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Soil, water, and tea questions

h.h.

Active member
Veteran
1. Do Not Use Mehlich 3-Al To Evaluate Potential Al Toxicity. It is only used to convert Mehlich 3-P into Morgan-P
2. When the soil pH is below 5.0, soluble Al is almost certainly a problem.
3. When the soil pH is between 5.0 and 5.5, soluble Al likely a small problem
4. When the soil pH is between 5.5 and 6.0, soluble Al is not likely to be a significant problem
5. When the soil pH is above 6.0, soluble Al is almost certainly not a problem.
1. Lime is the solution to excess soluble Al in the topsoil
2. Gypsum may be needed to correct excess soluble Al in the subsoil
http://www.spectrumanalytic.com/support/library/ff/Soil_Aluminum_and_test_interpretation.htm

Goose came out a bit tough. I put it in the pressure cooker with a little stock and it came out perfect.
 
M

moose eater

Zeolite is used in filtering radiation fwiw


Cool! World keeps spinning in the direction it is, that'll probably be more useful to know than any of us wants to consider. :)

Sounds like as an 'absorber' (mineral/nute/liquid stash house) it doesn't discriminate. Good to know.

Thanks.
 
M

moose eater

https://www.spectrumanalytic.com/support/library/ff/Soil_Aluminum_and_test_interpretation.htm

Goose came out a bit tough. I put it in the pressure cooker with a little stock and it came out perfect.

Pressure cookers are a magic tool that enables humans to take otherwise minimally edible, tough, or extensive cooking time items, place them under heated pressure for very limited time, and turn them into delicacies.

A former friend did a lot of time in a canoe off the Yukon River, near Beaver Creek, collecting plant and flower specimens in an old-school plant press for the University of Alaska one summer, 30-some years back. They carried a lot of dried beans and similar staples. Night time at camp fire they'd use a smaller 1-gallon pressure cooker I now have in my possession (British made, branded as Skyline or something), designed to be placed directly on coals/embers in/from a fire, and cook automatically at ~15 psi. MAGIC!!

I've done a wild duck in that one, as well as limited jars of snowshoe hares.

Does beans and rice in less time than you can roll a joint, drink a beer, and tell the stories from the day. Or so it seems, after all of those activities..

The fellow he toured the rivers with, who insisted on the beans and rice menu, was, not too surprisingly, nicknamed 'Bean Man.' He was found dead a year or 2 later in an inverted kayak in the Klutina River, shredded enough they couldn't tell if the rocks had done it white-watering inverted, or a bear had gotten ahold of him, either pre or post mortem.

Anyway........................

I used to run ph at about 6.7 to 7, years ago trying to be right at 7. Lately, after a bit of reading, I've been keeping it between 6 and 6.4..

So, per the info here, it appears my ph will protect me.

Do those numbers also mean that the amount of aluminum that plants DO use are prevented by the ranges we're dealing with, or is it a non-issue?

Having had some non-related revelations, drank a beer, and a half-shot of some (new to me) fine Canadian whiskey, suddenly I've found my zone for my brain functioning well enough to try and integrate something without extensive effort.

QUICK, tell me more!!! This whole experience could end at any moment!! :biggrin:

But more seriously, thanks.

I -thought- I saw where Slownickel had commented on zeolite (after time? amounts?) causing harm to production. I need to read more there as well.

I'm off to cook dinner for my family, then get back to reading the links, etc.

Thanks again.
 

h.h.

Active member
Veteran
To CEC or not to CEC, that is the question.

I think it's a matter of style. If you discount the value of root exudes, you'll want a low CEC that you can control. Placing faith in the exudes, you'll want a high CEC that's dependent on the plant.
The debate is between chemistry and biology, when it's really just physics. It's how we choose to apply the laws of science. It's all the same shit.
Pick a plan and stick with it. We're all headed to Rome.
For me, I find a higher CEC a bit more forgiving. Whatever I do right or do wrong, I do better with a higher CEC. It supports the whole soil community and not just the plant. It is much less dependent on me.
 

h.h.

Active member
Veteran
Here's a good explanation.
https://www.agvise.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/AGVISE-CEC-and-Cation-Ratios.pdf

While we in a sense want potassium replacing nitrogen at the end of the cycle, it's the available nitrogen that interferes with the process of flowering. We don't have to deplete the nitrogen to emphasis the K, we only have to have enough K. The plant will balance itself, if we don't try to force feed it. Our job is only to collaborate, not to control.
 
