Advanced Soils Training
- 7 hours ago
- 1 min read
6/11/2025
U of MN extension educators Bailey Tangen and Natalie Hoidal recently led a group of RCMG volunteers in an Advanced Soils Training session at the Extension office in Maplewood ("The Barn") and surrounding gardens. We started with an in-field soil health assessment and strategies to help guide how to care for the soil. We made soil ribbons, tested for water infiltration and got a refresher on collecting soil for U of MN laboratory testing.
Then we moved back inside and went over ways to reduce tillage in vegetable plots, like cover cropping, solarizing soil, creating permanent beds and more. We spent time talking about the pros and cons of adding compost- and the main takeaway there was to focus on nutrient management (and that most garden tested used way too much compost over the years). Then came the instructions on making recommendations based on the U of MN soil test results. This is where the math got a little tricky, but understanding the recommendations is well worth it.
For a Soil Test with a recommendation reading: “0.15 pounds of nitrogen/100sq feet”
Say there’s a 12-0-0 (N-P-K) bagged product that means the 12% by weight is N – or
.12 of a 100lb bag) so you’d take the 0.15 recommendation and divide it by 0.12 to get
1.25 pounds of that product per 100 sq feet.
We’re looking forward to meeting with the community gardens assigned and sharing this with local gardeners.
Fun Fact shared by Bailey: Soil biology regulates 90% of nutrient uptake so feed you soil microbes!
Michelle B
Volunteer