http://azsdwis.azdeq.gov/DWW_E.....nty=Mohave

The Joshua Valley Water Company -- the Meadview water utlility.  You can see the list of facilities such as tanks, etc. Other links show violations and corrective actions. 

Apparently they do not test for chlorine and I don't know whether they add chlorine or chloramine to the Meadview city water.  Dr. Weil's explanation of the difference.  If we ever have a few hundred extra dollars, we'll get the Berkey water filter from Azure Standard as several co-op members bought it and they are very happy with it.

Apparently no tests for copper and lead have been done since 2011.  Probably because they don't use lead or copper pipes, but I'm just guessing.

Bacteriological  samples are apparently tested for coliform monthly for all public wells. 

One of the more interesting reports is for NITRATE, most recently at 3.5 MG/L with a maximum of 10 MG/L allowed.

At sampling point 3 Nitrate was only 1.1 MG/L, wonder why that is and where that is. 

I read in a comprehensive water report (will post it once I find it again) that septic tanks are suspected of causing the relatively high nitrate.

Radium,  NITRATE-NITRITE, AROCLOR (PCB mixtures), chemicals I don't know, Arsenic - Fluoride - Mercury - Salt and much more:

That's important for gardeners and 31 MG/L is not bad, although I have nothing to compare it to.

A lot more chemicals I know nothing about, Asbestos:

And finally, herbicides and other chemicals.

I marked the only herbicides I know about in RED.  

I'm shocked to see ANY detection at all. 

To my knowledge this area has never been commercially farmed (it's the DESERT and our aquifer is 600 feet down) and I have no idea how these chemicals ended up in our aquifer.  But I do know that I can't walk into the Home Depot garden department without having to breathe the stench of Roundup and other herbicides and pesticides.

While the detected levels are very low, I expected NO detection.

Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup.

2, 4-D is in the NEW version of Roundup, improved to kill glyphosate resistant super weeds and it also was in Agent Orange way back in Vietnam.

Picloram is an herbicide that can take 7 to 10 years to break down.  Entire gardens and landscapes have been destroyed after straw or hay sprayed with picloram was used to mulch.

I suppose the other chemicals are also herbicides, but I really don't know.   I've posted some more info at

https://highdesertfood.org/forum/gmos-roundup-and-other-toxins/

I know that many people spray Roundup on weeds after the occasional wet spring, but I have no idea how 2, 4-D and Picloram got into our aquifer.

We're not on Meadview city water, we get our water from the Lake Mead City Community Co-op wells, mostly from Well #2.

The public well on Guardian is at High Desert Water Company.

All the wells get the water from the same aquifer, so the test results should be very similar. 

I sure wish the results were more comprehensive as it's really hard to find what you're looking for with all these different tests and it's easy to miss entire tests.

It took me years to find these water tests, so this is a good start. Still don't have the pH and I think I missed the test for minerals.

Dolan Springs residents and gardeners should have a look at Mt. Tipton Water Co and their other wells as Dolan is on a DIFFERENT aquifer.

11-30-11-LoganLabs-soil-tests-hoophouse-lower-garden.pdf

We ended up mixing our soil using using about 30% of the native dirt (that's about what's left over after you screen the rocks and caliche out), "organic" compost from Star Nursery, wood chips and 10+ year old horse manure.   I knew that you're not supposed to add wood chips to soil as it robs nitrogen, but we had done that in our lower garden and after just one summer all the wood chips had decomposed.  The compost (was told by Red Star that is was trees from California virgin forest and very acidic) and the wood chips were probably over 50% of the mix)

Here is the 2015 International Ag Labs hoophouse test and it's a mess. 

3-23-15-SoilTest-hoophouse-IntAgLabs.pdf

We only tested the east side of the hoophouse as the west side had many perennials such as pomegranates, bird of paradise, apricot, willow, hollyhock, blackberries, etc.

When we finished the hoophouse in 2011 we planned to use it as a sheltered space to get plants started and to turn the area into a garden once the 4-year plastic went bad.   The plastic definitely exceeded out expectations as the only tears are from accidental damage with rake handles, etc. 

The east side has one big apricot tree grown from seed and now we have a volunteer peach tree

Don't know what happened as we thought the amendments were similar to the lower garden and we really didn't do much aside from spraying / watering with kelp and adding gypsum as we had added none when we originally mixed the dirt. 

