Your thought on test garden

[DirtAngler]

I have tried putting a test garden in by burying targets at differing depths. The problem is my ground mineralization. Had a club meeting where detectors tested were AT Pro, MXT, ETRAC, F75, XP Deus, Xterra 705, and XLT. Due to my ground mineralization, not one detector could ID accurately anything deeper than 5 inches. Saw a test garden a guy made where he built a raised bed in a wood box and had pvc pipes through it a different depths and tested detectors using this method. My questions are: 1. How good is this since you won't have a halo effect? 2. If I did this and bought bags of topsoil from Lowe's could I still have a mineralization problem from their topsoil? 3. How would you construct the box as far as using fasteners since you wouldn't want the possibility of screwing it together and detecting the screws used to build the box?

 

[MNCoinhunter]

Why not try filling a large potato sack with soil and just putting the coin underneath. Keeping in mind that disturbed soil will give different results then settled soil. Worth a shot .. and you really don't have to "build" anything.

 

[MarkCZ]

You don't get a halo from silver or gold, you might from a corroded copper penny (but I don't think about coins and halo together)
Halo, is more of an Iron issue in that the halo can make a small piece of iron seem MUCH larger to a metal detector.

The thing about test gardens is AGE, (the longer they've been there the better) but if you could take a nice plug right to the depth you wanted then that would be a little closer to natural buried.
See below.

Well, is the soil for your test garden pretty much the same as the rest of the soil you would be hunting in (in your local area)?
If so then you would want that because you can use the test garden to help get you better hunting results.

 

[CanadaDig]

I use a local Park for my test garden. I find a clean spot in a wooded area. cut a slice and slide a silver dime at different depths. This garden is in the wooded area of the park and I use large stone to put on top with a crushed can under it to ward off any possible detectorist. I also bury old nails 2 feet apart to see if I get falsing.

 

[targets]

dont forget a squashed beer can to see which machines will ID it correctly .
i have 1 at 24 inches deep and they all find it but not all will ID it right as junk

 

[bootyhoundpa]

i believe you are better off having your test garden in the nature native soil as that will give you real world results for your general area.... artifical test garden may give atificial results.... my backyard isnt the most nuetral either but then again niether is the surrounding area.... jmho....

 

[CanadaDig]

I agree bootyhounds, The soil in most peoples yards (newer homes) was brought in by the developer. The soil in most parks (older) were natural and could have more or less iron content. Another thing that I do to test rusted nails that I find and save them since they are already corroded. Slip them into the test garden , add some fertilizer (miracle grow) to in the slice (so as not to disturb as much Soil. it seems to speed up the corrosion process within 1 year from planting it to produce halo effects...it also helps to scratch off rust flakes from another rusted nail into the same hole. My goal is to get the nail to produce the halo effect so that I can test over to get use to it. As we all know once the nail is removed from the soil and put back into the ground it does not have the halo from its years before.

 

[Steve O]

Test gardens should be sanitized. Zero iron and no other metal other than what you put into the ground. Reasons; If there is unknown iron in there (iron you didn't place there for testing) it will alter your results, and you won't know why.
Sanitize the native soil using a 350# (3"x2"x1") earth magnet and your detector. It's a little work but worth it.