M

moose eater

Here's a good explanation.
https://www.agvise.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/AGVISE-CEC-and-Cation-Ratios.pdf

While we in a sense want potassium replacing nitrogen at the end of the cycle, it's the available nitrogen that interferes with the process of flowering. We don't have to deplete the nitrogen to emphasis the K, we only have to have enough K. The plant will balance itself, if we don't try to force feed it. Our job is only to collaborate, not to control.

I've admittedly been an intermittent impatient controller.

My older organic soil recipes had very little N, sometimes slightly more than nil. Lately I've been upping the N per canned and available recipes from others.

While this initially caused some concerns for the GTH#1, and later conundrums for the Widow Bomb, as well as likely related to reduced production for the SLH, the GTH#1, paused in some limited ways for a bit, then ended up being quite impressive, despite her apparent challenges in over-coming the issue.

I need plants more resilient and better suited to abuse than I am. :)

And Slownickel pointed out that if I was experiencing what certainly appeared to be N and Mag deficiencies half-way or so through bloom, I either was too stout in K or needed more P.

These are some of the things that I 1.) assume are accurate, and 2.) need to retain in my brain, or on notes, as I also need to retain the things posted above and before..

I still don't have a sufficient grasp of CEC.

I once had a razor-sharp memory; so much so it frightened some.. and should have.. But after many years of hoping some memories would depart expeditiously, it is not -those- that leave me. It's the names I knew, faces, the directions or processes I've utilized 100 times, and other things that I would have rather clung to a bit better.

I need therefore to do better note-taking, preferably in a nice composition book where I can employ dates, processes beyond what I currently write down, fert methods and dates, M-O-R-E.. Which, again, means serious self-discipline..

My days of praying for a loss of memory are coming to an end; the reality dwarfs and distorts the romantic imagery. More cost than I was really willing to pay where the rubber hits the concrete. :)
 

h.h.

Active member
Veteran
I wanted to go to the beach, so I drove down there and found that all the parking spots were full. It looked like a Fiat convention. Tiny Fiats in all the spaces. The first Fiat I came across, I rammed with my truck sending it spinning over the cliff into the sea. I had my parking spot.
When the Fiat had first parked, the driver had a positive attitude. Parked close to the beach, good waves, pretty girls... I came along. I was doubly positive i'd get a good spot.
Cation exchange capacity. A measurement of ability to attract and hold positive charges. A strong magnet will attract a weak one until another strong magnet pushes the weak one aside.
Piss poor metaphors, I know. It's a bit of an abstract idea where you have to close your eyes and put names and faces to everything. It takes a vision.
"Close your eyes, it's about to begin".
Coco with low CEC takes a constant supply of nutes. It isn't sticky. Clay is sticky and holds a lot of nutes. you add clay to your coco to up the CEC. Zeolite will stick to my tongue. Tape will stick to paper. Chemical bondage. It's all the same thing.
The pros and cons of having a large pantry.
Eat a hot pepper. That'll learn ya about CEC. Drink some milk and the calcium will displace the capsaicin.
I'm betting that you're actually an expert on the subject. You just know it as something else.
 
M

moose eater

I'm flattered by your faith in my ability or knowledge. Remember the story by Lao Tzu; learning the numeral 1?

So I'm assuming that peat is closer to coco than it is to clay, in re. to storing nutes? And calcium buffers the nutes, but by reducing the dolomite, I change the mag to ca ratio to something more attractive top the plant we're discussing.

I gave up using vermiculite in my original recipe years ago, other than for mushroom mixes or sometimes cuttings, in which cases I'm cautious to use NEW bags of fresh vermiculite.

I may not have even included vermiculite in my re-writing of the original recipe previously here. Way back when, I ended up substituting the perlite across the board, when in actuality it was originally 3/4 vermiculite and 1/4 perlite.

So -there's- a change from way-back-when, that may have affected the outcomes??

Concerns with reports of asbestos from specific vermiculite sources (N. Montana/Libby area), totes getting moist from humidity while in storage, and not releasing that moisture as easily as they took it in, and that potentially leading to unwanted things growing in it, all contributed to my going to a perlite only mix, absent vermiculite.

