WHERE IT ALL BEGINS: THE SOIL - Growing Chinese Vegetables in Your Own Backyard - page 209

must be well rotted before it can be used on plants. You can, however, turn fresh ma-
nure into the soil in the fall and it will then be ready for spring planting. Rabbit manure
can be dug in right around the plants, and it's amazing how much excellent fertilizer is
produced by even one pet rabbit.
GOOD SOURCES OF ORGANIC MATTER
• Alfalfa meal
• Compost
• Chopped leaves
• Grass clippings (if free of herbicides)
• Seaweed
• Manure (aged, composted, or dehydrated)
• Sawdust (mix with manure or other nitrogen source)
Soil Tests
You can't tell your soil's fertility merely by looking at it; you need a soil test. A soil test
is simply a chemical analysis of the soil. You can do it yourself with a kit you buy at
your local garden center, or you can send away to have it done. The Cooperative Exten-
sion Services used to do this, but now some refer you to private labs. (See the Appendix
for soil-testing labs.) Send in the sample in late fall or early spring so that you have time
to correct the soil balance before sowing your seeds.
The soil test tells you which nutrients are deficient in your soil. It also tells you if
you need to adjust your soil's pH, and how to do this.
Acidic or Alkaline?
The acidity of your soil controls the availability of nutrients. If your soil's too acidic
or too alkaline, all the fertilizer in the world won't help you grow good vegetables, be-
cause the nutrients will be locked up, unavailable to plants. You can tell whether your
soil is too acidic or alkaline with a simple a pH-testing kit. These are included in most
soil-test kits, or you can purchase one separately. A kit provides enough chemicals for
several pH tests. For the most accurate results, send a soil sample to a lab for testing.
The pH reaction of the soil is measured on a scale that runs from 1 to 14. A measure-
ment of 7 means neutral, neither acid nor alkaline. Numbers above 7 indicate alkaline,
while numbers below 7 indicate acidity. Soils in various parts of the country have a