Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Greg Bell <gregbell@znet.com>]

Ok, here's what the soil testing service told me about these values:

-----------
Electrical Conductivity                  dS/m        3.7

This is a measure of salinity, and it should be < 0.15.  Wow, I'm way off. 
I'm hoping the recent rains washed this out.  They said excessive 
fertilizer could be a reason, but my low N levels would seem to 
contraindicate too much fertilizer use.  Of course, the tap/hose water I'm 
using would be the other possible contributor.  I'll water with saved 
rainwater as much as I can, and make sure to water thoroughly with the 
hose when I have to use that.  Any other suggestions?


-----------
pH (CaCl2)                               pH          6.0

They say 5-5.5 is preferred, but this recommendation surprised me a bit 
when neutral is 7.0 and a few quick google searches (and the New Organic 
Grower) say 6-6.5.


-----------
Bray Phosphorus                          mg/kg       310

They say > 50 is good.  Dunno if 310 is too much.


-----------
Total Organic Carbon                     %           11

They say > 2% is good.


-----------
KCl extractable Ammonium (NH4-N)         mg/kg       12
KCl extractable Nitrate (NO3-N)          mg/kg       5.6

These are totaled to get about 18 mg/kg.  They say > 20 is recommended for 
growing veggies.  This is a suprising result given all the compost I used 
in filling the bed.  Not sure what accounts for this low N, especially 
considering that the very-high Phosphorus level probably came from my use 
of Blood and Bone meal (so the high-N blood meal should've given me enough 
N).

As Ryan indicated in a previous email, perhaps the N is being bound up in 
the decomposition of the high Carbon materials...


-----------
Calcium                                  cmol(+)/kg  41

should be > 5

Potassium                                cmol(+)/kg  11

should be > 0.5

Magnesium                                cmol(+)/kg  9.2

should be > 1.6

Sodium                                   cmol(+)/kg  1.7

should be > 1


They say a Calcium/Magnesim ratio should be > 2 otherwise update of 
potassium is hindered.  Mine's about 4.


Thanks for reading this far, and for any comments.  I hope this info was 
interesting or useful to everyone.

~gb