Soil conditioners are products added to a soil to improve its physical properties and structure such as pH level, levels of nitrogen and phostrogen, fertility, yield and water retention and drainage capabilities.
It works well in both clay and compact soils with poor drainage to improve aeration, and also helps retain moisture in light and very sandy soils.
Ultimately, soil conditioners can be used to both improve poor soil structure and maintain soil quality.
But before we get into this we might want to consider what a soil actually is as it means different things to different people and depending where you live you may need a different type or variety of soil conditioner.
JPR Gold Soil Conditioner
What is Soil?
Ask people to describe what soil is and you’re likely to get a straightforward answer. How they use it on the other hand, or not, will be quite different. To a builder it’s something to get rid of when building a high rise office block; to a landscaper it needs to be deep enough for tree roots to penetrate and develop; to a footballer he’s probably more interested in the turf than the soil (though they are certainly intertwined); and to a fisherman it might be something quite different.
Wheelbarrow full of soil
Soil is the mineral and organic material lying on top of the earth’s surface. It forms the bedding into which plant life grows. Without it plants and organic matter would struggle to take root.
Soils also provide a habitat for wildlife. Not just rabbits and badgers but smaller animals essential to the quality of soil like worms, bugs, beetles and micro-organisms.
Soil acts as a retainer of water. This is an essential factor when deciding where to build dams or when we see the devastating effects of floods with deforestation.
According to the British Society of Soil Science soil is defined as “the physically altered top 1.2 m of the earth’s crust”. Depth here is important as it determines whether, for our purposes as suppliers of horticultural landscaping and gardening products, you can plant flowers, tress, shrubs and vegetables, or not.
The type of soil you have will determine its properties and what you can plant in it.
Soil types are a combination of particle size and organic matter. The Society points out four basic mineral particle sizes, namely:
- Clay <2 micrometres
- Silt 2-60 micrometres
- Sand Fine, medium and coarse
- Stones 2,000 micrometres (2mm), fine grit to gravel and boulders
The dark colour of topsoil is finely divided organic matter, or humus, and its constituents are numerous including dead plant life, substances excreted by animals and micro-organisms.
How Can Soil Conditioners Help a Garden?
The whole idea of using a soil conditioner is to open up the physical structure of the soil, revitalising it where depleted or maintaining a sufficiently high level of nutrients. It is worked in as an addition to the existing soil and not used in replacement of it.
The question then is what type of plants or vegetation do you want to plant? This will determine whether you need a soil conditioner or not.
Some plants prefer lighter, more aerated soils while others prefer more acidic or rocky soils like alpines. Vegetables prefer types of soils that tropical plants might not.
Soil conditioner is often the answer to these problems as it contains both nutrients and organic matter, and particle sizes that open up and aerate the soil to allow for better drainage.
JPR Gold is one of our best-selling items and is a blend of matured farmyard manure and composted bark fines. The manure contains natural nutrients and nitrogen. While the bark fines are organic and ‘fine’ in size, they are large enough to aerate the soil. As such, it’s particularly good for clay-like soils.
In turn, bugs and worms over time wind their way through the wider spaces created by digging in the conditioner.
Soil conditioners can also be used as a mulch as they help to insulate the soil, keep the soil warm protecting it from extreme winter weather conditions, and help to suppress weeds.
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What is the Difference Between Soil Conditioner, Compost and Fertiliser?
A soil conditioner is a combination of organic matter and another substance of a large enough particle size to open up the soil to which it’s added.
For example, our JPR Gold is farmyard manure (organic matter) blended with bark fines (larger particle size).
Soil conditioner is dug into the existing soil structure.
Compost is different. Compost is organic matter such as leaves, barks, tree and plant waste, and food waste that have been allowed to decompose. Their decomposition generates organic matter.
The difference between compost and soil conditioner is in the structure: you can grow plants and vegetables in compost but a good soil conditioner has too open a structure and roots would struggle to take hold if it was the only substance to the bedding.
Fertiliser, on the other hand is a substance in and of itself, e.g. a liquid. While it adds nutrients, applying it to the soil will not change the soil’s structure. Pouring or sprinkling it on the soil may not work in the long run as it will fail to alter this essential component.