Hi Robin I'd thought of the wood chips/leaf & twig litter but thought I may be going off on a personal tangent. Worms were evident when planting trees. The penetrometer was buried to its full depth. The geology is the edge of a basalt plateau, which was cleared in 1860. In the last 18 yrs there has only been grazing of sheep, with that rarely occurring in the last 10 yrs. The front of the property (on main highway) was tested for heavy metals and they were found to be low, there were no heavy metal tests for the tree paddock. Native trees is the aim for this paddock, Casurinas to be specific. Severe frosts for at least 6 months of the year, rainfall average of 800ml. and wicked winds which power one of Australia's largest wind generator projects.
As for evidence of plants, most of the 700 trees planted have died. thanks for your time on this Robin, hope this info has been more helpful. L&L Liz on 30/9/02 7:11 AM, Robin Duchesneau at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Dear Liz, > > It is difficult to advise based solely from the soil test numbers below. A > better soil test is by looking at the performance of plants, and searching > for macro-and micro-organisms (worms are the easiest bioindicator). A pH 7 > seems good for most crops (interesting for a forest soils), NPK is about > 1:10:100. Low N, high P; good for flowers. Do you have more information on > the history of the site? What's the geology of the site? Any past > contamination's? What does your friend want to grow? > > Do you remember the BDNow posts on wood chips? Perhaps your friend could > benefit from these discussions. In a nut shell, she could chip some twigs > (only from small branches) from the deciduous trees and incorporate a thin > layer in the top soil. This method has been showed to produce excellent > vegetable crops. It provides a good substrate and source of C/N for soil > microorganisms. > > Regard > > Robin > > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Liz Davis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: 28 septembre, 2002 15:02 > Subject: Soil Test > > >> Greetings All, >> >> A friend of mine (not on the net) is wanting to start BD on her 10 acres > of >> native trees and raspberries. The soil in the tree paddock is like nothing >> the Perry lab has seen. Although I've learnt about soils, I do not have > the >> BD knowledge yet to help her with this difficult soil. >> >> >> Soil Results Black soil >> TEC 16.99 pH 7 N 90 sulphates 4 phosp 57 Ca 2426 31.79% >> Mg 2628 57.4% Pot 528 3.55% sod 2.87 iron 1000, zinc 4.6 Boron.7 >> >> If anyone can comment it would be appreciated, Steph is keen to start >> working on it ASAP. >> Thanks for your time >> L&L >> Liz >> > >
