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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Gooseberry help

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  • From: Douglas Woodard <dwoodard@becon.org>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Gooseberry help
  • Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2008 03:25:39 -0400

Helene, I wonder if your old beaver dam material is in effect "ramial chipped wood" that didn't have to be chipped, plus silt. I expect that this material might contain a certain amount of boron as well as other things.

Be careful with boron, plants need only small amounts and too much is toxic. It's easy to get too much. Plants vary in their requirement for boron. I seem to remember that alfalfa is especially greedy for it.

Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario


Hélène Dessureault wrote:
Donna, can you tell us more about the boron effect on beet?
I did have problems with poor beet performance along with slow fruits trees development. I tried manures, different mulches, a local source of dolomite with a generous content in magnesium which helped without spectacular improvements. Lately, I found a new source of amendement to our sandy acidic hillside soil that seemed to have noticiably improved both beets and fruit trees, and began to suspect a common denominator without knowing that it might be related to boron....
We have a major stream on our property, often occupied by beavers. They have diverted its course recently revealing an ancient beaver dam along one side which must have served at one time to block another tributary which is now just a trickle but must have been more significant at some point. This ancient beaver dam is made of amazingly rich soil, a heavy combination of clay and rotted wood, very black and practically greasy at times, and we have been dismantling it and using this soil progressively as a fertilizer, with great results. Since, we have noticed that the leaves are darker and healthier on the fruit trees AND the beet were much larger, tender and sweet last Fall, not to mention general improvement in the quality and water retention to the soil.
Where is boron generally found? Do you think that this soil could contain boron?
Hélène




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