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Key West, FL

gah, so it's not as good as I'd hoped. The soil looks good, nice and light.Here's what I got and what it was last fall before I added 20 yards of manure, 30 big bags of leaves, a bunch of lime and gypsum, I forget how much, I'll have to look it up. In pararenthesis is last falls

OM% 4.8 (up from 4.2)
Nitrogen 12 (11)
Phosphorus weak bray 94 (61)
phos. NaHCO3 81 (57)
Potassium 796 (170)
mag 128 (down from 186)
Calcium 928 (down from 1426?? How the heck did this go down, must have been a bad sample?)
sodium 35 (38)
sulfur 34 (30)
Zinc 3.5 (.7)
manganese 5 (1)
iron 57 (53)
copper 1.2 (.6)
Boron .4 (.2)

Cation saturation percent

potas. 24.7 (4.2)
mag 12.8 (14.8)
calcium 56.2 (68.9)
sodium 1.9 (1.6)

so my ratio of calcium to mag is down some, but its not a bad ratio right?

ECe 0.7 (0.1) I don't think it would have gone up so much if we hadn't had such a dry winter
CEC 8.2 (down from 10.3) this is lame, why did it go down?
pH 6.7 (6.3) atleast this is on

What do you guys think?

4/21/2005 8:32:32 PM

Key West, FL

Heres what I spread last fall, 300 pounds of calcitic lime, 50 pounds of dolomite lime, and 160 pounds of gypsum

4/21/2005 8:38:52 PM

Key West, FL

oh ya, 3600 sq ft patch

4/21/2005 8:39:02 PM

Canada

Ya I just recieved my soil test results back as well.

When I recieved my "fall test" my numbers were low and all over the place. I added in my fall prep:

granular lime stone ( as per instructed)
load of peat moss
load of fresh sheep manure
Load of maple tree leafs
sulphate of potash
jersey green sand.

well 6 months later I take another soil sample and my results were allright.

My Calcium dropped as well, My OM went up from 2.8- 5.1
my mg ppm went down, my k ppm went up my p ppm went up as well.

I just finished tilling in some 5 year old composted manure along with spaghnum peatmoss this afternoon. in an attempt to raise my OM up a tad more and also to help lower my PH "safely" theres a few more additives to be added but dont want to do too much as planting season is come up fast I can always take another sample in the late summer then add to soil as per soil test and better my soil for 2006, but I think for what I have now I may just leave it be.

Dave

4/21/2005 9:00:18 PM

Garden State Pumpkins

Ben not to worry ...dry winter probably raised your salts...OM is low..What have ya been adding?... WHat happened to the calcium is anyone's guess...Bad soil sample? this year or last...might have to foliar feed in if you can't figure it out....Take another sample ...just the 50 lbs of dolomitic should have jumped your mag...and you still went down??? Lime can take a year for effect but you clcium should have gone up with the gypsum too! I would do another test before I went crazy though..Hang in there! GrowEmBig! Chuck

4/21/2005 9:55:42 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

He applied Calcitic Lime which is low Mag & high Cal. The potash jumped unusually high. I'm thinking that one of the samplings (or both) was not taken as a random & complete collection.

4/21/2005 10:08:52 PM

Key West, FL

both were taken from LOTs of locations and mixed in a bucket. I dug probably 15 holes over the 3600 sq ft. The jump in potash is probably from the 3 or 4 inches of manure I spread over the entire patch. I applied both calcitic and dolomite, the calcitic is low but it doesn't eat mag does it?

4/22/2005 2:24:07 AM

Puyallup, WA

Remember....someone sent 25 identical soil samples to 25 different Soil Labs. The variance in readings were "substantial". I also question some of the "variance"
in my Fall vs. Springs readings.

4/28/2005 1:40:22 AM

Menomonie, WI (mail@gr8pumpkin.net)

Like I always say a soil sample is like tasting a pot of soup with a eye dropper.

4/28/2005 9:15:52 AM

Montoursville, PA

The only really good soil knowledge taken from these type of reports are huge changes or way out of line factors, that may raise a red flag. However if one has done nothing, to cause a dramatic change, simply over look the issue.

I think a lot, of us worry, to much about small details that can vary a whole bunch, from test to test, even within the same testing company. I admit it sometimes makes, for interesting chatter and observation.

4/28/2005 10:59:43 AM