How to Apply Soil Amendments Efficiently on Your Market Garden
By Jonathan Dysinger and John Dysinger
Updated on
Show Transcript
0:00Hi guys, Jonathan here with Farmers Friend. I'm at Bountiful Blessings Farm with my dad, John. And this morning,
0:05we're going to be talking about how to most efficiently apply soil amendments,
0:09at least according to Farmer John. So,
0:14well, I'm not the last word on this. You know, somebody else may have a better solution, but um for years and years,
0:23we've used an Earthway. It's the model 3100. And you know, you go to most
0:30stores and they've got these tiny little canvas bag kind of spreaders that just don't hold much of anything, but this
0:38will hold 40 lbs. Mhm. So, it's it's good back exercise to stay straight with it. But um basically you've got a simple
0:47harness thing that clips on here and you put your amendments or cover crop seed
0:55in there and um you put the amendments or seed when it's on the ground and then kind of hold
1:03it up and clip. Yeah. Or you know use the back of a golf cart or something to
1:11Yeah. And you know, it's it's adjustable here. And it's got three holes inside
1:19here that also are adjustable. So, it's quite quite uh you know, you can really
1:26work with your spread pattern and everything. And and so then, you know, if we're doing amendments on a pad,
1:34usually we've got eight beds per pad. We just go down between the second and third
1:42bed. And obviously the the faster you spin it, the further it's going to go.
1:50So you just want to start here and you're looking to make sure you're covering to the middle and to the edge
1:59and you know going faster or slower with your spinning depending on
2:06you know your how heavy the material is that you're putting on there. But it works great. you know, both for
2:14amendments and for cover crops, with just a little bit of practice, you can get a very even
2:21spread. And up until yesterday, this was the only 40 lb chest spreader that was out
2:30there. And these last that you were aware of that I was aware of. Yeah.
2:35Um, you know, this is my second one in 27 years, but you will see, you know,
2:42because it's got a metal base, a lot of the amendments that we apply, you know, like uh copper sulfate
2:51and and different things, uh, potassium sulfate,
2:56they will they will corrode and so eventually it'll wear out. But I was googling yesterday online to see if
3:06there were any other options out there and I did find another option that looks intriguing, promising. It's called a
3:13Hoie Man. It's not quite as big. It's 35 lbs, but it has some really unique
3:21um it would seem improvements. I haven't tried it. But anyway, you know, this one
3:28this one has definitely been used and tried and it works well, but I'd like to
3:35try the new one. And so, there's a little bit of art to this one as far as h how fast you crank and and how much
3:42you you open the the gate, but and how fast you walk. Yeah. But in a in a way
3:49that's probably, you know, beneficial features over, let's say, a push one because you don't have as much control.
3:55Maybe you you'd have to like speed up and slow down to get the different spreads. So, so I think this is a an improvement and also just easier to get
4:03in and out of tight, you know, areas and green houses and whatever. It works well for that. So, Oh, yeah. I wouldn't want to push one. So, of course, we did a
4:11demonstration on top of fabric, but we would be doing this on a on a bare field plot or when you're doing your bed prep
4:20um before laying down fabric to make sure those amendments get integrated into the soil. Some of the the
4:27micronutrients are often in a powdered form and that doesn't work well. It's a mess. So, how do you do do you just uh
4:36hand broadcast that or do you have a different Yeah, there's Well, I one little trick with copper sulfate, that's
4:44the one that's really rough to to put on it. It's I don't like working with
4:50copper sulfate, but I found if I put it with
4:56C90, the granulated C90, C90 is sticky enough that it'll hold on to the copper
5:04sulfate. Okay. And I just mix it in with that and then I can apply it with this and I don't get that powder. Okay, cool.
5:12Well, but other powders we just put on by hand. a lot of different ways of doing things, but somebody that's been
5:20doing it as long as you has kind of settled into some techniques that work.
5:24So, thanks for sharing. Appreciate you guys watching. If you have any questions, reach out to the Farmersfriend customer service team at farmersfriend.com.
The most efficient way to broadcast soil amendments and cover crop seed on a market farm is with a 35–40 lb chest-mounted spreader like the Earthway 3100. Walk between beds, adjust your crank speed to control throw distance, and aim for even coverage from bed center to outer edge. For powdered amendments that won't spread well (like copper sulfate), mix them with a sticky granular product like C-90 so they can be applied through the spreader instead of by hand.
Applying soil amendments is one of those farm tasks that doesn't get a lot of attention in books and courses — but doing it inefficiently can eat up a surprising amount of time. When you're amending eight beds on a pad, or broadcasting cover crop seed across a field plot, the difference between a good spreading tool and a bad one is hours of labor.
My dad, John Dysinger, has been applying amendments at Bountiful Blessings Farm for 27 years. He's settled on a system that works — and recently discovered a potential upgrade. Here's his approach.
What Is the Best Tool for Spreading Soil Amendments?
The Chest-Mounted Spreader
My dad's go-to tool is the Earthway 3100, a chest-mounted broadcast spreader that holds up to 40 pounds of material. He's been using this model for his entire farming career and is only on his second unit in 27 years.
