Advancing Eco Agriculture, Product Science

[Dab Strudel]

Not worded the best. I mighta been high.

I use a Dramm Foggit nozzle...that is the spray part. All alone it works fine, but add in front of it a kind of venturi deal to speed the liquid up and it is even better. I fill a container, chuck a pump (just an electric from harbor freight) in there, attach the nozzle to a 75 ft hose and I can cover most of my gardens. I would recommend Teflon tape unless you wanna get wet.

Sooo Hose>Educator>Dramm=Fog? Just saw some videos about the dramm nozzles on the Tube. Pretty sweet. Does it change the application rates? I assume not, but what is the point if you keep the application rates the same? just to provide an easy going dropplet to the leaves vs a big old water dropplet that rolls off? Sorry I ask so many controling questions, Its hard to assume and/or see what happens :/

 

[milkyjoe]

You are fine with just the Dramm. Just a hair finer spray with the venturi

It does not change the application rate. That is the good thing about AEA. You can use whatever amount of water you want for foliar all you got to do is measure the sq ft. So if I use 4 gallons to water an area and you use 2 or 6 or whatever it does not matter...it is the amount of product delivered not the amount of water that matters.

They do not recommend wetting the leaves to the point of runoff. Just a nice light, even spray

No doubt there are tons of ways to do as effective or more than mine. Just the way I do it. I like to play around with new toys but the main thing is get the product on the leaf

 

[xmobotx]

i'm noticing various flow rates w/ those dramm nozzles. i like the 1/2 gallon nozzle on my chapin ~i bet the 1/2 gallon dramm is a good choice as well?

 

[slownickel]

If the plants are losing energy, try some phosphorus...

 

[Lightweight]

http://bionutrient.org/library/soil-nutrition-conference-archive If you go here and find the be your own soil balancing consultant it is a good listen. This guy was trained by Neal Kinsey who was trained by Albrecht. He gives up some nuances that Solomon does not.

On the spectrum, micro 5000, pepzyme thing those rates will be fine for the entire GH.

But on the a and b stuff those are for 1000 sq ft. So 3 ounces becomes 36 ml for the GH and 2 ounces becomes 24 ml.

You may need some extra photomag, so it is 3/4 of an ounce per 1000 or 9 ml per 400 sq ft every other week or so. Try not to let them get to the point of a Mg deficiency. When that happens the sap was short about 2 weeks before that.

There is plenty of Sea Shield in a, b and Accelerate. If you want to occasionally, like once a month, really bump the microbiology you could use 9 ml of Sea Shield and Rejuvenate along with 4.5 ml of Sea Crop and say 20 grams of either myco or biogenesis. They are the same bacteria, myco just has the added fungi.

When the lab gets back to you I will take a look at the native soil

edit...and between grows you can add 6 oz/1000 Rejuvenate, 3 oz Sea Shield and a tsp or so Myco or Biogenesis. You will have a lot of roots and stuff to digest and this will move that right along

Thanks for all the helpful info MJ!

 

[slownickel]

Foster seems stuck on Albrecht's numbers, which even Albrecht at the end of his career changed from a target of 68% Ca to 85% Ca in the base distribution. I guess Kinsey and Foster never read all of Albrecht.

 

[FoothillFarming]

I am running my soil Ca levels at around 72% and plants are loving it.

 

[slownickel]

Sure is better than 68%. Try a plant or two pushing that number!

 

[FoothillFarming]

Actually, now that you mention it, I did have one plant I added an extra 2000g of oyster shells per yard. I am sure that Ca level is at least 5% higher. Plant looks great.

Edit: can you show any studies/books/papers where Albrect goes to the 80% Ca levels?

 

[slownickel]

Albrecht 85% article

Albrecht 85% article

Of course! If you have the Albrecht papers, you can grab the whole articles.... Here are the quotes from two different Albrecht articles.

Nice grow by the way. You running high P?

 

[slownickel]

Foster calculations

Foster calculations

Foster is completely wrong about the iron/manganese ratio. I think he got this from Astera.....

 

[FoothillFarming]

Crazy, 170 pages and nobody mentions Albrect changed his mind to 85% calcium.......Glad you decided to chime in, instead of the same old talking heads in this thread. Gave me a whole new avenue to research, thanks.

My P was slightly high at the start of the year. I have been adding zero P other than what's in Sea Shield, Rej, Stim ext, but not using PHT's. That is when I started to notice signs of deficiency, so I topped dressed with Bio Live, and the plants perked right up.

 

[slownickel]

I don't think most folks here are working agronomists farming for more than 35 years... LMAO

If one is going to push to high K which seems to be the standard quo here, you better have enough Ca and P to tolerate it.

I have been following Kempf a bit. He is right on regarding some things, others he is guessing at it would seem.

