North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Steve <sdw12986@aol.com>]

Ernest Plutko wrote:
> Boric acid is about 16.5% boron and borax is about 11.3% boron.  I
> understand boron deficiency is rare and it is easy to poison plants
> with boron.

So, if most soils have enough boron and it's easy to add too much, 
making the soil toxic, are there areas that naturally have too much 
boron for most plants? Oh, I'm sure that could be the case out west, 
especially in an internal drainage basin situation where there's too 
much of lots of things. What about the eastern half of North America?
It seems impossible to me that there would be a fine line between an 
optimal amount and a toxic amount. If it were a tiny difference, then I 
would expect big areas with a deficiency and/or big areas with too much.

I've often wondered if my yard could be deficient in boron. (Not so 
curious though that I sent in a soil test.) I live in the northeast, in 
an area where the underlying rock is about all granite. I do live along 
the lake shore and not up the side of a mountain.

I remember something about beets needing boron, and I think someone here 
mentioned beets. I never grew them until the last 2 summers. They seemed 
to do fine so can I trust that I have enough boron? The leaves were kind 
of sickly looking but the beets sized up OK and were tasty (for a beet).

Steve ... in the Adirondacks of northern NY