Re: Lot's of questions
-----Original Message-----
From: brocfarm <brocfarm@pacific.pacific.net>
To: pumpkins@mallorn.com <pumpkins@mallorn.com>
Date: Monday, December 06, 1999 6:40 PM
Subject: Re: Lot's of questions
================================================================
....But the soils test also give a
>base saturation and rating this is tied to is the Cec. the higher the CEC
>the higher you can have your Magnesium,potassium,Calcium...........Why is
>this ?? Chris?? anyone??
========================================================
Mike,
I don't know that what your saying is entirely true. I think what you mean
and correct me if I am wrong but the higher the CEC the easier it is to get
your base saturation up there and maintain it. A soil with a high CEC will
retain hydrogen,calcium,magnesium,potassium and sodium much better/longer
than a soil with a low CEC. Therefor by amending with compost, manure,
fertilizers it is easier to get the base saturation rate up and maintain it
at those high saturation levels when you are dealing with a high CEC soil
vs. a low CEC soil. Low CEC and the soil will leach nutrients rapidly
dropping the saturation level quickly, High CEC it will retain nutrients and
the base saturation level will not drop as quickly. Here is an example. I
will use Bob Troy as my victim. Hope you don't mind Bob but I have your
soil test!! Bob has Sandy Soil-Low CEC, I on the other hand have extremely
heavy Clay Soil-High CEC. Bob had taken a soil test on 3/17/98 which we can
compare to my soil test from 7/16/97 when I grew the 977. Compare the CEC
and our base saturation % as follows:
Bob 3/17/98 Chris
7/16/97
CEC 15.4 CEC 39.7
Base Saturation: Base
Saturation:
K-7.5%,Mg-13.5%,CA-77.7%,NA-1.4% K-4.0%,Mg-10.4%,CA85.3%,NA-0.4%
As you can see even though Bob has a lower CEC his base saturation is higher
than mine, with the exception of Calcium. Why? Bob put a lot O' fertilizer
on which pushed his base saturation levels way up there. He did this because
he knows he has a low CEC and will loose nutrients as a result of leaching.
Therefor he has to keep pushing the fert. Hope I am making sense and this
helps?
Chris
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