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soil Soil Analysis Results

thatguy

thatguy

I sent off a sample of soil from where I plant my peppers and here are the results, they are a lot higher than I thought they would be. The only thing I have added are grass clippings and leaves over the last two years. Raising the N level (if needed) is easy but removing the excess, hell I'm lost. The only problem I had last year was fruit taking foooreeever to ripen. Would any of the excesses cause that?
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Any pointers on what I should/need to do, thanks folks
 
I'm assuming the top number is the PH and you are needing to lower that. With the sulfur level that high you shouldn't add any fert's. Maybe some fresh compost would lower it. I got to tell you I've never had that problem either. I do know with compost (fresh and aged) and shit I can raise and lower my PH. Your probally getting great growth though and some strong plants to parrent seeds from
 
Just goggled this up-----
dolomite lime, hardwood ash, bone meal, crushed marble, or crushed oyster shells will help to raise the soil pH.​
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sawdust, composted leaves, wood chips, cottonseed meal, leaf mold and especially peat moss, will lower the soil pH.​
 
The two things that I see are the pH level and the CEC (conductivity or Cation Exchange Capacity). Compost would help both of these.

Mike
 
+1 on Wordwiz's compost recommendation. At a glance, I would say not too much to worry about besides the pH level. You want to lower that to a slightly acidic level. The leaves are a good organic source of tannic acid to accomplish that (especially if you have oak leaves) otherwise, you will have to add sulfur. I would suspect you use chemical fertilizers on your lawn? If you are using grass clippings as mulch / compost, that could explain the high levels.

***(Normal)DISCLAIMER - I am not a soil scientist and do not claim to be. My recommendations / observations are based on my knowledge and experience of soil nutrients' role in plant physiology.***
 
srin2 said:
which peppers are you talking about? some peppers take a long time to ripe :)
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I am proably just being impatient.

queequeg152 said:
what lab did you use? and this only measures nitrate? not ammonium?
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The Agricultre extension at Texas A&M, I guess, that is all of the info I got, besides a paper on nutrient lockup due to high phosphorus.

robbyjoe01 said:
I'm assuming the top number is the PH and you are needing to lower that. With the sulfur level that high you shouldn't add any fert's. Maybe some fresh compost would lower it. I got to tell you I've never had that problem either. I do know with compost (fresh and aged) and shit I can raise and lower my PH. Your probally getting great growth though and some strong plants to parrent seeds from
Click to expand...
Yeah the PH is an easy fix, I'll have an abundance of oak leaves to add this week. The paper they sent was reffering to plants not being able to take up iron and sulfer due to high phosphorus and that I may need to foliar feed iron and sulfer. My plants last year were fairly large, even with the high calcium I still had BER on my green chilies last year. We'll see what happpens this year, thanks to everyone who has replied and good luck to all the growers this year.
 
RedtailForester said:
+1 on Wordwiz's compost recommendation. At a glance, I would say not too much to worry about besides the pH level. You want to lower that to a slightly acidic level. The leaves are a good organic source of tannic acid to accomplish that (especially if you have oak leaves) otherwise, you will have to add sulfur. I would suspect you use chemical fertilizers on your lawn? If you are using grass clippings as mulch / compost, that could explain the high levels.

***(Normal)DISCLAIMER - I am not a soil scientist and do not claim to be. My recommendations / observations are based on my knowledge and experience of soil nutrients' role in plant physiology.***
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Chemical ferts on the lawn, Correct. Great job, that slipped my mind. Cleaning up leaves from two 54 year old live oaks this weekend, fun times. thanks for the reply
 
I know this from being an all-organic grower. I've used grass clippings as mulch and in my compost. It is really amazing what can affect your plants / soil.
 
The tests I got were 25$, but you are able to choose what is tested for here is the urban soil sample form. It took ten days from the time they recived the sample to ship date.
 
Back to the chemical fertilizer subject; remember any amendment you put into your garden eventually ends up in your plants. Granted, by the time chemicals get to the pods they have been biologically absorbed / filtered, but it is still just the fact that some of those chemicals are kind of nasty. In addition, the amount of nitrogen in a lawn care fertilizer is far too high for N-fertilizer sensitive peppers.
 
Yeah, I will either need to switch lawn ferts or not use clippings as mulch. The only ferts I have used the last two years on the peppers was fish emultion, epsom salts. Would composting the clippings would help with removal of the chemicals? I don't think it would. I guess I need to find an alternative lawn fertilizer. The last thing I want in my peppers is nasty chems. O yeah I transplant with mycorrhizae aplication to roots, but IIR high phosphorus kills the mycorrhizae.
 
Not sure about the composting. Do they make organic lawn fertilizers? I hate my lawn or as I call it, the "ecological desert." Nothing more is a bigger waste of time and resources than a well groomed lawn. . .
 
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