If you've only seen the small canvas-bag spreaders sold at garden centers, the Earthway is a significant step up. Those small spreaders barely hold anything and require constant refilling. A 40-pound capacity means you can load up and cover a lot of ground before stopping.
The spreader clips onto a simple harness across your chest. You load your amendments or seed while the spreader is resting on the ground (or the back of a golf cart), then lift it into position. It's a good back workout — my dad notes you'll want to stay upright and maintain good posture when it's fully loaded.
How Does It Work?
The Earthway has adjustable gates and internal holes that let you control the spread pattern and flow rate. You walk between beds and crank the handle to broadcast the material. Three variables determine your coverage:
Crank speed — The faster you spin, the further the material throws. For a standard pad with eight beds, my dad walks between the second and third beds and adjusts his crank speed to cover from the center to the outer edges on both sides.
Gate opening — Controls how much material drops onto the spinning plate. Wider opening means more material per pass.
Walking speed — Slower walking gives heavier application per linear foot; faster walking gives lighter application.
With a little practice, you can get a very even spread across your beds. The adjustability is actually an advantage over push-type spreaders, which are harder to maneuver in tight spaces like greenhouses and tunnels, and give you less fine control over the spread pattern.
Farm Smarter, Not Harder
Join thousands of market farmers receiving regular insights on how to streamline your systems, save your back, and increase your farm’s bottom line.
A Potential Upgrade: The Hooyman
My dad recently discovered another option — the Hooyman, a chest spreader with a 35-pound capacity that appears to have some design improvements over the Earthway. He hasn't tried it yet, so he can't give a personal endorsement, but it's on his radar as a potential upgrade.
The Earthway's one downside is durability when used with corrosive amendments. The metal base eventually corrodes from products like copper sulfate and potassium sulfate. After 27 years and only two units, that's still excellent longevity — but corrosion is the thing that eventually does them in.
How Do You Handle Powdered Amendments?
Most granular amendments spread beautifully through a chest spreader. But powdered amendments — copper sulfate is the worst offender — are a mess. The fine powder doesn't feed through the spreader cleanly, creates dust, and is generally unpleasant to work with.
My dad's trick: mix the powder with a sticky granular product to act as a carrier.
He uses granulated C-90 (a calcium product) as the carrier for copper sulfate. C-90 has a slightly sticky texture that the powder clings to. Mix the copper sulfate into the C-90, and you can broadcast the combination through the chest spreader with a clean, even spread — no dust, no mess.
For other powdered micronutrients that can't be mixed with a carrier, hand broadcasting is the fallback. It's slower and less even, but some products just aren't spreader-friendly.
When Do You Apply Amendments?
Apply amendments during bed prep, before you lay down any landscape fabric or plant. You want the amendments to make contact with the soil surface so they can be integrated — either worked in with a tool or left for rain and irrigation to carry them down.
If you're using a cover-crop-to-fabric workflow (grow a cover crop, terminate it, lay down Quick-Plant Fabric, plant through the holes), your amendments go on during the bed prep stage before the fabric goes down.
For cover crop seed, the same chest spreader works perfectly. My dad uses it for both amendments and seeding — same tool, same technique, just different material in the hopper.
The Takeaway
A good chest-mounted spreader is one of those tools that doesn't seem exciting but saves you real time across every season. The Earthway 3100 has been the standard for decades and holds up well. Load it up, walk between your beds, and adjust your crank speed for even coverage.
For powdered amendments, mix them with a sticky granular carrier to run them through the spreader. And always apply amendments during bed prep, before fabric goes down, so everything gets integrated into the soil where it belongs.
It's a small system improvement, but those small improvements compound across hundreds of beds and dozens of applications per season.
Frequently Asked Questions
A chest-mounted broadcast spreader with a 35–40 lb capacity, like the Earthway 3100, is the standard for small-scale market farms. It gives you fine control over spread pattern through crank speed and gate adjustments, and it's much easier to maneuver in tight spaces like greenhouses than a push spreader. One unit can last decades with normal use.
Yes. The same chest-mounted spreader works for both soil amendments and cover crop seed. Adjust the gate opening and internal holes based on the seed size — large grain seeds flow differently than small clover seeds. With a little practice, you can get even broadcast coverage for any seed mix.
Mix the powder with a sticky granular product to act as a carrier. At Bountiful Blessings Farm, copper sulfate is mixed with granulated C-90 (a calcium product) — the sticky texture of the C-90 holds onto the powder, allowing it to be broadcast through the chest spreader cleanly. For powders that can't be mixed with a carrier, hand broadcasting is the fallback option.
During bed prep, before laying down any landscape fabric or planting. Amendments need to contact the soil surface so they can be integrated through tillage, rain, or irrigation. If you're using a cover-crop-to-fabric workflow, apply amendments after terminating the cover crop and before laying down the fabric.
For market farm use, chest-mounted is generally better. Push spreaders are harder to maneuver in tight spaces like greenhouse aisles and between tunnel beds. Chest spreaders also give you more control over spread pattern through variable crank speed — you can throw further or shorter on the fly, which is harder to do with a push spreader.
The Earthway 3100 can last decades with normal use — my dad is only on his second unit in 27 years. The main wear point is corrosion from acidic or sulfate-based amendments that contact the metal base. Rinsing the spreader after use with corrosive products will extend its lifespan.