Tomatoville® Gardening Forums


Notices

A garden is only as good as the ground that it's planted in. Discussion forum for the many ways to improve the soil where we plant our gardens.

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old April 3, 2009   #1
daylilydude
Tomatovillian™
 
daylilydude's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Iuka, Mississippi Zone 7b
Posts: 482
Default My soil sample results

Ok all, I sent a soil sample out of that topsoil that i had bought for my raised beds to the MSU Extension Service and i just recieved the results back and they are as follows:

Soil PH is 8.1
Phosphorus level is 167 lbs/acre (VERY HIGH)
Potassium level is 355 lbs./acre (HIGH)
Magnesium level is 732lbs./ acre (VERY HIGH)
Zinc level is 57.2 lbs./ acre (VERY HIGH)
Calcium level is 7150 lbs./acre
Total Soluble Salts is 0.5 (MEDIUM)
Organic Material is (Adequate)
Their suggestion is to apply a sidedress of Nitrogen (34-0-0) 4 to 6 weeks after planting, apply in a band 4 to 6 inches from the base of the plants.
__________________
Richard
daylilydude is offline   Reply With Quote
Old April 3, 2009   #2
dice
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: PNW
Posts: 4,743
Default

pH seems rather high. I would wonder how much of that
phosphorus is actually water-soluble at that pH (probably
lots of insoluble calcium phosphates in it). Adding sulfur
would bring it down in the short term. One longer term fix
might be to plow or till in red lava rock. (I remember
alanstrangefruit reporting a couple of years ago that doing
that had dropped the pH in his fields the next year by a point
or two.)

A good article on calcium and magnesium management
in soils:

http://www.soilfirst.com/tnm_12_1997.htm
__________________
--
alias
dice is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 07:09 AM.


★ Tomatoville® is a registered trademark of Commerce Holdings, LLC ★ All Content ©2022 Commerce Holdings, LLC ★