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garden:cultivate:tasks:remineralization:strategy

Remineralization strategy

This project is complex enough to require lots of thought and planning, as well as a long-term strategy.

Complexity

The methods related in the 2012 edition of the book have changed somewhat and it's necessary to find the most recent descriptions. A document that describes the latest revisions as of the beginning of 2013 is available at http://soilanalyst.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/WorksheetRevision-03.pdf.

However, there is an online service called OrganiCalc at http://growabundant.com/membership-account/membership-levels/. For an annual fee of about $10 it does the calculations as you input the values from a soil analysis. I haven't tried it so I don't know how flexible it is in allowing for substitutions of different proportions in material.

There are only a few companies that use the compatible type of analysis called the Mehlich-3 method. This is the only method that provides the values that work with OrganiCalc or the worksheets mentioned above. I used Logan Labs in Ohio.

Worksheets

OrganiCalc is the only available automated tool that I know of. Reinheimer and Solomon don't provide spreadsheet templates right now. So I created my own template for both the acid soil and excess cations worksheets.

A significant factor in getting the amendment amounts aligned with the soil is the available choices of amendment materials that may be available locally. Luckily for me, Cory Huskinson, owner of a local company, Baxter Barn, in Fall City, Washington, provides just about every possible amendment measured out in pounds or full bags. Cory is my go-to- guy for the amendments. An alternate source is Black Lake Organics in Olympia, Washington.

The importance of an automated method is that a particular elemental item (such as calcium or sulphur) may occur in different proportions is different mixes (for example, both calcium and sulphur are in gypsum and applying gypsum (or ag sulphur) provides some of the calcium requirement, which makes it necessary to adjust the amount of agricultural lime (limestone) that might be added. And necessary trace elements such as manganese, iron, potassium, copper and zinc may be available only as sulphates, so adjustments to the amount of gypsum (which also provides sulphur) are necessary to compensate for the amounts of these trace elements.

The worksheets that Reinheimer and Solomon provide state some of the proportions differently from what I have found locally, so the importance of adjusting via the spreadsheet.

Garden sub-plots

Each bucket in this photo is for 1,000 square feet of the Fall City garden.I have implemented the following practices in planning my garden. I divided each area into sub-plots (1,000 square feet in the two large garden areas and individual beds of 60 square feet each for raised beds at home.)

I mix and apply amendments based on the plot to which each is to be applied. Yesterday I mixed four buckets for adding Calcium and Sulphur to the Fall City garden. Then I applied each bucket to a 1,000 square foot area that I marked off.

The amount for a raised bed are much smaller though the boundaries of a bed are clearly defined. The raised beds require so little amendment that the amounts of elemental mineral is very small - in fact, I wonder how I might uniformly distribute a small amount to a 60 square foot area. I'm thinking that a fine compost sieve, which I just bought, might be an appropriate tool.

Example

Here's an example of what I add to each 1,000 square feet in my Fall City garden:

Mineral Elements Amount in pounds
Oilseed meal Nitrogen 3.56
Kelp meal Trace minerals 2.3
Gypsum Sulphur and calcium 0.16
Agricultural lime Calcium 9.35
Borax Boron 0.46
Manganese sulphate Manganese and sulphur 4.89
Copper sulphate Copper and sulphur 0.37
Zinc sulphate Zinc and sulphur 0.91

This selection doesn't include all the possible amendments, only those required in the Fall City garden soil, based on the soil analysis. Other compounds that may be suggested by the soil analysis are: dolomite lime (calcium and magnesium), iron sulphate (iron and sulphur), and potassium sulphate (potassium and sulphur).

The mix is different at my garden by the river because it is based on the soil analysis there.

Rinse and repeat

At the end of this season (assuming that I see significant results for this application) I'll collect soil samples, send them off for analysis, re-mix elements for the new soil and apply a different mixture. Lots of fun!

garden/cultivate/tasks/remineralization/strategy.txt · Last modified: 2015/10/04 10:11 by davidbac