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In The Intelligent Gardener Steve Solomon and Erica Reinheimer provide a method of identifying the needs for soil amendment and matching an amendment program for those specific needs. I'm doing my best to implement this process.

Remineralization requires a particular type of soil analysis and a way to calculate soil needs based on that analysis.

Doing a soil analysis requires selecting two cups of soil that represent the average state of each garden area. This requires some care and diligence, but it's not brain surgery, though it is a bit expensive because only a few sol analysis labs use the required Mehlich-3 testing procedure.

This is the easiest part, though it does require detail work. The book provides some worksheets. By the way, these have been revised from the original worksheets shown in the book. This 15 page document explains the changes and the revised worksheets.

I have created spreadsheets that do all the calculations. These allow changing the proportions of elements in different mixes, for example, making it easy to substitute triple superphosphate for CALPHOS rock phosphate. I enter the figures from the soil analysis, ensure the proportions of elements in each amendment are correct, tell it the size of the plot and the spreadsheet calculates how much of each to apply.

I'm noticing that I must change many basic ideas and habits that I have used in the past:

• They recommend tilling in the amendments - in the past I have attempted to avoid tilling because it majorly opens the vault door for the weed seed bank, applying fertilizer on top of the soil.
• This approach requires amending an entire garden area - in the past I put most fertilizer only where the plants were growing.
• This makes professional soil analysis necessary - in the past I just let my plants speak to me about how well they were doing.
• The complex relationships between soil characteristics and different amendments makes some sort of automated calculation necessary (such as a spreadsheet).
• This requires (generally) a unique mix for each separate garden area (based on a soil analysis of each) - in thee past I had several variations on the basic recipe (see organic fertilizer recipes) depending on the type of crop I'm growing.
• Mixing is now by weight, which requires a scale and more effective mixing procedures - in the past I measured by the scoop.
• This requires more exact measuring because the amount of some amendments is as little as a few ounces - so I ordered an accurate scale.
• This requires a better mixing procedure so I've ordered an Odjob mixing bucket to uniformly mix amendments (it should also work for mixing potting soil) - previously, I put on a face mask and mixed in a bucket with a spade.
• This increases the expense of soil amendments.

I may be asking myself this question as I attempt to adapt to the above changes. I'm doing this because I trust Steve. I'm doing it because results in my gardens have been inconsistent. One hear a specific crop does great and the next it's a flop. Also, I've seen an increase of destructive fungi and I need to adapt, possibly with healthier soil. Finally, the soil analyses have shown major differences in soil quality from one garden to another and that I haven't been amending effectively in the past.

So, I'm going to give soil remineralization my best shot and see what happens. Ultimately, the idea of truly healthy veggies (nutrient-dense food) is the appeal behind it all.

As of 2018 I am convinced that remineralization makes a significant difference in the health and nutrient density of vegetables. Along with cover crops and good compost the minerals in the soil are stable, the soil appears richer and plants have thicker, greener leaves and more robust appearance. I continued through 2018 and am doing so in this year 2020. Not to mention that results of soil testing using the Mallich 3 technique tells me soil is improving overall.