Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

Just one question - what exactly will you be able to do with the
information? How will it be useful?  Then I'll respond further.


paul, tradingpost@riseup.net
---------------

The outstanding scientific discovery of the twentieth century is not
television, or radio, but rather the complexity of the land organism. Only
those who know the most about it can appreciate how little we know about
it. 
   - Aldo Leopold in  Round River, 1933
*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 6/22/2006 at 8:26 PM Greg Bell wrote:

>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
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