Test Garden

[Rob183]

Today I just created my first test garden in my Florida soil, aka sand, in an attempt to help me learn this machine. So far it has been planted with...
Thin white 14K gold diamond ring at 6"
Heavy silver chain at 6"
Silver dollar at 9"
Silver quarter at 8"
Silver dime at 6"
copper penny at 5"
Buffalo nickel at 6"
Clad quarter at 5"
Clad dime at 5"
Clad nickel at 5"
Zinc penny at 5"
Tungsten ring at 7"
Rusted bottle cap at 5"
New bottle cap at 3"
Square tab at 3"
Ring tab at 3"
Small wad of foil at 3"
Screw at 4"

 

[thepest]

Awesome.... I miss mine.... I had to digg up the best bits when I moved.... I haven't made another.... Your vdi's will change a bit over time as the targets develop a corona

 

[bigtim1973]

Your off to a good start.

Once everything settles down over time your gonna see a bit of a difference.


I had a pretty good test garden at one time but a tornado came thru and took the trees away. I had to go dig my old coins out from the mess it left.
Now I basically only have 3 targets


One target from the original test bed which is still there is a clad quarter about 4 inches. Then I planted an 8 inch buffalo nickle and I have a silver dime on edge with 4 square nails around it.

That is about all I need now.

Enjoy your new playground!!!

 

[Tinhorn]

pretty good Garden, your $100 plot will work really good...

 

[JCR TX]

Your Test Garden will be one of your best investments in yourself.

 

[Odanscoils]

Nice assortment.
Hopefully you put them around two ft apart.
To allow for a good swing.
I'd also add an assortment of broken tabs, beaver tails, various bits of iron and nails. And various sizes of the killer. Foil and aluminum !!
Recently I had a killer Perfect singnal and painted perfectly on my Manticore. Said 6" silver. Dug down to find a perfectly round 3/8" ball of can slaw at 3".
I hate aluminum and foil.

 

[DigDog]

Today I just created my first test garden in my Florida soil, aka sand, in an attempt to help me learn this machine. So far it has been planted with...
Thin white 14K gold diamond ring at 6"
Heavy silver chain at 6"
Silver dollar at 9"
Silver quarter at 8"
Silver dime at 6"
copper penny at 5"
Buffalo nickel at 6"
Clad quarter at 5"
Clad dime at 5"
Clad nickel at 5"
Zinc penny at 5"
Tungsten ring at 7"
Rusted bottle cap at 5"
New bottle cap at 3"
Square tab at 3"
Ring tab at 3"
Small wad of foil at 3"
Screw at 4"

Nice assortment.
Keep in mind we have soil/sand that has a really fast sink rate, some others have also experienced their test garden items disappearing after a short time.
One of the main advantages is very easy to dig, no shovel needed but the downside is alot of targets can sink beyond detection and essentially disappear lol.
Not sure where you are but the soil changes even in different parts of the city or county. One area can actually have some clay and soil, another just sand and parts just lime rock which is not diggable without heavy equipment.
Sounds like you have the loose sandy type. Coins i planted at just 8-10” disappeared within a year and no longer picked up by the detectors i had at the time. Also the tones they gave changed over a short period as they sank.
Although a very good baseline the results you get can vary not only in tones but numbers as well.
Excellent tool to learn how your detector works but don’t hold the results as gospel that it will be the same in time or other areas.
Same as videos and such that say a certain target will be a certain number or sound is a good baseline for their detector in their specific location at that given time.
We don’t have the technology where a gold ring or coin will always be the same number or sound everywhere you go.
The only way to get everything is to dig everything. How much your willing to dig is up to you.
Discrimination and numbers are tools that tell you what NOT to dig and they are not always accurate. Getting too wrapped up with them can get frustrating and lead to missing targets.
Another way to learn your detector is to go out and dig every signal for awhile and take notice of the results.
A test garden is like learning in a classroom then in the real world most goes out the window lol.

 

[DigDog]

Curious If you happen to find old silver coins let me know as i have yet to find one around here. Most of the area wasn’t even developed until the 1980’s or later and if someone did happen to have a real old coin on them they dropped it more than likely sank too deep by now

 

[Silver Saver]

Nice! Yesterday I added on my chore list to make one too. Seems beneficial for learning. Probably not as many items as you did, but will include some colocated targets of ferrous/non ferrous trash with good non ferrous.

