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Mnt.pleasant ,tennessee

So is it were you want the right amounts of nutrients at the right amounts,so the just gets its excact percintage of each &doesnt have to sift threw everything else.is there a higher&lower balance,same percentage just higher amounts.like doubling a recipe i geuss

9/7/2013 9:00:59 PM

Winston Salem, NC

I'll take a crack at this. You need the right percentages, i.e. the right balance so that the proper uptake of nutrients for maximum growth is possible. If N levels are too high in the flowering stage you get unwanted abortions, Ca/Mg ratios need to be good throughout and especially during fruit development. Ca and K compete for attachment sites so if I've got this right, if you're K is through the roof the Ca can't be taken up as well as it should(its not terribly mobile anyway) and I think this is what tends to cause more splits. If certain micros are way too low it squashes photosynthesis or the uptake of Ca.
Soil balancing is one of the finer points of this hobby that the further you dig in, the more you realize how much you still have to learn. If I'm way off on any of this someone please correct me.

9/7/2013 9:34:22 PM

NE Kansas

I think the question is whether it is Ok for one nutrient to be very high in quantity as long as the balance is in proportion to the other micro and macro nutrients.

This is my best observation:

The correct percentage is most important. The difficulty lies in obtaining that balance in larger quantities. If your garden is 200 sq ft, then it is much easier to weigh, measure, test etc. until the proportion is correct. If your patch is 6,000 sq ft then it will be very difficult to establish a good balance on a sq ft to sq ft basis. Even more important is the fact that your soil needs to be SOIL. If your soil becomes the minority in a sea of amendments and fertilizers, ever so balanced they may be, your plant will grow poorly. Depth and quality of topsoil is very important. 3ft of topsoil is better than 6in. But don't run out and order a load of topsoil either. The goal is to build a highly fertile, balanced and healthy soil over a great length of time.

Build it and manage it in manageable amounts over a manageable amount of time

9/8/2013 12:05:47 AM

NE Kansas

Case in point: you can have a bottle of liquid fertilizer that is properly balanced, but if you were to dump the whole bottle across the patch... you would probably kill your plant. Doubling the recipe never works, especially with soluble fertilizers. The percentages vary according to the sources of the nutrients. If your patch is high in insoluble K you will have a disaster by trying to balance it with soluble N.

The biological availability of the nutrients is very important. A high level of soluble N is easily leached out of the soil. It is neccesary to have proportionate percentages in a locked up form to be slowly released on an as needed basis by their biological partners. All the nutrients in the world makes no difference if the plant cannot use it. Taking 500 percent of your daily vitamin C requirement means nothing if your body can only process and use 100 percent anyway. Your body will either excrete the excess or store it in a different unusable, sometimes dangerous, form.

Consider the source of a nutrient, other nutrients can then be obtained that complement that source. Calcium from avian manure may not be best made available by the same biological controls that makes calcium available from clamshells.

Anybody else? My sphincter is apparently uneducated, so I may be off track...

9/8/2013 12:47:32 AM

NE Kansas

Different types of soil also need different amendment recipes. You need an accurate assesment of soil type before you get a soil test done. I have clay loam; if I ammend it like it was sandy silt I will have major problems.

I learned that when cooking food, where you want twice as much of a recipe, it is usually not best to double the recipe; you make the same recipe twice. For best results, the percentages change according to quantity.

9/8/2013 1:27:25 AM

Mnt.pleasant ,tennessee

Thank yaw for replys very helpful.so if a soil test is done &have great soil there might not need much ammending to get a bigun.&trying to balance a bunch of manure &varius compost aint no good.just use them if needed according to soil test

9/8/2013 9:03:24 AM

NE Kansas

Your soil WILL need a lot of ammendment, but it is more about the quality than the quantity. A big load of poor quality manure is just a big load of crap.

'Various compost', sounds like a bad start to me. Compost materials need to be carefully chosen rather than random findings. Not just healthy types of materials, but nutrient rich materials. There are also correct percentages when it comes to feeding a compost pile.

Verify your soil type.
Test the soil.
Test your manure and compost.
Ammend your soil.
Wait.
Test the soil again.
Test your manure and compost again.
Ammend your soil again.
Wait some more.
Test some more.
Repeat as neccesary.

Your soil needs weeks, even months to digest what you feed it before it can feed the pumpkin. If you see your pumpkin is hungry in July and you feed the soil reactively, your pumpkin will starve until the food becomes available in Sept. You must be proactive.

9/8/2013 2:57:17 PM

Mnt.pleasant ,tennessee

Ok nelson thank you for taking the time to answer.iv been researching my local soil in a usda survey of my erea&have emailed my old highschool ag teacher&waiting to here back.
Read up on western labs on how they want there soil samples extracted.geuss i need to test my patch i have added to in past year to see weather to start frresh or balance what i got

9/8/2013 3:43:40 PM