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Wood River, Nebraska

Here’s the comparison of samples from last fall and this spring. What do you recommend? Last fall I added 8 cu yds aged cow manure, 100 lbs calcium sulfate, ½ lb. Epsom salts and tons of finely chopped leaves. My pH is up, Salts are up, N is down...? Is the N just tied up because of the increased OM? What do you recommend?
dave
10/08/2003      3/20/2004
pH        6.7             7.4
S Salts     1.00             1.33
OM         3.6             5
N ppm         53             13.1
lbs N/A     95             31
P ppm         346            439
K ppm         695             1542
S ppm         73            22
Zn ppm         13.66            15.95
Fe ppm         14.3            21.1
Mn ppm      3.8            14.6
Cu ppm         1.13            1.35
Ca ppm         1838            2209
Mg ppm        229            244
Na ppm         60            148
B ppm         2.72            5.7
% Saturation
Sum of C    13.1            17.7
H        0            0
K        14            22
Ca        70            62
Mg        15            11
Na        2            4

3/25/2004 9:42:43 PM

Appalachian Mtns.

N leaches out fairly consistently so take those #'s with a grain of salt, it needs replinished here and there as a general rule.
The manure most likely shot the K, salts, and pH up if it wasn't very aged and hasn't broken down well overwinter, leaves too.
I'm by far an expert but I would add some healthy doses of gypsum for those salts, get that P and K better balanced quickly (small amounts of DAP used now might do it without hurting the soil biology too much, and gives things time to settle a bit), find something gentle but fast to get your pH down .50 point, and dose the patch with a fish/seaweed bath to get those leaves and manure cooking some more to encourage further break down.

3/25/2004 11:18:37 PM