 

[RLOH]

Today I just created my first test garden in my Florida soil, aka sand, in an attempt to help me learn this machine. So far it has been planted with...
Thin white 14K gold diamond ring at 6"
Heavy silver chain at 6"
Silver dollar at 9"
Silver quarter at 8"
Silver dime at 6"
copper penny at 5"
Buffalo nickel at 6"
Clad quarter at 5"
Clad dime at 5"
Clad nickel at 5"
Zinc penny at 5"
Tungsten ring at 7"
Rusted bottle cap at 5"
New bottle cap at 3"
Square tab at 3"
Ring tab at 3"
Small wad of foil at 3"
Screw at 4"

Rob, for years I have told every new detectorist to plant a test garden. You can learn more in a half an hour than 50 hours in the field with a new detector. Air test are fine for the very basic's like learning the tones, but nothing will every beat what various targets sound like in the ground. I do believe that a garden will have to settle for a couple of years to get the best results, but even freshly dug gardens will do much more good than any other tests you might think of.

If you only have clad coins available, use them and you will be way ahead of someone who buys a new detector and heads out to the local park. Good luck and between youtube and these forums, your learning curve will be way better than what us older guys had to deal with.

 

[Rob183]

Nice assortment.
Keep in mind we have soil/sand that has a really fast sink rate, some others have also experienced their test garden items disappearing after a short time.
One of the main advantages is very easy to dig, no shovel needed but the downside is alot of targets can sink beyond detection and essentially disappear lol.
Not sure where you are but the soil changes even in different parts of the city or county. One area can actually have some clay and soil, another just sand and parts just lime rock which is not diggable without heavy equipment.
Sounds like you have the loose sandy type. Coins i planted at just 8-10” disappeared within a year and no longer picked up by the detectors i had at the time. Also the tones they gave changed over a short period as they sank.
Although a very good baseline the results you get can vary not only in tones but numbers as well.
Excellent tool to learn how your detector works but don’t hold the results as gospel that it will be the same in time or other areas.
Same as videos and such that say a certain target will be a certain number or sound is a good baseline for their detector in their specific location at that given time.
We don’t have the technology where a gold ring or coin will always be the same number or sound everywhere you go.
The only way to get everything is to dig everything. How much your willing to dig is up to you.
Discrimination and numbers are tools that tell you what NOT to dig and they are not always accurate. Getting too wrapped up with them can get frustrating and lead to missing targets.
Another way to learn your detector is to go out and dig every signal for awhile and take notice of the results.
A test garden is like learning in a classroom then in the real world most goes out the window lol.

I'm in Dunedin. Everything is mapped out so if they start sinking I'll dig up the good stuff.

 

[DigDog]

. I do believe that a garden will have to settle for a couple of years to get the best results,

Thats part of the problem in this area in a couple of years the test garden can be gone from the sink rate

 

[JCR TX]

If you are concerned with test targets sinking just place a large plastic disk under them. A coffee can lid would be ideal.

 

[DigDog]

If you are concerned with test targets sinking just place a large plastic disk under them. A coffee can lid would be ideal.

I suppose even maybe a large plastic container but wouldn’t that somehow skew things relating to conductivity and such under ground especially if it collects moisture or water.

 

[woodbutcher]

Location please

 

[DigDog]

Location please

Florida gulf coast just few miles inland.
Mostly sand not much different than right on the beach. Sugar sand as we call it. Hard to grow anything unless you add top soil.

 

[thepest]

Florida gulf coast just few miles inland.
Mostly sand not much different than right on the beach. Sugar sand as we call it. Hard to grow anything unless you add top soil.

Wow... That is kinda tough.... Here in NJ we have mostly top soil and clay.... I used a hand full of gravel in the bottom of the holes when I did my garden... It almost sounds like you'd need a shovel full of sakrete gravel mix in each hole before you placed your targets... Even then it might not last... I still wouldn't move though.... I'd be on that beach every day....

 

[woodbutcher]

Wow... That is kinda tough.... Here in NJ we have mostly top soil and clay.... I used a hand full of gravel in the bottom of the holes when I did my garden... It almost sounds like you'd need a shovel full of sakrete gravel mix in each hole before you placed your targets... Even then it might not last... I still wouldn't move though.... I'd be on that beach every day....

I was born in Plainfield NJ and lived in Piscataway until I was 10..Then we moved here to Western Pennsylvania. I go there occasionally to see family but never detected in NJ

 

[DigDog]

Wow... That is kinda tough.... Here in NJ we have mostly top soil and clay.... I used a hand full of gravel in the bottom of the holes when I did my garden... It almost sounds like you'd need a shovel full of sakrete gravel mix in each hole before you placed your targets... Even then it might not last... I still wouldn't move though.... I'd be on that beach every day....

