permaculture

[Jody Troupe <jodyt2@mac.com>]

On Wednesday, November 15, 2006, Lisa Rollens wrote:

"... the soil test recommendation for one of my hills (in the Ozarks) 
specifically said NO SOFT ROCK PHOSPHATE. "

Hi Lisa- 

I received a response already from my instructor. He did not elaborate since 
I couldn't tell him anything more about your land, what you intend to do with 
it, or how much calcium was on it. But, as I said, he worked with Carey Reams 
for years and is extremely well-versed on the uses of soft rock phosphate. 
Much of the information we receive in the seminars seems to fly in the face 
of commonly held beliefs or recommendations, including those coming from soil 
testing labs, universities, etc. And, this seems to be another case of the 
same. He said "Putting soft rock phosphate on high calcium soils is never 
contrainticated." If you could provide more info about your soil & its uses, 
or why you were told not to use SRP, I will ask him for a more in-depth 
response.

Additionally, he added there are some high calcium soils on the West coast in 
the high desert can have over 10,000 pounds of avilable calcium per acre.  
Carey Reams stated he used to ensure he used 10,000 pounds per sq. acre (of 
calcium) when he was growing hay. The more calcium available for the plants 
to pick-up (proper soil chemistry is needed, not just the presence of the 
calcium), the more calcium and natural mineral sugars you will have in the 
resulting crop - which ultimately gets passed on to whatever animal eats it, 
in this case cows or horses. The more calcium available, the greater their 
health. 'Calcium' is at the core of RBTI and everything that can be done to 
get calcium into the plants (which puts it into a phosphated form - necessary 
for proper absorption by the body), the greater the overall health of animal, 
human - and plant.

If you are interested in more information, I would be happy to ask my 
instructor to elaborate.
Jody