Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Ryan Albinger" <ryalbinger@earthlink.net>]

A lot of information is revealed in that soil test and tons more can be
pulled from it. 

pH is somewhat okay.  I do have suspicions on the level of soil biology
with the other levels given.  Those numbers reveal the biological levels in
the soil.  Will detail on request.

The 'Total Organic Carbon' I suspect is very similar to the measure of
organic matter.  Carbon- required for life- life forms - organic matter.  I
doubt it is a measure of CO2 levels or if Total Organic Carbon measures the
small amount of CO2 in the soil.  On that, I venture to say that is 11%
organic matter or somewhere near that.

The Phosphorus levels (310 mg/kg or 310 ppm is high, maybe for the test) 
It was not mentioned if this is weak Bray or strong Bray as that would
affect the plant ability or exchangeability of the P.  Unless this is a
measure of all of the soil P, then I suspect it is not the problem.  I have
questions on how K is listed, but P:K ratio seems very high if they are
equal measures of weight.

I do not understand how the Ca, k, etc are expressed.  It appears as some
sort of measure of the ions.  If it is a weight measure, I'd point to these
things.  Ca:Mg is around 4:1, Albrecht wants 7:1 ratio.  Potassium seems
very high relative to Ca if a measure of weight.  CEC, cation exchange
capacity, at 63 is very high, a peat soil?  This would confirm that 11% OM
could indeed be correct.

Upon examining the numbers of the CEC elements listed further, the units
applied add up to the CEC number.  I could speculate from this that they
could be used to determine the CEC balance.  65% Ca, 14.6% Mg, 17.4% K, and
2.7% Na.  Seems a correct assumption of mine.  From this basis, I conclude
that you need a little bit of calcium, Magnesium levels are very tolerable
(I deal with 35% Mg / 64% Ca), and EXCESSIVE potassium (K).  The potassium
levels are likely to be the problem as the ideal balance has that under 5%
of the CEC.  Potassium will need to be drawn down by removal of high K
residues.  Now brings me to a further question, have you used muriate of
potash/ potassium chloride (0-0-60)?  If you have, I'd have great concern
about the Chloride levels of the soil.  Chlorine is destructive to the
biological species within the soil.  In which the case, we may need to
remedy the situation with some tools- they will not involve bringing in
amounts of compost as this will bring in K and prolong the situation.  I am
very certain the excessive K is the problem, Ca may fall in line as K is
lowered, and the soil will come in line with some tools and time.  I may
have an excellent use for this soil, do you have soil tests from any other
growing beds?

The other measure I'll point out is the Ammonia and Nitrate concentrations,
12 and 5.6 ppm, respectively.  Labs vary, but one lab I work with suggests
40 ppm of Ammonia and Nitrate in a soil and will vary some over the season.
Nitrogen could be a problem for you and the Nitrogen is tied up by the
excess carbon in the soil and being used to breakdown the carbon materials.

Could you tell us more on how the soil feels, looks, chemical history of
soil (was it purchased from unknown sources), has it ever grown good
plants, manure use, and have you used any amendments to the soil, please
tell us rates if you want.

Plant sap pH levels would be helpful.  Electrical conductivity of plant
would also be helpful to determine the availability of the K to the plant.

Thanks for sharing the tricky little problem.  Fortunately, I only have to
deal with it on paper, you have to deal with it, and I'll offer my
suggestions.

Ryan Albinger


> [Original Message]
> From: TradingPostPaul <tradingpost@riseup.net>
> To: <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Date: 6/21/2006 12:31:55 PM
> Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Soil test results
>
>
> All I see is no attention whatever to the microbe levels in the soil, as
if
> it didn't exist or didn't matter. And no concern for levels of organic
> matter. With all those numbers it could be bare dirt.
>
> paul, tradingpost@riseup.net
>
> *********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********
>
> On 6/21/2006 at 3:37 PM Greg Bell wrote:
>
> >As a learning exercise, I had the soil tested from my silly little
raised 
> >veggie bed (aobut 4 sq m).  I usually have a green thumb, but have 
> >horrible results in this bed.  Anemic growth, wilting, poor yields, pest 
> >problems, etc.
> >
> >The test was done by the Department of Primary Industries here in New 
> >South Wales, Australia.  It cost $90.
> >
> >I figured I'd post the results and get comments.  Do you see the
problems?
>
> >In a few days, I'll post the department's guide to interpretting the 
> >results.
> >
> >Electrical Conductivity                  dS/m        3.7
> >pH (CaCl2)                               pH          6.0
> >Bray Phosphorus                          mg/kg       310
> >Total Organic Carbon                     %           11
> >KCl extractable Ammonium (NH4-N)         mg/kg       12
> >KCl extractable Nitrate (NO3-N)          mg/kg       5.6
> >Aluminium                                cmol(+)/kg  <0.1
> >Calcium                                  cmol(+)/kg  41
> >Potassium                                cmol(+)/kg  11
> >Magnesium                                cmol(+)/kg  9.2
> >Sodium                                   cmol(+)/kg  1.7
> >CEC                                      cmol(+)/kg  63.0
> >
> >
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