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nafex - [NAFEX] Mark's soil

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  • From: "Jim Fruth" <jimfruth@charter.net>
  • To: "NAFEX" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] Mark's soil
  • Date: Mon, 20 Jul 2009 07:40:44 -0500

Mark,
Most soil contains buffers and you may have to add more acid to achieve the desired pH. That is why I advise people to wait a year before planting an acid-loving crop. Get the soil to the proper acidity, then plant.
Before I planted my blueberries, I visited the University of Minnesota Blueberry Test Plot. There I learned that plants in too high a soil pH didn't exhibit choruses, rather they took on a purple color. I didn't think to ask how it affected yield.

Our soil is 7.0 pH based on two different soil tests (A&L Labs). Last fall I decided I wanted to plant blueberries. I rented a skid loader and dug out room for two blueberry beds. After removing a significant amount of topsoil and piling it up. I put a generous amount of leaf litter down. Then added some sulfur on the leaf litter. Then added the topsoil back to make a couple of terraces for the blueberry plants. Then added more sulfur and a little urea. In the spring I planted the blueberries. So far they show no signs of iron chlorosis. The funny thing is though, I checked the pH of the soil at the blueberry root zone (about 4 inches down) about a month ago. It measured still measured 7.0. It appears to take awhile for the bacteria to lower the pH and for the sulfur to leach down.


Mark wrote: "Our soil is 7.0 pH based on two different soil tests (A&L Labs). Last fall I decided I wanted to plant blueberries. I rented a skid loader and dug out room for two blueberry beds. After removing a significant amount of topsoil and piling it up. I put a generous amount of leaf litter down. Then added some sulfur on the leaf litter. Then added the topsoil back to make a couple of terraces for the blueberry plants. Then added more sulfur and a little urea. In the spring I planted the blueberries. So far they show no signs of iron chlorosis. The funny thing is though, I checked the pH of the soil at the blueberry root zone (about 4 inches down) about a month ago. It measured still measured 7.0. It appears to take awhile for the bacteria to lower the pH and for the sulfur to leach down."





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