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Monroe Nc

Just tilled in mustard. Grew florida big leaf and old fashion mustard. Plenty of organic matter with the big leaf. Did soil amendments after soil test came back. Question being, should I also put in maple leaves? Plan on growing rye over the winter also. My original organic reading was 1.66% so pretty low and the cation rate was 10.2. K was 2.3%, Mg was 22.3%, Ca was 47.9%, and H was 27.4%. soil PH was 6.3 and buffer PH was 7.65. I added 50lbs dolomite lime, 150lbs chicken manure pellets, and 15lbs sulfur,. The sulfur was really low. All other trace elements were adequate or high. My patch size is 1800 sq feet. Any other recommendations for amendments would be greatly appreciated.

10/28/2013 5:56:41 PM

N.c.

Hey there Carolina!
Well I would not add any thing else with sulfur. If you google 'A Soil Study on Atlantic Giant Pumpkins' you will see that pumpkins like sulfur at about 50 parts per million (50 ppm). So for instance if your soil test reported that your sulfur was at 5 ppm you would want to increase your sulfur content 45 ppm or 90 pounds per acre, the conversion factor here is 2 because an acre of dirt 8 inches deep weighs 2 million pounds. So knowing that you have 1800 square feet, divide 90 by 43,000 ( approximate number of square feet in an acre) to determine how many pounds per square foot you need and then multiply by 1800 the number of square feet you have. The number you come up with is how many pounds of sulphur you should have added to wind up with 50 ppm. This past spring I jacked my sulphur up to about 150 ppm with gypsum trying to raise my calcium level. This fall my sulfur is back down to 57ppm. So I would add my leaves and keep the garden moisture content up to leach the sulphur and encourage microbial action when it does warm up. Microbes do not work when the soil is dry. Which is all a round about way of saying that the sulphur content of your soil is now 179 ppm plus how ever many ppms of sulfur you started with because 15 pounds divided by 1800 is equal to 0.0083 pounds per square foot, which is equivalent to 43,000 times 0.0083 (pounds per acre) or 358.3 pounds per acre, divided by 2 (ppm) or 179 ppm. Hope that helps.

10/29/2013 9:07:36 AM

President - GPC

The Mustard will GAS your soil and, you should reestablish your Myco. After three weeks of tilled Mustard if your temps allow it... Plant RYE grass....Keep building the soil microbeZ, mow if it getZ tall... and retill in the Spring after another soil test... Good Luck...

10/29/2013 10:00:16 AM

Monroe Nc

Thanks for the info!

10/29/2013 3:14:27 PM

Glosta

mustard will only gas your soil if you tarp it. if you do not put plastic over the soil after you till it in the glucosinolate ( the biofumigant gas released during mustard breakdown) will be lost to the air. Trapping it in the soil with plastic sealed at the edges with dirt will kill most soil organisms. It will however increse the native streptomyces population.

the lime and chicken manure will raise your PH and you should see a change by spring, however you added sulfur, this requires microbial breakdown to work an usually takes an entire season. so based on the reactive nature of the 2 amendments and guessing your soil is sandy because of the high Buffer PH and low OM, your soil could make it to around 7 ph because of the lime and chciken pellets but then the sulfur will kick in when the warm season comes around and the microbes go into action reducing the sulfur. in the end your soil is going to react relatively fast to the ph changes. best thing you can do is get compost in there. It generally will have a neutral ph and lots of oragnic matter.

I hope this helps

10/29/2013 11:36:56 PM

Monroe Nc

Thank you all for the help!! :-)

10/30/2013 8:59:58 PM