Thanks to Steve Diver for these excellent sites about Soil balancing. I like Mark Schonbeck's careful approach to spending money on soil amendments and his explanations of soil chemistry are very good and easy to read > > Soil Cation Nutrient Balancing in Sustainable Agriculture: Missing > Link, or Red Herring? > By Mark Schonbeck, VABF Information Sheet > http://www.vabf.f2s.com/soilre1.php > > Does my Soil Need Cation Nutrient Balancing?: A practical guide to > balanced nutrition for soil and crops > By Mark Schonbeck, VABF Information Sheet > http://www.vabf.f2s.com/soilre2.php > > How to Use a Soil Test > By Mark Schonbeck, VABF Information Sheet > http://www.vabf.f2s.com/soilre3.php > > Soil Nutrient Balancing in Sustainable Vegetable Production > By Mark Schonbeck, VABF > Results of 2000 season field trials, and evaluation of the first > three years. A Final Report submitted to the Organic Farming > Research Foundation, December 2000 > http://www.vabf.f2s.com/soilresum.php > >. The point is, that BCSR is not a "be all, end all" soil fertility management scheme for >farmers in all locations. >Steve Diver
Thanks Steve these are good references applicable to a wide spectrum of farmers there are three points the I would question Mark Schonbeck on 1-a sandy tidewater soil where gypsum was used to improve calcium levels??? and an adverse reaction occurred - this would be the expected result according to the albrecht consultants I know !! 2- he says single larger applications of lime are more economically sensible - why? This is not biologically sensible 3- there is still a strong perception (in his articles) that soil testing and amendment for pH correction is good practice. pH is the RESULT of what is going on in a soil not the cause of it. Lloyd Charles
