From

Location

Message

Date Posted

NW Ohio

I got the results of my soil test today as many recommended to be my first step in this new adventure. Here are the results, and what the company recommended I do with my 400-500 sqft patch
organic matter 3.5%
Phosphorous 76 ppm - very high
potassium 173 ppm - medium
magnesium 320 ppm medium
calcium 4050 ppm - Very High
zinc 4.1 ppm - medium
manganese 43 ppm - High
iron 48 ppm - High
copper 2.6ppm - High
boron .9 ppm - Medium
ph 8.0
cec 23.4 meq/100g
% K 1.9
% MG 11.4
% Ca 86.7

Their recommendations were to put on 3.25lbs of 0-0-40, 1.5 lbs of 18-46-0, and 1/4 lb of zinc. They said 5lbs of sulfur to bring down the ph, and 2.5 lbs of nitrogen in the spring 46-0-0.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated. thanks

10/2/2013 12:58:04 PM

Stanwood, Washington

Download the langley Soil estimator from the team pumpkin site. You will need Excel 2007 or newer for it to work properly.

http://team-pumpkin.org/

This is a sriously awesome tool.

You enter all of your info from the soil test and the size of your patch. Then it gives you pull down options for every type of ammendment you can think of. You pick the ammendments you want and the amount you will add. The spread sheet will then automatically adjust your data to show what the results will be in your patch from the added ammendment. It also has columns which show the nutrient ratios in your patch compared to the ideal ratios which allows you to try and fine tune things to get it as close as possible to the ideal. Its pretty fun to play around with.

10/2/2013 5:08:58 PM

Cummington, MA

This is great, thanks for posting!

10/4/2013 2:27:07 PM

Lodi, California

your Ca to Mg base sat ratio is about perfect. Baised on your CEC and Ca to Mg ratio, i'm guessing you have a clay loam soil. If i where you I would focus on raising Zn,B,K,P,Fe and Cu. This could be countered by ironite applied at the reccomend rate along with some borax for boron.you also need to lower your ph. As said above, you can do this with sulphur. To top it off, I would plant a cover crop of winter rye to raise your OM.

10/20/2013 1:32:43 AM

Montrose, Colorado

This is the Ideal Soil Ratio that I shoot for based on Albrecht etc.

Calcium 68%
Magnesium 12%
Potassium 4%
Sodium 2%
Other bases 4% (Iron, Manganese, Copper, Zinc, etc)
Free Hydrogen H+ 10%

Based on your Cation Exchange this is where you are at:

Calcium: 86.5%
Magnesium: 11.4%
Potassium: 1.9%
Sodium: ?

We know this from your soil test but the problem here is that we are too high on Calcium
and everything is pretty close to correct. (As far as major Cations) That is why they are suggesting the Sulfur.

From Michael Astera's The Ideal Soil:

"What adding Sulfur or sulfates does is induce the sulfur to chemically bond with whatever other cation is in excess. For instance, if one adds Epsom salts, Magnesium sulfate, to a soil that is high in Calcium but low in Magnesium, the Sulfur in the Epsom salts will tend to attach to the Calcium, pulling the excess Calcium from the exchange site and leaving an atom of Magnesium. The result is free Calcium sulfate (gypsum) in the soil/water solution. Gypsum is highly water-soluble and mobile; rain and irrigation water will tend to leach it downwards out of the root zone. Calcium, incidentally, always ends up leaching out of topsoil into subsoil."

We want to reduce the Calcium
Leave Magnesium about the same.
Potassium we want to double or add about 350lbs per acre
Phosphorous we want to equal in weight to potassium and add 550lbs per acre

This is why I don't understand the report you have.

They say that Phosphorous is very high but P should equal K by weight. So to me, P is very low.

Some labs report P as actual Phosphorus, some report it as phosphate. Same thing with Potassium and potash.

Do you know which way your lab reports the information? Or can you tell me who the lab is?

Do you know how much sulfur or Sodium is in your soil... was that on the test somewhere?

I would love to help further and also assist with making some calculations on exactly which organic amende

11/30/2013 12:39:11 AM