Soil Conditions

• Will Turboganic My Garden® improve any kind of soil conditions?

Generally, Turboganic My Garden® will improve any soil nutrient deficiency, BUT it is not a remedy for soil that poorly drains (or not at all), such as heavy clay, or soil that is so sandy that it will not retain moisture, or soil that is severely toxic.

For clay soils, it is best to add organic materials, such as compost or peat, to open the porosity of the clay and improve moisture retention.  Fall is a good time to do this, turning the organics into the top 18” and letting it sit over the winter, before planting anything.

Early or late in the season, an inexpensive shortcut method is to harvest all of your neighbors leaves (no branches, twigs, or walnut leaves which unless thoroughly decomposed will prevent seeds from sprouting) and till them into the top 18”, mound them up, and cover with a few inches of good soil.  Within weeks to a couple of months, the material will have broken down and be useful.  Remember that the volume of organics will decrease as it decomposes and compresses.  Spraying layers with a weaker dilution of Turboganic My Garden® (1 tablespoon of super-concentrate per gallon of tap water) will accelerate healthy bacterial activity.  Before planting, be sure to till your soil again for proper aeration.

• Should I test my soil with soil test kits available at many garden shops?

These kits do have some problems, but they will help you if your soil is loamy or sandy and is low in any of the three primary nutrients (N-P-K: nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium).  Soils rich in composts or organics may cause the tests to read low due to the water used to extract the nutrients (for testing) to be so dark in color that you can’t tell what is really present or absent because concentration is based upon color intensity.

Also, high levels of organic compost can actually absorb some nutrients, especially nitrogen, and then slowly release the compound.  This is good for the plants, but these kits aren’t very accurate in this aspect. Besides, they are expensive and have their limitations.  Heavy clay soils or those rich in organics referred to above are excellent at absorbing the chemicals used in the tests and as a result may not give any valid results.  The same applies to test strips.

In addition, there may be false readings if you are retesting after your soil has Turboganic My Garden® applied because our product's synergistic blend provides a much more efficient delivery of nutrients than much larger amounts in other supplement brands.

Some kits claim to be accurate for iron, but may not work on chelated iron very well, such as included with Turboganic My Garden®.