I'd also then assume that absorbent heavier solids such as worm castings have some potential for this retention of nutes too, beyond those -in- the ewc?

I got it earlier when you said that zeolite (in my words) "acts as a stash house for nutes." What goes where, when, why and how is not totally in my grasp.

The more I learn, what little that is, the less I know..

So after the 'base' is down and dialed in for 'storage capacity,' and the ratio of calcium to mg is set, then the rest is simply proper proportion for the remainder of primary, secondary, and micro-nutes, so the plant is getting what it prefers, in the proper order, yes??

Meanwhile, back at the ranch... The recent modified version of Dank Frank's water-only organic mix has the mothers currently at a nice color of green. Not overwhelmingly dark, though Goji is looking darker than the others; fitting, as it's my understanding she doesn't care for too much chow.

One way or another, if I continue trying, I may become a better gardener.. Or look a bit foolish trying to get back to where things were great.

Having things great is good, but knowing WHY they're great can help to getting it back should it all ever falter. Now I'm trying to learn WHY they were great.. A backward tour of sorts.

So much for an understanding of proportionality of N-P-K and such being -the- ticket. :)
 

h.h.

Active member
Veteran
I'll have to look up "learning the number 1". I think maybe I can summarize as possibly the first computer code. Everything we know is based on the number 1. If you know 1 thing, you know it all. Fact, fiction, everything. It becomes a matter of deleting the fiction so only facts remain.
We're taught to learn backwards. We're trained to retain everything, thus we live in realities long removed. "Days of futures past."

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h.h.

Active member
Veteran
This is the yucca tea I used to make when it was available. Then a picture of the current worm beds.
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h.h.

Active member
Veteran
Cal/ mag ratio. Forget it. That was an old book. Problems arise from too much or too little. While I could form a ratio, they are only related through the soil. Individual ratios of cal/soil and mag/soil.
picture.php
 
M

moose eater

Moody Blues. Live there. :)

So was diversification of the ca source, by reducing the dolomite from what I previously applied, and going to less dolomite, adding oyster shell and gypsum, thereby reducing mag, going to move closer to a better level of each? Guess-work? 85%:15%?

When I was using primarily just guano teas (High N or High P, depending) with Kelp Meal extract, (other than for transplanting from veg to bloom soil with Dyna-Gro Bloom for micro-nutes), I was using close to ~1-3/4 cups of good neutral ph dolomite per most of a cabinet's pots; perhaps 15+ out of 16 classic 600s back then, or most of 9 classic 1200's.

Again, the amendments change over time and are not reliable as much as hoped. Tested them and seen it up close.

The easiest answer without learning much would be to know what variable(s), exactly, changed to cause the unwanted changes back then. Not likely to happen.

The yucca tea looks dark. I'd need to page back and see what you added. Oxidization? Molasses? Time?

Several pics won't open for me; the 56k and archaic phone lines strike again.. and again.. and....

I considered one minor challenging effect of adding the zeolite; the weights of pots change (I would assume dramatically) in terms of detecting a need for H2O. I don't use moisture meters, but I typically combine a sense of weight of the pot when needing watered, once established, as well as the traditional method of sticking my left index finger (as the numbness in the right index no longer allows me to use it to detect moisture well); when I feel no moisture, in classic 600s, it's watering time (+/-). With the Classic 1200's, it usually within a day or so of watering.

I use just over a quart of water for the classic 1200s at watering time, and get a fair bit but not a lot of run-off.

Your comment a while back about going with what I know and only changing it a little bit at a time makes sense, but in frustration, or groping, major changes can be attractive, and trying something that has worked for others gets a chance. After all, the organic efforts began as someone else's mix years ago.

I wish I'd taken the time and expense to have tested the older H2O source that was working so well. "We never really know what we've got 'til it's gone.." I wish Santa was real, but knew less.

Lao Tzu's story of the pupil and the numeral 1 had to do with a student in a village, whose classmates excelled and passed him up as he was still stuck trying to master writing and understanding the number 1. His instructor met with the parents, and over time they became embarrassed, banishing him from the village, sending him into the mountains. Some time later he re-entered the village, approached the wall in the center of town, drew the numeral 1 on the wall, and the wall fell in two pieces..
 

slownickel

Active member
ICMag Donor
Veteran
https://www.spectrumanalytic.com/support/library/ff/Soil_Aluminum_and_test_interpretation.htm

Goose came out a bit tough. I put it in the pressure cooker with a little stock and it came out perfect.

