has. You add in more nutrients and check if its pH is balanced. Doing so will improve the quality of your soil and lead to a high quality of plants and, subsequently, flowers and fruits.

When is the Right Time to Amend the Soil?

Although soil can be amended regardless of the season, it is best to amend the soil during certain times. We recommend fixing the soil during the fall season after shutting down your garden for the winter; unless, of course, you are planning to grow some vegetables during winter.

We recommend soil amendment in the fall season because your amendments get ample time to compost at their own pace throughout the winter season. Allowing your Amendment enough time to settle will result in excellent and high microbial activity by the time you start planting.

Soil amendment can also be done straight before planting. By doing this, you are ensuring that your plants have the ample nutrients they need to grow during the winters. Although you are off to a healthy start now, the soil might require some additional amendments later on.

Get your Garden Soil Tested First, as Amendment Depends on it!

When talking about amendments, one of the essential steps is testing your garden soil. It is necessary because if you are not aware of your soil's needs and conditions, how would you prepare it for the next plant?

pH and elements in PPM (parts per million) are the most important things you should look at while amending your soil. The pH tells you about the soil's acidity and alkaline level and what remedy you should take first. Whereas PPM tells you about the concentrations of Potassium, phosphorous, and nitrogen concentrations, the three essential nutrients that a plant solely relies on.

If you find a deficiency of these elements in your plants, then there is a need to add food for them. But what kind of food would you add? Fret no more, as we are going to talk about that in a short while.

The Best Soil Amending Techniques

After you have deeply examined your garden soil and know about its lacking, you should start creating a soil amendment plan.

Although your examinations will dictate the amendments, you need to make, listed below are some general guidelines you should know.

High Levels of Acid in Soil

If, while testing, you discover that your soil is slightly more acidic than it needs to be, then you need to add natural amendments to repair the soil. The acidity required by the soil ranges between 5.8 6.5 pH.

But if you find that your soil's pH level is low, then to increase it, you must add wood ash, lime, or poultry-based fertilizer. The addition of these elements will definitely raise the pH of your soil.

When talking about increasing pH levels, lime is unarguably the best kind of element that you should add to your soil, affecting nothing but the pH level. On the contrary, adding wood ash and other kinds of fertilizers can reduce the effect of other amendments. A general suggestion would be ½ or 1 pound of lime per 100 sq. ft. of soil.

High Levels of Alkaline In Soil

As discussed earlier, plants require a certain level of pH for quality growth, and to make sure that your soil has the correct balance of pH levels, you need to test it first.

Try our blog on effective pH testers for better results.

And if upon examination you find out that the pH levels have increased to 6.5, then it is too high. The best way to deal with this condition is to bring Sulfur into the picture. But, be mindful that Sulfur takes time to react. So if you need something that acts quickly and reduces the pH, you should opt for iron sulfate.

Iron sulfate is slightly on the expensive side, but if you have a plant to save, there is no option left.

Amend Your Soil to Add Nutrients

To boost the growth of your soil, you need to add amendments.

You can give your plants their nutrition during their growth cycle after you have made amendments to your organic soil. Doing so will eliminate the requirement of adding a complete nutrient package. Instead, you can just sprinkle dry organic amendments over the soil as required. Organic meals are also a way to amend your soil.

There are two methods to go about it: you can either amend your soil before the growth or at the end of the growth. Some plant growers prefer to do both as it skims down to personal preference and the kind of amendments you choose to add.

It is recommended to amend your soil after the growing season if you have decided to compost your soil. In this way, it gets some time to sit in for a few months and be ready until spring.

Although some growers oppose this method as they believe the nutrients dissolve in the ground after a period. You should always be sure to have three nutrients that have a higher concentration of PPMs in them.

Nitrogen (N)

This is a vital nutrient during the vegetative stage because it boosts the growth of the leaves and branches of the plants. When you provide your plants with a good nitrogen source at an early stage, they are strengthened to produce a large number of budding sites and provide sturdy stems to hold your flowers.

Although their plenty of nitrogen sources you can add to your soil, listed below are the ones that have proved to be effective and recommended by us;

• Blood meal Alfalfa meal
• Fish fertilizer

Almost any form of manure-based fertilizer will contain high levels of nitrogen, but there are our favorites. Now, let's jump to Phosphorous;

Phosphorous (P)

Just like nitrogen is required in high levels for veg, plants require Phosphorous in higher concentrations for flowers. But it is also required to promote early root health and growth. But when it comes to flowers, their concentration should be increased to a much higher level.

Although their plenty of Phosphorous sources you can add to your soil, listed below are the ones that have proved to be effective and recommended by us;

• Rock Phosphate
• Bone meal

Potassium (K)

The requirements of Potassium remain stable throughout the life of the plant. However, this nutrient does not aid the growth of plants or flowers but is absolutely necessary.

Disease and pest resistance, plant vigor, and root development are some of the many things that Potassium can do. Listed below are some of the best potassium boosts;

• Greensand
• Kelp meal
• Gypsum

Read our complete guide if you want to learn more about plant nutrients.

Soil Amendment to Improve Texture

Another reason why we recommend amending your soil is to improve the quality of its texture. It is the texture of the soil that tells about water retention and aeration.

The aeration of your plants should be good; otherwise, the roots will start suffocating. Another thing is that you should have soil that acts well with moisture so that you're not bound to water them every now and then.

Try Coco and Clay if your soil is too dense. Adding this substance will loosen it up and is also an inexpensive way to do so.

Whereas if you have soil that is too loose and you want to thicken it up, you should add compost to it. The texture of the compost is wetter and heavier, which will help keep your soil together.

Create a Soil with Organic Amendments

There are many recipes you can use to make your own soil from scratch. If not, you can buy it in the store. And 'Super Soil' is the one that gives the best results as it can feed your plants from their seedling stage. It is fully organic and is capable of growing huge plants.

At GroIndoor.com, we have a simple, super soil recipe that you can follow.

Now that you have read all of the above, you should be confident to amend your soil. For queries, we are here for you!

Therefore, get in touch with our team at 866-GRO-INDR to answer all of those unanswered queries.