 

[FoothillFarming]

I don't think most folks here are working agronomists farming for more than 35 years... LMAO

If one is going to push to high K which seems to be the standard quo here, you better have enough Ca and P to tolerate it.

I have been following Kempf a bit. He is right on regarding some things, others he is guessing at it would seem.

Nope, just wanna be agronomists kind of farming for like 5 years, lol.(not me, been farming for 20+ years) We need you along for the ride in this thread, straiten out some of the nonsense.

When I dive into a system, nutrient line, philosophy, I normally try it 100%. That way, nobody can say the reason your results were not satisfactory, is because you omitted this or that. For the last 3 years, I have been reading/following everything Kempf. While his mind is light years beyond mine, I have personally noticed several areas which are less than accurate. However, the difference between Kempf and lets say, Jorge Cervantes is astronomical.

My K% at the start of the year was around 5.8%. I imagine that has dropped at least 1% point.

 

[slownickel]

You are in those monster bags in pure medium correct? I wonder how these distributions need to be tweeked for so much air space. Realize that in Italy, the best grapes are considered to be in areas with more than 90% Ca.... in the Dolomitic mountains. That is a qualitative point for their grapes and is the reason that they can get brix and soluble solids so high.

I try to get my K between 6 and 8 % in a porous soil (my farms)...

https://1drv.ms/f/s!As21OnsnOYwQaDH7grzOZYQiuWQ

 

[FoothillFarming]

6-8% K. You just said a dirty word in this thread.

Yes, I am growing in 400-1000 gallon smart pots with 50% peat, 25% compost, 25% aeration. Then tested, and amended.

Amazing farm. Looks like lots of hard work went into that beast.

 

[slownickel]

Percentages

Percentages

You can't run potassium low in a porous soil. Low yields. You can't run potassium this high without high Ca and high P.

Have you read any of Carey Reams? He is a bit difficult to digest but his message was real clear regarding Calcium. The other worth reading is Tiedjens, "More Food from Soil Science". Now that is a book like no other and makes the rest of these authors look like first graders. He by the way pushed 85% Ca..... You can download the book for free from the Soil and Health library run by Solomon.... (who kindly mentioned me in his latest book)

Astera gave me credit for this idea of 85% Calcium in his first book prior to me finding Tiedjens writings and realizing that I was not the first (then I discovered Albrecht came to the same conclusions later in his life). Then after I got a bit expressive regarding his best guesses (which are a bit daffy) he wrote a new book and took me out... LMAO.

 

[FoothillFarming]

Porous soil.....Is that lava fields? Or would my soil be considered porous as well? Would CEC reflect the porousness of the soil?

I imagine the definition of porous soil would fit my soil, yet it has a high cec. I have no sand, but I do have 25% lava.

I have not read either of those books, I got a wish list going on Amazon, and those are added to it. Thanks for the heads up.

Also, should we know who you are? You seem to know and interact with the top minds in the field.

 

[slownickel]

The reason that everyone went to medium I believe is that folks farming in soil typically over water and in soil, it is difficult to go over conductivity of 1.5 or so without major damage. Your high CEC is due to the amount of organic material I imagine you have mixed in.

The Soil and Health page is free. You can download the Tiedjens book for nothing. The writings of Carey Reams in agriculture are all over the place in bits and pieces. The book written by Beddoe about Reams is pretty good but super expensive. The valuable message in Reams is that everyone applies way too much magnesium and that if there is a Mg deficiency it is likely due to excess K or lack of P. Reams is where Astera lifted the idea of running elemental P equal to elemental K (vs P2O5 and K20).

As for who I am, my name is Michael K.

And yes, that farm is a beast. High density limes and avocado. Nearly 300 acres... exported 140 containers of sweet potatoes to the UK in 2013/14 season prior to planting out my trees. And yes, those are avocado trees carrying fruit at less than 2 years of age.... very porous soils of sandy loam, CEC of 18.

My interest in MJ came from searching for meds for my deceased wife who passed away from Scleraderma several years back and was in terrible pain that even Morphine had problems handling. Recently I have been coaching from here in Peru a small medicinal grower in Oregon, who is also in these big bags.

 

[FoothillFarming]

I hope you stick around, you seem to be a well of knowledge.

Sorry to hear about your wife, I hope the cannabis helped a little to ease her suffering. I always thought one of the best things about cannabis was it contains no toxic materials. You can take the same dosage of morphine, and smoke a joint and you wont be in danger of an overdose. As many of us know, pot will enhance the effects of the opiate, without upping toxic levels of meds in our bodies. One of the most overlooked aspects of medical cannabis. One of the best end of life treatments available.

I miss my avocado trees. I don't think they grow well were I am at due to frost.