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Fri, Mar 18, 11 at 22:41
| I took in a sample of soil to have a test done. The PH was okay, everything else was okay except for the phosphorus (sp?) How do I correct this? It was a simple test offered by our local nursery. My neighbor also had the same report, but she said she had been dumping her wood ashes on there. Mine is from my raised beds. The only thing I can remember is that I put a lot of mushroom compost on my raised beds. I would appreciate any comments. Thank you a bunch. - Barb |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Those simple tests seldom provide sufficient information to know what to do. What did that test show about your soils Phosphorus levels, a little low, a lot low? Did those doing that test have any recommendations about how to correct this? Something that a good test from a good soil test lab will include is some information about how to correct the problems, if any, found. |
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| You can use rock dust or organic manure for phosphorus. Can you post the report for the soil test? Here is a link to a thread on phosphorus. |
Here is a link that might be useful: organic phosphorus
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| Any nutrients in any rock dust need to be converted by the Soil Food Web to be available to the plants which means you need to have ample quantities of organic matter in the soil to have that active Soil Food Web, in which case probably most all of the nutrients plants need will be there without adding the rock dusts. Animal manures, when combined with vegetative waste, can be a good source of nutrients, but vegetative waste needs to be in the soil to help hold that very soluble nutrients in the manure in the soil. |
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| Superphosphate is a well recommended method to put phosphurus in the ground when you first plant. Most plants can use this form to enhance rooting and flowering and is recommended 99% of the time at planting time. The abundance of phosphurus (0/20/0) or triple superphosphate (0/46/0) are the usual packages found everywhere in garden centres and nurseries. As most garden fertilizer packages have, either a balanced level of nutrients with phopshurus the middle number, or is found in unbalanced formulae, it is easy to pick and choose according to the plants' requirements. |
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| Remember that the middle number is referring to phosphate....not pure phosphorus.....15-30-15 has an almost identical amount of phosphorus and potassium. |
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| Superphosphate is a very soluble form of phosphorus and if not added to soil with care will burn plant roots. For that reason botanists, soil scientists, and horticulturists stopped recommending adding that to your garden soil at planting time about 25 or 30 years ago. |
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