Calcium locked up?

[lubadub]

Hello all. I have another question. I did a soil test and tissue test on my garden and as a result found that the calcium level in my soil is quite high but that the calcium levels in my tomatoes is quite low. My pH is 6.7. I have been told that my calcium is locked up and not available to my plants. What can I do to correct this?

[zipcode]

I could be due to too much K or Mg.

[brownrexx]

I was going to say the same thing. Excess nutrients can cause other things to become unavailable to the plants. Do you add fertilizer?

Secondly, how do you know that the calcium is low in your tomatoes? Is there a test and a specification for that?

[PureHarvest]

Lub, not to come across antagonistic, but we need the numbers.
Meaning, what one considers "low" or "high" is relative to other factors you have not included. Like what is your buffer pH, CEC, base saturations?
Would be great if you could scan and post your test results.
Was your tissue test just from one leaf, or did you include leaves from a bunch of plants? Were all the leaves the same age (the most recently matured full compound leaf)?
Basically, sending in only one or 2 leaves will not give a great representation, unless you only have one or 2 plants.

[Worth1]

I read the post and found this in a rather big rush for work this morning.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...enVj1idwFrXrpw

[lubadub]

Plant Analysis
N 6.41% P 0.79% K 4.48%
Mg 0.52% Ca 1.17% S 0.69%
S 0.69% Na 0.07% Fe 83ppm
Mn 42ppm B40 ppm Cu 19 ppm Zn 62 ppm

K high Ca deficient Mn deficient B deficient

Soil Report
Total Exchange Capacity 16.11
pH 6.9
OM 27%
S 35 ppm
P (as P2O5) 931 PPA
Ca 4890 PPA
Mg 543 PPA
Potassium 401 PPA
Na 65 PPA

Boron 1.57 ppm
Fe 334 ppm
Mn 82 ppm
Cu 3.29 ppm
Zn 8.78 ppm

My tissue sample consisted of 4 new tomato leaves from several plants.

Hope this helps.

[lubadub]

Oh, forgot base saturations.
Calcium 75.88
Magnesium 14.04
Potassium 3.19
Sodium 0.88
Other bases 4.50
Exchangeable hydrogen 1.50

[Whwoz]

You may want to do a search for "Mineral antagonism wheel" or chart to get a better understanding of how minerals interact with each other. there are two types of chart, one is circular and shows interactions, both positive and negative, the other is a bar chart which shows mineral availability at different pH's. At the pH you have, Calcium would be locked up due to elevated levels of another mineral rather than pH.

[zipcode]

Soil seems fine at least in terms of macronutrients. Also the leaf analysis seems fine, not sure why you say it's out of range, at least with values one finds online. Nitrogen is probably too high, maybe too much ammonium, which also competes with cations.

Calcium is mostly in leaf, and and much less in fruit, so I don't think this is a big problem as long as you think leaf growth looks good.

[brownrexx]

Your soil calcium is very high but possibly you have a lot of limestone in your area causing this. It will not all be available to plants.

I also noticed that your %OM is 27% which is very high and means that there is lots of material that is not broken down yet. This decomposition process can cause certain nutrients to become unavailable to roots.

Average %OM in my area is 4% but mine is 8-10% and I don't want to go much higher than that.

I checked my soil test report and my Calcium is even higher than yours at 7257 PPA. According to Penn State the optimum range is 5000-5600 PPA so your is not unduly high at 4850

[lubadub]

The reason my OM is so high is that my soil is about 98% silt. It was once more or less a river bottom. There is almost no sand or clay. I added the OM in order to get my cation exchange content up. I may have overdone it and will be cutting back some on my annual addition of compost this year. My homemade compost is very high in carbon and low in nitrogen as it is probably closer to being leaf mold than compost. This fall I will be getting my usual soil tests and will take into account that my calcium level may be a bit on the low side though I thought it was a little high. I am trying to use organic nutrients this year and intend to put most of them on in the fall to give the life in my soil to break them down, work them into the top 2 or 3 inches of soil, put on a thin layer of my compost and then cover the entire area with a tarp to prevent leeching until the spring. In the spring I will loosen the soil with my long fork and put my plants in by way of planting holes. After everything is in and the ground is warmed up a bit I plan to then mulch the area using straw and then I will install my drip watering system. I grow mostly tomatoes and will support my plants using long pieces of rebar, 8 feet with two feet above the ground, with twine stretched from pole to pole and tomato clips and twine to actually support the plants. This is the plan. This winter I will try to get more knowledgeable about soil nutrition and soil life. I need to better understand how the nutrients can interfere with one another if in excess. I have probably been more concerned about the deficiency side of things. During the growing season I will probably put on some additional water soluble organic nutrients in dilute amounts either by way of a drench or by foliar feeding. When the blossoms start to come on my tomato plants I will probably do another tissue analysis just out of curiosity.

[brownrexx]

I was roto tilling compost into my gardens every year and my soil nutrients are now all in the excessive range. I have not added any compost for 2 years and it is slowly coming down.

I mulch with straw which basically adds no nutrients which is what I want. I discussed all of this with the lab director at Penn State a couple of years ago and he recommends adding ONLY nitrogen. I use feather meal to top dress around my plants. bone meal attracts skunks and they have dug up plants with their digging to get the bone meal.

[PaulF]

Originally Posted by brownrexx

I was roto tilling compost into my gardens every year and my soil nutrients are now all in the excessive range. I have not added any compost for 2 years and it is slowly coming down.

I mulch with straw which basically adds no nutrients which is what I want. I discussed all of this with the lab director at Penn State a couple of years ago and he recommends adding ONLY nitrogen.

My garden is much the same so far as organic material is concerned. The soil tests suggest nitrogen only along with a sulphur, so I apply ammonium sulfide one year and straight nitrogen the next. That helps reduce pH from 8.4 to 8.2 down into the 7.8 range and gives the soil some nitrogen.

I think I remember that OM above 12% indicates an excess that is not utilized until it breaks down and in the short term will tie up usable nitrogen. But then my memory has been on the fritz lately. Would this be a true statement?

[brownrexx]

I am not sure of the exact percent of OM but too much definitely ties up the nitrogen. I found this out to my dismay the year I tilled in about 50 bags of shredded leaves. My transplanted pepper plants almost immediately turned yellow and I had to supply them with supplemental liquid fertilizer all season just to keep them green.

[lubadub]

I am hoping that PureHarvest will come back and comment on my response here in this thread. People learn a lot from other peoples comments on what they are thinking and doing. I appreciate advice and criticism as well.