From

Location

Message

Date Posted

Taber, Alberta

One last soil test question. I had my home patch tested last week and just got the results and the numbers shocked me. Prior to this, phospherous, potassium and sulfur were shown as greater or less than 60, 600, or 20 respectively. This time, I paid the extra few bucks for the test with the exact results. This is what it shows in PPM
N 20
P 493
K 1800
S 28
Ph 7.9
EC 1.07
OM 4.8
I only got the cheapo test. Last year's micronutrients were
Ca 5670
MG 689
FE 19.9
Cu 2.16
Zn 8.73
B 1.4
Mn 10.3
Cl 33.2
My farm test results are not too far off of these.

I phoned the lab and spoke to the head soil test guy. He told me I have a 15-20 year supply of phosherous and potassium and if I add any more manure or compost, these numbers might turn my soil toxic. I asked about lowering my ph, and he told me that the high ph is locking up some of my nutrients, and that is probably a good thing because of the excessively high numbers. I was told to only do two things.
1. Add urea to bring the nitrogen up
2. Add chopped wheat straw to add OM and texture to the soil.

He said I could do blood meal instead of the urea, if I wanted to stay away from chemicals.
Any thoughts on his recommendations?
Thank you
Alan

9/19/2005 5:39:08 PM

Mill Bay, British Columbia

Alan, I had a similar recommendation from my lab that also indicated that my 30% organic matter and high PH was locking up nutrients. I never thought that you could have too much OM, but if it locks goodies up, I guess so!

I was told to take 1 year off adding any manure/organic matter and to let the organic matter settle somewhat to release the nutrients in future years.

Planting a cover crop of Rye and then testing again is all was suggested to me.

Last year, I added blood meal instead of urea as I was afraid to overdo the urea.

9/19/2005 7:36:40 PM

Phoenix, AZ

From my lab, the doc there told me to keep at least a 20:1 ratio of P:Zn or else you will have Zn deficiency. You may also have Mg or Ca deficiencies from too much K. Hope that is not the case, but something to look into. Thankfully, K can be rid of by excess watering.

9/19/2005 11:43:52 PM

Puyallup, WA

I also had very high "K" readings ....probably from adding so much chicken manure. Your readings will drop in 12 months.....if you cut back on additional manures.

9/24/2005 8:22:50 PM