Expert: Long Island Gardener - 8/18/2008

Question
I need to divide and transfer my iris to a new bed.  The new bed has been cleaned out and the soil has been cultivated.  Is there some fertilizer that I should till into the bed prior to the transfer?....This bed has roses bushes and glad's in it already.  
Thanks for your help.

Answer
The most important step: A soil test.  Don't touch ANYTHING until you have that information at your fingertips.

Let me begin with my Soil Test Speech.

Let's suppose you want to bake a cake.  The first thing you do is, you get out the cookbook and make a list of ingredients.

Right?

Then you check the cupboard.  You check the refrigerator.  Do you have Eggs?  Do you have Flour?  Milk?  Vanilla?

You make a list.  Now you go shopping.

If you already have Flour, you don't need to buy any more Flour.  Right?  So you cross that off.

Maybe you have Eggs.  Cross those off the shopping list.  Butter?  You need Butter -- put that in the shopping cart.  You go down your list.  If you have it at home, you don't buy it.  If you need it, you put it in the shopping cart.

Now you get home.  You have to preheat the oven.  You turn it on and you wait 10 minutes.

Now you want to bake.  What's the temperature?

Did you test for that?

Judy, HOW are you going to set the oven temperature if you don't test it first?

How are you going to bake a cake, Judy, if you don't know how hot the oven is?

You need to find that out!

What's the pH of your Soil?

YOU DON'T KNOW!

A Soil test will tell you what's in the cupboard, what's the oven temperature, how long was the cake in there, if you have Eggs and Butter and Flour... Judy, THESE ARE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW.

You MUST get a Soil test.

Look up your local Cooperative Extension Service on the internet:

www.csrees.usda.gov/qlinks/partners/state_partners.html

and find your state and local Extension office.

Be VERY serious about following their instructions so that you can give them a valid sample.

You want to know EVERYTHING they can measure in your Soil.  You want to grow beautiful Roses, beautiful Gladioluses, and beautiful Irises.  These plants can be very demanding.  They don't perform up to standard if there is anything missing in their Soil.  Roses are very heavy feeders.

While you are waiting for Soil Test results, you can ROUGHLY turn over the Soil and ROUGHLY turn in LOTS of Organic Matter.  If you KNOW that the Soil does not have excessive levels of Phosphorus, you can add some Bone Meal; it will decompose gradually, over years.  But you won't know that until your Soil Test results are back.  And you don't want to add any Phosphorus, even if it's organic, because you will trigger a shortage of other nutrients by displacing them with too much P.

Organic matter on the other hand builds microbe populations and improves Soil structure.  This is a terrific exercise.  Good Soil holds onto nutrients and spoon feeds them, bit by bit, to your plants.  Rotting leaves, decomposed Manure and Grass clippings are outstanding sources of Organic Matter.

When you have your Soil Test results, don't reach for the nearest container of Chemical Fertilizer ... NO NO NO!!!!

Reason:  You'll kill all the nutrients-building microbes, and repel all your Earthworms with that stuff.  Chemical Fertilizers are SALTS by definition.  Betcha didn't know that, did you?

Since you're growing Roses, you need all the help you can get.  Use modern science to fight crime and feed the hungry in your garden.  Integrated Pest Management will wipe out bad bugs; gentle doses of organic fertilizers and soil conditioners will develop the strengths in your Soil.  This is the way your garden grows in the 21st century.

We've cloned Sheep.  Replaced Blue genes in Roses.  Cracked the DNA code of hundreds of Fungi.  Use the scientific method to grow Irises, Roses and Glads from now on.

Thanks for writing.

THE LONG ISLAND GARDENER