12/18/2002 10:21:55 AM, Allan Balliett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >Do you have contact info on this >"Phil Wheeler"?
Dr. Phil Wheeler can be contacted at Crop Services International Inc., 1718 Madison S.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49507-2518, phone (616) 246-7933, fax (616) 246-6039, e-mail <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, website <www.cropservicesintl.com>. As far as calcium goes, I want to add that Dr. Arden Andersen preaches mightily that it should be added in "fertilizer quantities." If you'll check "5 Acres & Independence," you'll find a chart that shows that even in well-kept land a year's worth of rainfall will leach away about 500 pounds of your finest lime. Althought this becomes much less true as you move the organic matter content up to 5%, Andersen still teaches that you should spread a little each year to grow the finest crops. I think all the brix hierarchy teaches that calcium should always be encouraged even as potassium is discouraged. This seems, at least to me, to tie in 100% with Albrecht's teachings that "the soils of the humid east produce woody carbohydrates whereas those of the arid west produce high quality proteins." The little professor knew that we in the east need some hi-cal added until we get that good balance that occurred naturally in the corn belt. I interpret this (optomistically) to mean that once you get your soil in good Albrecht balance (i.e., 70% calcium), you should be able to keep it there with just a little hi-cal lime each year---probably best mixed in with your compost. On the other hand, there are those who insist that as you get the microbes working better in any given soil, they will start chewing on those bigger chunks of lime and break down what is needed to replenish what is leached away. I guess there are many answers. "Liquid Cal" can often be just the ticket, at least temporarily, when you're working a dead piece of ground. A problem, of course, is what Lloyd Charles warned about: somebody, somewhere, will use 10---or a 100---times more than is needed and create a whole new cycle of soil & plant indigestion. I was so pleased a month or so ago when he went through the process of explaining how to use a refractometer to let the plants "talk" to their farmer. That is the true test of how much is enough. What we calculate as a needed addition means dip-squat when the brix stays the same or, ugh, drops. >PS Let me know if you want to >borrow any tapes from ACRES this year Sounds like a treat to me. Thanks... Regards, Rex Harrill