Those things written by Spectrum are right on and yet in many cases, dead wrong.

The reason is simple, they are looking at soils, not mediums.

As well, using the PGA procedure for Ca using [email protected] reveals to us all something very interesting. Nearly all that K, Mg and Na is the same as reported by M3! The only thing that changes is the Ca values.

As for metals, Spectrum prescribes to the aluminum being toxic at low pH's. Trust me when I tell you that it is not true. I have hundreds if not thousands of soil and leaf samples that can prove it.

Everything is relative to where you are standing. The guys at Spectrum are real scientists, but just practicing what they learned. Where they are in Ohio, is Ohio. The guys at Spectrum (Bill) started making gypsum applications on blueberries against what the soil analysis was telling them, the results were excellent!

No one is the owner of the truth. What works is what proves its self to work, provided there is a valid testing of concept. That is the most important issue.

Unfortunately, agriculture nutritional balancing is in its' infancy. There is so much more work to do.

Great conversations in this thread!
 
M

moose eater

Thank you, Slownickel.

A part of my disadvantage is that when I was in school, I didn't trust myself to excel at biology or science, and preferred to smoke dope or eat acid in the morning in the back parking lot, instead pursuing mostly those classes where I knew I could get aces without applying myself.

Debts paid later on accrue interest sometimes. :)

Lots of links to peruse, and an almost certain pre-conclusion that at least initially, I'll be more confused (at least temporarily) than when I began.

Like the boot cap of gardening; breaking down all that the person was before entering, in order to build the desired (??) person exiting. :)

It's a timely moment for the markets to be screwed up. That way the tax on this process is minimal. Buy low, sell high. :)
 
M

moose eater

Here's a good explanation.
https://www.agvise.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/AGVISE-CEC-and-Cation-Ratios.pdf

While we in a sense want potassium replacing nitrogen at the end of the cycle, it's the available nitrogen that interferes with the process of flowering. We don't have to deplete the nitrogen to emphasis the K, we only have to have enough K. The plant will balance itself, if we don't try to force feed it. Our job is only to collaborate, not to control.

I DID do fairly well with English. :biggrin:

This particular doc makes sense to me already, though if I'm correct, the better storage capacity a soil has, the greater amount of K, etc. required to achieve the desired levels of available nutes to the plant.

Something that requires a bit of digestion, despite its apparent straight-forward nature..

Now for reviewing other docs/pages.

I burned out elsewhere here in other threads, and will need some time to get my motor back to firing on most cylinders.

I appreciate the time, friendship, abstract playfulness, and attempts at trying to get me to use my own mind, rather than being spoon-fed. Though sometimes more difficult, the lessons likely 'stick' better to the zeolite in my brain that way.

I've got lots of silt here, by the way, as I mentioned earlier. I typically loathe the stuff, but some of what's indicated points to it being a distant second to clay soils. Rarely liked clay, either.

"I'm takin' what they're givin', 'cause I'm plantin' for a livin'..."
:biggrin:

Thanks again, h.h., Slownickel, Doc, Limeygreen, and hyposomniac.... and anyone else I may have forgotten...

I'm busily unlearning...:)
 

h.h.

Active member
Veteran
https://www.harrells.com/blog/sufficiency-level-of-available-nutrients

A little Google and I'm reminded of the large presence of aluminum in our soil. While studies suggest that it can be toxic at low levels and at a low pH, the question arises if aluminum is the only culprit with such a low pH.

It's the aluminum/silica bond that results in a negative charge in our soil. CEC is a measurement of this charge. How many positive cations can it attract. How much food will it hold? While aluminum is not required by the plant, it has it's place in the soil.

The other source of CEC comes from disassociation of acids from compost. Excess base saturation will interfere with this process.

Thanks Slownickle for the PGA tip. Obvious once I think about it. Their whole business is grass. Golf courses are often used for erosion control and quite often are placed in the worst soil available.
I was raised somewhat close to where their studies were done, with similar soil and I can't ever recall using any sort of liming product. I started reading Acres magazine and different articles where I felt like they were just salesmen pushing lime. I've joined in with the hoards from the forums in their never ending plight for dolomite. I was told I needed it.
How much calcium? Don't know. I add gypsum to peat until it gets a different color tone. If I add too much, it sets like plaster. Sort of. The soil gets hard and crusty.

