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Old March 12, 2013   #38
dice
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: PNW
Posts: 4,743
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You can get Dolomite pretty reasonably at a big box store:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Lilly-Mil...0#.UT-M99dlBxA

Here is the analysis on it:
http://agr.wa.gov/PestFert/Fertilize...spx?pname=4226

If you want to avoid raising the magnesium and use agricultural lime,
you can usually find similar quantities at other big box stores if HD
does not have it. You can also find it in 5lb bags from Espoma and
other companies.

The wood ash is actually a good idea. It will react with the soil
a lot faster than any kind of actual, mineral lime, and it has some
potassium, which would help the tomatoes. With high N and P,
you probably do not need to add anything else this year (aside
from the sulfur recommendation from the soil test lab). The
difficulty is in knowing how much wood ash to use for any given
square footage of garden. Without knowing that, one needs
to sprinkle some around, amend the soil, water it, and then test
the pH weekly or monthly to see where it stabilizes. If it gets over
7.0, you may need to add more sulfur to adjust it back downard
a little. (This may help: http://www.amazon.com/Luster-Leaf-18...words=ph+meter
Mine reads .1 low across the scale, so it is usable if one keeps that
in mind. I do not know if every one of that model is the same way.
I tested it with pH meter test solutions at pH 4 and pH 7 from a
hydroponics store.)

I would avoid bagged chicken manure for a few years. I do not know
if it is naturally high in zinc or if it is a side effect of adding zinc to
commercial chicken feed. I came across this while looking for zinc
levels in chicken manure from free-range chickens vs commercially
raised chickens: http://www.worldpoultry.net/Breeders...rds-WP001180W/
(It is possible that feed manufacturers are routinely boosting the zinc
in commercial chicken feed.)

The foundation and sidewalk are not a problem. What concrete in
contact with the soil typically does is add calcium that leaches out
of it slowly and raises the pH. At 6.0 and "medium" calcium, those
are not affecting your soil adversely.
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Last edited by dice; March 12, 2013 at 05:17 PM. Reason: typo
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