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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Bumps on the hoophouse learning curve

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  • From: "Marlin Burkholder" <glenecofarm AT planetcomm.net>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Bumps on the hoophouse learning curve
  • Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2003 23:45:05 -0800



> I'm posting for a member who couldn't get this message to go through due
to
> excessive formatting, which I asked him to remove. I assume he doesn't
> understand because it didn't go through the second time either

I should have known better than to try to post a table showing soil test
results. I have had past experience trying to put such things into an email
and it usually doesn't work. So I won't try it again. I spent far too much
time on the darn thing last night! I rechecked about a half hour after the
post and got a message off list that the message was being held by the list
moderator for approval because it was a little over the size limit of 20 KB.
My understanding was that she was going to make a decision about allowing it
on post and would either post it or notify me if she didn't. Nothing was
said about a problem with formatting and no one asked me to make any changes
to the post. So I shut the computer off and went to bed.

I was out all day and had no chance to check back until tonight. I notice
that she took out not only the soil test results but also the concluding
paragraph where I had interpreted the test results of both the soil test and
the compost analysis, described action that I was taking, and asked for
comments from the list if I was doing the right things. So I will attempt
to summarize once again (in straight text this time) those results and
restate my questions.

Both the compost and the hoophouse soil that I had amended with it showed
excessive levels of sodium. Also soil Calcium-Magnesium ratios were too
low, about 2 to 1 when they should be more like 7 to 1 expressed as a % base
saturation. Finally, Potassium levels were about 5 times too high, also
expressed as % base saturation. Morgan extract tests on the soil calcium
levels were not too bad at 1720 #/A but the % base saturation analysis on Ca
indicated low availability. My soils consultant suggested that I apply
aragonite to up the Calcium levels and that this would help to drive down
the Sodium and Potassium levels and improve the Ca- Mg ratio. He also said
that too much K might cause the retarded plant growth. I responded by
applying several lbs of aragonite to the hoophouse beds (about 300 square
feet) and watered it down good. I'm fairly optimistic that a couple of
heavy waterings plus giving it a little time will allow things to stabilize.
I plan to plant tomatoes in there this week so I'm not all that worried
about the high K. Does this sound on target?

Last year I backed out of buying a truckload of composted poultry litter
because an analysis showed high Na levels. This was a smaller load and came
from a different farm with a similar type of commercial poultry operation.
Apparently the companies are putting a lot of salt in the feed rations. The
rest of this load will go on an asparagus patch where the salt content
should not be an issue.

Marlin Burkholder
Virginia





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