Preparing the Soil for Spring Planting

Preparing the Soil for Spring Planting

The sight of rich soil, moist and crumbly, free of weeds and ready to plant is a sight to behold for most gardeners. With the right products like compost, manure, fertiliser and a bio stimulant like Effective Micro-organisms or EM you can have fertile soil, ready to grow great yields during the warmer months.

With spring a month or two off it’s a good idea to start preparing the soil in your open planting beds. Dig in generous amounts of compost and inoculate with EM to start increasing the biological activity in the soil. EM will help improve the soil structure and increase aeration to start preparing your soil for planting. If you have clay soil, manure and EM will improve it by adding humus to the soil structure.

You can make use of all those autumn leaves that litter your garden by digging them into your compost heap. With the accelerated decomposition that occurs in a compost heap the leaves will decay twice as fast and be ready for use as compost at the beginning of spring. You can also spray EM over your compost heap to activate it and make sure it is ready to use sooner rather than later.

Winter is also the time to add fertiliser and lime to your soil (depending, of course, on the plants you plan to grow). Adding these fertilisers with EM will help improve the nutrient usage in the soil, leading to lower fertiliser requirements, higher fertiliser/nutrient utilisation of applied inputs.

Step by Step Guide to Spring Garden Preparation
1. Make sure that all weeds and leaves are out of the garden area. You should rake the area to really clear it out.
2. Next you should rake the soil thoroughly to make sure that you really open up the soil.
3. Add your desired fertiliser and EM to the soil. This could be compost, lime, fish, manure or anything else you choose. If its manure make sure it’s about an inch thick in the end as far as the coating goes.
4. Now that you have added fertiliser you should rake your soil again to really mix the two up.
5. Next you will want to add water to the soil until its moist. If you add too much let it dry out until it’s moist.

6. Let the soil rest for a few days or weeks depending on the time of year and then plant once the soil temperature is correct.

Please note that regular applications of EM to your soil is important as it will improve biological activity and soil quality and keep growing conditions optimal during the growing months. It is a very low cost and effective microbial technology that can enhance the natural ecosystem by -

• Activating and re-establishing the natural processes.
• Improving soil structure, leading to better aeration and water holding capacity
• Improving nutrient availability, leading to lower fertiliser requirements, higher fertiliser/nutrient utilisation of applied inputs
• Lowering disease pressure by developing a disease suppressive soil
• Growing higher yields

About EMNZ
EMNZ is a company focused on developing products for sustainable living in New Zealand, selling products to the agriculture, viticulture, and waste industries. Our products are based on natural ingredients, and are certified organic. Our philosophy is to promote natural chemical free systems for growing food and processing waste. However, we can also work with existing chemical based systems, by substituting chemicals where possible, with our natural microbial solutions to enhance rather that negatively impact the environment. For more please visit http://www.emnz.co.nz

ENDS

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