Texture. That's where I believe ratios may come into play. Even then, I think you have multiple choices.

It doesn't take education, only intelligence. I prefer real life terms like "sticky" or "mucky".
"It has high CEC." You mean it's a sponge and it'll loosely hold nutrients where the plant can get to them as needed. It turns into an academic exercise of conflicting theories while we just really need to know enough to make an intelligent yes or no decision. Know enough to judge the experts. Most of the experts will tell you that they don't know anything.

It's all a swirl and you try to catch the bits and pieces as they move through your head. Intelligence is nothing but wee bits of confusion. "Zeolite" is a good metaphor. I have a zeolite head. High exchange capacity. Intelligence comes and goes.

I don't know if extra K or whatever is needed with a high CEC value. I like to precharge everything, especially with nitrogen. I know with biochar, it can rob nitrogen from the soil. I've been adding it at the end of my fermentations.

It doesn't show, but I did good in English 101. I would just write in the abstract. When folks can't figure out what you're saying and it sounds good, they think you're a genius All I did was to put all that confusion in my head on paper. It was up to the reader to find the true meaning. It would become their story, not mine. The truth comes out of confusion. It's a good sign.
 
M

moose eater

>>>""How much calcium? Don't know. I add gypsum to peat until it gets a different color tone""<<<

I get a superficial crust on top that I've attributed to the microbes, myco, etc. What color hues are you referencing?

>>>""Most of the experts will tell you that they don't know anything""<<<

In this regard, the 'experts' and I are nearly on par. ;^>)

>>>""It's all a swirl and you try to catch the bits and pieces as they move through your head.""<<<

Currently gets a neck-spraining nod, and a big, "Yep.."

>>>""It doesn't show, but I did good in English 101. I would just write in the abstract. When folks can't figure out what you're saying and it sounds good, they think you're a genius All I did was to put all that confusion in my head on paper. It was up to the reader to find the true meaning. It would become their story, not mine. The truth comes out of confusion. It's a good sign.""<<<

Wrote poetry in the woods on acid when I was 15; some of that took me anther 5 years+ to put what I wrote into some logical interpretable order.

Buffets; we take what we recognize or looks fairly safe, sometimes make an error in judgment, and then eat as much of the stuff we took as we care to.

I'm still rapidly (sometimes) trying to flake through the stuff to make sure I can identify what's in it.

Thanks, h.h.
 

h.h.

Active member
Veteran
I was adding maybe a cup of gypsum with just under a cup of bone meal, to a 3 cubic foot bail. It worked okay. Any more gypsum and it starts getting stiff.
I'm moving on to fish bone meal/crab meal/gypsum still using 2 cups total.

What's correct? I'm just loosely following whats in the recipes and what the bags say. If I use 2 things for calcium, I use half as much of each, or a third as much and so on.


You won't see the endomycorrhizae. I think they stain it and scope it to see it. It needs to be applied to the seed or the roots. I usually see a bit of fungus growing
 
M

moose eater

I've mixed my myco directly with the greater volume, but have admittedly used higher amounts than many recommend, figuring too much myco costs some money, but otherwise causes little destruction.

Reads like moderate to stout dosing of gypsum and bone meal in your ratio, where ca is concerned.

I picked up some crab meal to use as part of an organic top-dressing mix, shortly after flipping to 12:12; maybe 2 weeks or so later, preferably in advance of any nutes getting over-taxed.. It was in that top-dress mix I found that Bokashi made its first entrance into my consideration. Never used it before that search for answers.

Wondered how long active Bokashi will last without feeding it more sweets?

My wife brushed the bejeesus out of her little elderly poodle the other day. He's now a beautiful fluffy gray and white marshmallow, looking like a miniature Benji dog, sleeping at my feet. I figure he'd look just right in a giant cup of hot cocoa, but won't test it. Don't think he has enough sense of humor, buoyancy, or heat resistance. I'll just let him sleep there.

Edit: I re-read the post, and the amount of gypsum and bone meal looks really light, not moderate. I suspect I'm using most of that amount of ca in half the amount of mix, though not sure right now. Translating cups to gallons to cu. ft., and it's the last conversion that I never remember the formula for.
 
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