Next step in soil fixing

Did soil testing earlier in the week. Even the new mounds showed really low N and really alkaline conditions still. The Phos was acceptable and the K was okay, if not high.

Then tried spraying the bare soil areas with my ammonia and vinegar mixture, much stronger this time. Something surprising happened. The soil started fizzing. This is a sign of highly alkaline conditions.

I've been taking it kind of easy with fertilizing, apprehensive about overdoing things. All the above changed my mind. This soil requires the industrial strength approach.

Went over the chemical reactions and decomposition of the ammonia and vinegar, with a new theory in mind. As a gas, N rises. Most plants collect N at the roots, so surface treatment does little or no good and can do much damage if applied too strongly. Adjusting acidity is much the same. But ammonia breaks down into nitrous oxide and water. Vinegar goes through a longer process, releasing organic acids but eventually breaking down into CO2 and water. All beneficial to the garden in this case.

Got a garden sprayer yesterday. Removed the spray tip, slid the screw mount up the wand and rolled the O-ring up to hold it and keep it from getting lost. The wand made a great tool for injecting the solution deep into the soil. Made up a large batch of full strength solution, one quart ammonia and three quarts vinegar. Did a test on a few plants that looked weak. Injected the solution into the soil below root level. I was tired from work and it was too hot to do much else. Took a nap. Got up and could already see some results! Some plants which had looked nearly dead had come back to life! (Others were just dead.)

So, this evening, I treated the whole garden while letting the soaker hoses run. Inserted the wand into the mounds below root level, into the sides or center every few inches. The most bare mounds got the heaviest treatment. The raised mounds and beds I treated all the way to the bottom. Now just have to see how things look tomorrow.

By the way, the mounds I had sprayed heavily a few days ago are now showing signs of life. That's a relief because I was still apprehensive that maybe that area had been treated with a "kill everything" chemical at some point before I moved in, especially as popular as those chemicals are here in NM and having dug up black plastic sheeting from some places in the yard. No, seems like just weak soil now.

As a trial, I sprayed a bunch of weeds with the same mixture directly on the foliage. Hoping it burns them on purpose but then treats the soil. If not, I'll go back to the propane approach.

By the way, I got the garden sprayer at Home Depot for around $14. Search Amazon.com for garden sprayer Works really well. Got all the vinegar and ammonia at Dollar Tree for $1 for each half gallon, so $2 a gallon for each. Only took one quart ammonia and three quarts of vinegar to treat the whole garden. Though if the mixture works on the weeds, I will be using more very soon.