We added some of our compost and maybe we added more horse manure in 2012 before we had our own compost.  I did take at least some notes, but wouldn't know where to look for them right now since it wasn't on the computer. 

I'm determined to be a better note taker and did pretty good this year.

Here are the International Ag Labs recommendations for the hoophouse east side:

2-23-15-Hoophouse-IntAgLabs-recommendations.pdf

I tried to get ORGANIC recommendations, but International Ag Lab didn't write back to my emails, asking how I could pay for them.   So we didn't do much of anything other than to spread some more gypsum and I applied humic acid, manganese, BioRed nitrogen fixing microbes and SeaNano.

In spring we grew lettuce and greens in the east half that we had soil tested and they did ok.

When it got too hot, dill, chichiquelite, sweet annie, himalayan basil and catnip took over.   We must have pounds of dill seed!  "Something" kept eating the Armenian cucumber seedlings and this is the first year we don't have any -- yet.  We got some plants in the new orchard and they were started very late, but we're still hoping.  We do have one volunteer tomato that actually produced tomatoes in summer, but unfortunately they they seriously cracked and a few had blossom end rot.

The gophers finally found the hoophouse and I'm glad we didn't plant a whole lot.    We're just getting ready to clear out all the volunteers on the east side and clean it up for fall lettuce planting since we finally caught two of the gophers and hopefully fixed the holes so the little bunnie and the packrats can't get back in.

Despite all that, we do have 4 large tomato plants on the west side that should give us a nice fall harvest once it cools off a bit.   In late August it's still well over 100 F most of the day in the hoophouse with a 30% shade cloth.  Quite a bit of growing area on the west side does not get enough sunshine because of all the perennials.

Our new hoophouse next to the orchard will be covered with shade cloth instead of plastic as we retained NO heat in winter and it was as cold at night in the hoophouse as outside. 

This year we've been focused on the new orchard and the veggies in the future tree holes and veggies and trees along the south fence of our property.

Please note in a separate topic the 2015 NATIVE soil test and recommendations for our future Orchard by International Ag Labs. 

Here's a native soil test from International Ag Labs:

3-23-15-SoilTest-NativeDirt-IntAgLabs-1.pdf

And I again had to approve your post, have to figure this out.

Christine said
 am at the point where I know how much I don't know. 

Exactly!! I read so much I confuse myself, then have to back off for a bit.

Would love to see your place too.

Some of mine may be better because ours is an old homestead. We have rock buildings that used to be a stagecoach stop between Holbrook/Woodruff & St. Johns. There are 2 houses & each one the center is old stone & then added on. Stone buildings are 1870 or so & the houses were added on to in 1921. Our well was drilled in 1917 & is artesian pumping 5 gal. a min all on it own. Also 2 small canyons drain into our property on the way to the little colorado so we get other peoples top soil. This was a headquarters for a larger ranch (I think) 20+ years ago but has not been taken care of since so we have our work cut out for us.

I've tried to find other serious gardeners around here. Very few they all gave up. So far all the garden looks pretty good.

Meant to comment on that.  I've also met many gardeners that gave up.  It IS hard to get a good garden going in the desert.  

I think the rabbits, squirrels, rats and gophers are the biggest problems.   We just had gophers invade, they're in the hoophouse 2 feet from an 8+ ft apricot tree that I grew from seed. Took them 4 years to get there.  They also just killed off one of our zucchini plants in a new garden area.  

Recently ordered several hundred feet of hardware cloth (best price I found was Home Depot special order) and I'm determined to keep them out of the new orchard and garden areas.

And then the wind, the sun, the cold and the occasional hail ...

It's so hard to get new plants going, but once they're established, you can hardly kill them. I like the permaculture concept because it takes care of most of these problems.

I've been reading several books lately (will post those too) and am at the point where I know how much I don't know. 

Considering how big your beds are, I'd do a soil test for them too and get the recommendations and then you should be able to use at least some of the amendments you already bought.  

Definitely would like to visit you once it cools off and maybe you can come over to our place.  For the huckleberries I'd have to bring the berries instead of plants for seeds so you can grow them next year.  Might have some other plants that interest you.  I've started to take cuttings off trees and shrubs and got a misting system, got LOTS of rooted blackberries right now and once they're planted, will take cuttings from other berries, shrubs and trees.