Spent my entire childhood in NJ very familiar with the soil. Funny you should mention putting concrete underneath we had had many sinkholes around here my house included. Some are very minor and some have swallowed entire homes.
Just outside of Tampa several years ago one house got swallowed up while someone was sleeping in the bedroom.
The hall of the house with the bedroom sank hundreds of feet in seconds and with how loosely the soil/sand is it backfills right away.
They never did recover his body and just poured the concrete over everything. Very sad. When construction workers dig deep trenches they have big steel plates with beams in between they drop in the trenches to keep them from caving in.
As i say very similar to the beach if you dig a deep hole it will want to cave in from the sides. Even digging out a 10” target you have to go little wide as it wants to cave lol.
My house had a minor sinkhole just as many in my neighborhood they went around every so many feet and underpinned the house with beams and then injected a expanding grout underneath the entire house similar to the expanding foam in a can stuff but concrete like.
Thats just the nature of living on basically a huge sandbar lol.
Some areas along the coast though we have limerock and you need a pickaxe to dig 12”go figure. The limestone is usually deep with cavities where fresh ground water runs where we get our well water. As the water table drops sand can start to sift down in the cavities thats when sinkholes occur. Some areas are prone to them like ours. Most open up in the woods or roads cause road closures though.
One in my neighborhood on a vacant lot the tops of 20-40’ trees were ground level. They eventually filled it in and put a house on it. It’s definitely a different environment then Jersey. Thats why hard to find old targets around here. Have a beach ten minutes down the road never anything but trash get much more at the parks

 

[thepest]

Spent my entire childhood in NJ very familiar with the soil. Funny you should mention putting concrete underneath we had had many sinkholes around here my house included. Some are very minor and some have swallowed entire homes.
Just outside of Tampa several years ago one house got swallowed up while someone was sleeping in the bedroom.
The hall of the house with the bedroom sank hundreds of feet in seconds and with how loosely the soil/sand is it backfills right away.
They never did recover his body and just poured the concrete over everything. Very sad. When construction workers dig deep trenches they have big steel plates with beams in between they drop in the trenches to keep them from caving in.
As i say very similar to the beach if you dig a deep hole it will want to cave in from the sides. Even digging out a 10” target you have to go little wide as it wants to cave lol.
My house had a minor sinkhole just as many in my neighborhood they went around every so many feet and underpinned the house with beams and then injected a expanding grout underneath the entire house similar to the expanding foam in a can stuff but concrete like.
Thats just the nature of living on basically a huge sandbar lol.
Some areas along the coast though we have limerock and you need a pickaxe to dig 12”go figure. The limestone is usually deep with cavities where fresh ground water runs where we get our well water. As the water table drops sand can start to sift down in the cavities thats when sinkholes occur. Some areas are prone to them like ours. Most open up in the woods or roads cause road closures though.
One in my neighborhood on a vacant lot the tops of 20-40’ trees were ground level. They eventually filled it in and put a house on it. It’s definitely a different environment then Jersey. Thats why hard to find old targets around here. Have a beach ten minutes down the road never anything but trash get much more at the parks

I had a passing thought... Like passing wind that blows on by... While trying to find a solution... I stumbled onto several videos of above ground test gardens.... My favorite was the one made with a 5 gallon bucket (link below)... Which seems the easiest and most simplistic to make.... BUT... None of these will mimic actual soil conditions.... You might as well be air testing... Then I though ( you can see the smoke from Florida )... why not 4 inch drainage PVC with an end cap... you'd have to drill holes in the end caps for drainage... Drop your target in the bottom... fill the tube with dirt sand whatever... and bury the tubes with a post hole digger.... If your max depth is one foot with some of your targets... Your talking a few post holes 1 ft down... closer to the top targets... shorter tube.... essentially... You're making various length sieves to put the targets in... A 12 ft piece of 3 or 4 inch of perforated drain pipe would do the whole garden... The end caps and glue would probably cost more than the pipe... the ground water would sill flow in and out.... Giving you the natural conditions you're looking for.... As long as the very top edge of the pipe was at ground level... you could see if your Draining tube was sinking away... If it did... the thing was designed to be buried... And should be simple enough to dig up and re-seat... The targets wont budge in this home made sieve.... It would be a bit of work to put in place... But if you were going to take on the task of digging anyway... In for a penny... In for a pound....