North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

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Del,
    There's an A&L labs in Memphis that does CEC soil testing.  Actually I
think A&L has several labs listed on the Net.   I was quite impressed by the
one test we had done, the results plus Kinsey's book helped understand why
we had yellow stripes in our corn every year, which didn't respond to
magnesium.  When summer came again and the yellow stripes appeared, our pH
was 6.4, our organic matter was 3.4%, and it was raining like hell. High pH,
high organic matter and high moisture add up to a prescription for manganese
deficiency.  I couldn't do much about the rain or organic matter, and the
coop didn't stock manganese.  So I threw some sulfur around to reduce the
pH, and the corn greened right up.  Other problems we might have suspected,
like low boron, and high magnesium, were confirmed by the test.  I thought
it was great value for money, especially when I looked at the tests our
friend had paid the county $100 for.  They were really useless, no way could
I figure out how much lime or what kind was needed, or whether there was
sufficient NKP, much less trace elements.  As you read, Neal Kinsey says
that some counties just use a formula to recommend fertilazer and lime, and
don't actually read the test.  Like the guy who got soil tests and was told
to lime, then got them again the next year and was told to lime again, and
screwed up his pH, because they had a blanket recommendation to lime.  Let
us all know A&L's web address if you find it.     Donna H






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