Breaking Ground: The Make-or-Break Moment

Learning how to plow. Photo taken April 24, 2022.

Picking up where a previous blog post left off, we just collected a soil sample and dropped it off at Thurston Conservation District. Within a few days, we had the results. It was the middle of April at this point, and I was immediately discouraged by the results: 6 out of 7 major nutrients and 1 out of 5 micronutrients were below the optimal range. How could this be? William (my landlord) professed that his soils were healthy and fertilized naturally with ample cow manure. Why would the report come back so deficient?

Since it was such a wet and cold spring in the Pacific Northwest, the land was so waterlogged that we could not drive any heavy machinery onto it. Due to these conditions, we had not been able to spread any manure… which could potentially explain some of the nutrient deficiencies? At least that’s what I surmised to reassure myself about the situation. Finally, towards the middle of April, William was able to safely hitch the spreader to the tractor and distribute about 24 cubic yards of manure on the one-acre pasture. He dragged the harrow across the field after depositing the manure to make sure it was spread evenly. This would surely optimize the nutrient levels, wouldn’t it?

I contacted the Senior Natural Resource Specialist at the Conservation District (the guy who publishes the soil analysis reports), and he was kind enough to revise his report based on our application of manure. After the revisions, the recommendations were a lot more reassuring!

Only 3 out of 7 major nutrients were out of range:

• Nitrate-nitrogen was 8 ppm (goal range 25-30 ppm)

• Soil pH was 5.8 (goal range 6.5-7.5)

• Percentage of organic matter was 5% (goal range >5%)

Only 1 out of 5 micronutrients needed correcting:

• Boron was 0.2 ppm (goal range 0.2-1 ppm)

I considered all the recommendations carefully but after consulting my mentors, I leaned more on their advice and less on the published recommendations. I planned to correct the nitrogen deficiency with feathermeal (a pelletized organic product made from chicken feathers) and to raise the pH with a modest application of limestone. I was less concerned about the percentage of organic matter because 5% was acceptable in my mind, even though it was on the low end of normal. I understood that raising organic matter content is something we can achieve naturally over time through cover cropping and more judicious application of stored manure. Similarly, I did NOT plan on correcting the boron because the amount of Borax needed was negligible (just 8 lbs. over 1 acre), which would be quite difficult to spread evenly unless I could mix it with another amendment.

Now that we had a plan for amending the soil, we needed to break ground. A lot of considerations went into the decision to break ground, as previously discussed in the last blog post. The rain kept coming back in spurts, and we had to wait for another dry opportunity. Finally, on April 24th, the weather allowed us to plow the field for the first time in a long time.

My landlord William coaches me as I learn to plow. Photo taken April 24, 2022.

Before this much anticipated day when we broke ground at Chainy-Stakes Farm, I had never seen land being plowed up close. It is mesmerizing. The iron plow cuts through the soil and turns it over like cascading waves. Once the plow digs in and the farmer drives forward, the landscape instantly changes from green to brown, as the grass layer gets turned over, exposing the soil underneath. I was riding in the tractor with William, who was teaching me how to operate the plow, but I couldn’t stop looking behind us at the ocean of brown furrows. The soil fascinated me because it looked so rich, a deep brown color with pockets of reddish clay. We were plowing at a depth of approximately 12 inches, so we exposed lots of worms and barely any rocks. This really was perfect soil, the famous Chehalis sandy silt loam that William bragged about, and he wasn’t kidding.

After several passes with William running the plow, he let me take over, and I continued to plow in a north-south direction from the middle, working my way toward the edges of the field. I was proud when William trusted me to run the plow; he said I learned quickly.

After plowing, the wet weather returned, and we had to wait another couple of weeks before we could do any more tractor work. On May 11th (while I was in Miami at Army pre-deployment training), William was nice enough to spread limestone and run the disc to incorporate. He spread about 1,900 lbs. total (3 parts Agricultural lime to 1 part Dolomite lime), which was about three times LESS than what the soil analysis recommended, but William advocated for a conservative approach, and I agreed.

Getting ready to spread limestone with tractor (on left), after which the disc was used to incorporate (on right). Photo taken May 10, 2022.

After the application of lime, we had to wait one to two weeks before applying any nitrogen fertilizers (per recommendation from the Conservation District). The delay was fine because the weather plummeted again anyway. When the weather improved on May 23rd, we were able to apply the nitrogen fertilizer, which in this case was feathermeal (about 450 pounds). Following the application of the feathermeal, we ran the disc to incorporate it.

Despite running the disc over the whole field, large soil chunks remained, which was unsuitable for transplanting seedlings. After speaking with some neighboring vegetable farmers, they were having the same problem with soil clumping. It seemed like all the vegetable farmers in the valley were exasperated with the suboptimal soil conditions so late into the planting season. It had to be related to the unusual weather, that was the only way to explain it. Several farmers in the valley recommended that I till to make the soil texture more workable. We were able to borrow a till from William’s brother within a couple of days. I never operated a till before, but I got a crash course from William’s brother and was able to complete the job myself. Finally, on May 25th, the tilling was complete, and the farm was ready for planting.

Tilling for the first time. Photo taken May 25, 2022.

The soil looked drastically different after running the till, the instrument did just as I thought it would, it ground up the soil chunks into a homogenous texture. Externally, I knew it was what I had to do; but internally, I still grappled with remorse about causing so much mechanical disruption to the soil and all its microscopic living organisms. In years to come, I aim to cause less and less turmoil to the soil – so long as the weather will allow!

Above: The farm after spreading all amendments and discing, large soil clumps remain. Photo taken May 23, 2022.

Below: The farm after tilling, soil texture homogenized and ready for planting. Photo taken May 25, 2022.

Please enjoy the next blog post entitled “3 Reasons Why Fungi Are Like Neurons” to understand what was going through my mind as I repeatedly caused mechanical insult to the soil as described in this blog post.

Copyright, all rights reserved, 2023, Kayla McCarthy.

(Author's whereabouts upon publication: At an overseas military base, living it up on deployment).