I'll look up the soil test & see if I can post it.

If you need more comfrey this fall let me know I have lots, maybe trade for huckleberries? Do you do a comfrey tea for your plants?

I've tried to find other serious gardeners around here. Very few they all gave up. So far all the garden looks pretty good.

Hopefully soon we can get our hoop house up. We got a deal on a local one 30' x 90' that had wind damage but at least 80' is fine. She just wanted it gone.

So glad to have found you too.

Marilyn

Why didn't you use the minerals?

How does your soil test compare to ours?

I've been thinking about using EM, just got Bio-Red microbes (nitrogen fixers) and will be posting about products we've been using within the next few days. 

It's great to meet other serious gardeners like you.   It's HARD getting a good garden going in our tough climate (even tougher for you in winter) and we need to share as many resources as possible.  

So glad to have you on board!

I like this guys thoughts, http://www.SmilingGardener.com I've used the EM's they are wonderful for the garden. Also you should be growing comfrey to make a tea as a fertilizer, also use fish emulsion & liquid kelp. I used the azomite this summer for transplanting, seemed to do well but not sure I will use it again.

It looks like we have a lot in common in our goals Christine!

The RECOMMENDATIONS For IAL Lab Number 1692 – Native Dirt Future Orchard

3-23-15-SoilTest-NativeDirt-IntAgLabs.pdf3-23-15-Native-Dirt-Orchard-IntAgLabs-recommendations.pdf

Add Per 4x4x3 Tree Hole:

30 lbs. Custom Tree Planting Mix

Made as Follows.

16 oz. Bloom 10-52-10

14 oz. K-Mag

9 oz. Epsom Salts

1.5 oz. Copper Sulfate

3 oz. Iron Sulfate

1.5 oz. Zinc Sulfate

3 oz. Manganese Sulfate

1/3 oz. Solubor

4.5 lbs. Granular Humates

4 lbs. TMB

2 lbs. Transplant Formula

½ lb. Kelp Meal

16 lbs. Soft Rock Phosphate

Note: This custom made tree planting kit can be purchased from Luke Lemmers at 952-239-2042. Each 30 lbs. should be mixed with 48 cubic feet of soil. As far as mixing soil with 50% compost I would advise caution. 50% might make your soil high in sodium. 10-20% seems a more prudent level. The Hoop House soil has excessive sodium and conductivity, we want to avoid that under your trees.

A long term goal for your trees might be to leave a layer of 1 foot of woodchips on top of the soil to keep the soil cool and reduce evaporation. I would like to see driplines below the woodchips. For more information see Back to Eden film and notice his apple trees in the desert region.

This doesn't make much sense to me:

"As far as mixing soil with 50% compost I would advise caution. 50% might make your soil high in sodium. 10-20% seems a more prudent level. The Hoop House soil has excessive sodium and conductivity, we want to avoid that under your trees."

From the native dirt test results:

The new orchard has nothing whatsoever to do with our hoophouse.  I realize now that we SHOULD have had the compost tested, but we didn't know yet what we were going to use. 

We're 60 miles from Kingman and over 100 miles from Las Vegas and that's as far as we're willing to drive to get compost without sewage sludge. We got 1 yard in Las Vegas at Viragrow, but found that it's actually cheaper (considering fuel for the big truck and time to go to Vegas) to purchase bagged products at the Home Depot in Kingman.

I finally got a pallet of 50% AMEND (Kellogg, OMRI listed and without sewage sludge, enough for about 3.5 tree holes) and the AMEND SDS sheet is attached below.  It's unfortunate that Kellogg won't disclose the amount of each ingredient because it's their "trade secret". 

How can I decide how to amend my planting mix without that info?  Have to pay for another test ...  Although I doubt that Amend is so high in sodium that it will cause a problem.

Also, I didn't realize that IAL would give me chemical recommendations (I checked the box for "high brix") and my efforts to purchase organic recommendations were a waste of time as my emails to IAL were ignored.

I will elaborate in detail on the recommendations and what we're actually doing in a new topic. 

The entire soil test, the recommendations and the Amend SDS sheet are attached.  Ouch, they will be attached once I figure out how to get attachments working.