If you’re just shifting over to organic gardening, or if you suspect your new garden plot has a history of excessive herbicide use, try the oats test before you plant your broadleaf organic crops.

Photo courtesy of Caaaait at flikr.com.

Put some of the topsoil in a four-inch pot and sow it with plain oats, which are sensitive to previous herbicide use. If nothing grows in a week, or if the seedlings come up stunted or burned-looking, you’ve got a problem.

You’ll need to grow several crops of an herbicide-compatible cover crop like Sudax, a sorghum/sudan grass hybrid, in order to cleanse the soil before you can plant your first successful crop of veggies.

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