----- Original Message -----
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, December 28, 2001 10:44 AM
Subject: Albrecht System for soil testing and fertilisation
Christine Jaeger wrote
> May I ask, if anyone has any experience or knowledge of the Albrecht
System for
> soil analysis and fertiliser recommendations versus the 'conventional'
> laboratory approach?
>
> In the organic circles in Australia the Albrecht system is being hailed as
the
> best one to use. Except for anecdotal evidence that some growers say that
it
> works for them, I have not seen any other literature about it, especially
in
> regards to its adaptation to Australian soils.
Hi Christine ,
I have been involved with some comparative soil testing work that should be
of interest to you and maybe some others on the list. I obtained a grant for
our local farmers group which was funded by the acid soils action program
via NSW agriculture department. Most of this was for soil testing and I now
have over 250 tests on file from our local area. Over half of these were
full analysis tests which got most of the trace elements as well as the
normal npk stuff. I also did a number where I split the sample and sent half
to Albrect labs and half of the same sample to our conventional labs. I have
these for Perry (USA not the Australian Lab) , Brookside, and Swep
comparisons to Pivot Incitec and Agritech (Toowoomba)
You pretty much get what you pay for in life and soil tests are no
exception BUT - the main advantages that I see with Albrect tests are - the
testing company is usually not selling fertiliser or chemicals - and you can
get a full range of trace elements properly tested.
If we had done a poll of our group asking the question " What are the
best cropping paddocks around - best results for least amount of trouble"
and had ranked them in order then that order would have parallelled William
Albrects cation exchange system very close.
I see no reason why this system would need to be adapted to Australian
soils (this is a common query ) this always puzzles me . A wheat plant on
the Canadian prairies or the plains at Horsham In Australia or the Steppes
in Russia is going to need very much the same conditions to make it go
properly.
I think I have enough information to draw some useful conclusions from
but its probably a bit boring for others on this list . If there is further
interest I am happy to continue this on air and in the meantime if you like
to contact me off the list I can send you stuff that is probably relevant to
your original question.
Cheers.
Lloyd Charles
