Soil Conditioners | Add Organic Matter to Your Soil
Poor soil can describe a range of conditions. It can mean compacted and hard pan soil, soil with excessive clay, extremely sandy soil, dead and nutrient depleted soil, soil with high salt or chalk, rocky soil, and soil with extremely high or low pH. You can experience just one of these soil issues or a combination of them. Most of the time, these soil conditions are not noticed until you start digging holes for new plants, or even after planting and they do not perform well.
Bad soil can restrict the water and nutrient uptake of plants, as well as restrict the root development causing plants to yellow, wilt, dry up be stunted and even die. Fortunately, poor soils can be amended with soil conditioners.
Click to Download PDF Copy: What Is Soil Conditioner: Using Soil Conditioner In The Garden
What is Soil Conditioners?
Soil conditioners improve the texture and nutrient-availability of your soil. They can also improve the water retention of dry, coarse soil. Soil conditioners can come in many different forms some of which include arctic humus, worm castings and organic compost.
Soil conditioners are soil amendments that improve the soil structure by increasing aeration, water holding capacity, and nutrients. They loosen up compacted, hard pan and clay soils and release locked up nutrients. Soil conditioners can also raise or lower pH levels depending on what they are made of.
Soil conditioners can be organic or inorganic, or a combination of synthetic and natural matter. Some ingredients of organic soil conditioners include:
Animal manure
Compost
Cover crop residue
Sewage sludge
Sawdust
Ground pine bark
Peat moss
How to Use Soil Conditioner in Gardens
You may be wondering what’s the difference between soil conditioner vs. fertilizer. After all, fertilizer also adds nutrients. It is true that fertilizer can add nutrients to soil and plants, but in clay, compacted or hard pan soils, these nutrients can become locked up and unavailable to the plants. Fertilizer does not change the soil structure, so in poor quality soil they may help treat the symptoms but they may also be a total waste of money when the plants can’t use the nutrients they add. The best course of action is to amend the soil first, then start a fertilizing regime.