It would also help a lot to know where you live?

I was assuming somewhere in the American Southwest, since I thought Zuni was another word for the Pueblo American Indians, but I checked Zuni's member page and see Ontario (transplanted from Texas).

A pH of 8 made sense when I was thinking the Southwestern US, but I would have thought Ontario would be more likely to be acidic. I just did some searching and found that there are areas in Ontario with high pH.

I would definitely avoid the lime. I think Solomon's approach was geared to people living in areas with low pH soil.

Dan

4 measures of canola seed meal or cottonseed meal;

1/2 measure of ordinary agricultural lime;

1/2 measure of dolomite lime;

1 measure of bone meal or rock phosphate or high phosphate guano;

1/2 to 1 measure of kelp meal.

The recipe is fine but to call it complete and then to imply that it is the be-all/end-all for organic gardening fertilizers is a little over optimistic to say the least. I guess it is "complete" because it has N, P, K, calcium, and micronutrients in it. My soil is made from pulverized limestone. With a pH around 8.0 to 8.5, I don't need any more lime.

I did not read anything else. If Solomon has a point about the regular addition of compost regulating the soil's pH, then I would agree with that. I think you need to add organic fertilizer to hurry up that process but Solomon's recipe would not be my first choice for a fertilizer. In fact since I can't get any of his ingredients except by special order, I would tend to make my own recipe from locally available materials that was more tuned into my soil conditions.

Dude, harsh.

Dude, harsh.

Yeah, I'm still a little honked off that the OP asked a question and then dropped off the board. We can't help much in the absence of a little more info. Apparently the OP asked a question about a regional guru and expected us to know about him and the acronyms he uses. That forces US to do the research to get information that the OP might have provided much more easily. If the OP lives in Ontario, what's up with his high soil pH??? That's likely the root of the problem. And if he lives in Ontario, what does Steve Solomon have to do with the price of tea in China?

As for unfamiliar acronyms, what the heck is an OP anyway?
I am new to this forum and will thank you not to reply if I bother to use it again.

OP is Original Poster.

4 measures of alfalfa meal;
1/2 measure of ordinary agricultural lime;
1/2 measure of dolomite lime;
1 measure of rock phosphate;

1/4 to 1/2 measure of kelp meal (sometimes).

Also, I modify it when I need to - omitting the lime when fertilizing my blueberries, for example.
I don't know if it's stated anywhere, but I'd just modify the recipe per what you need and have available or think/hear might work better. I'm pretty sure he's not fixed on canola or cottonseed meal, or even needing both phosphate sources, or the kelp meal for that matter. I'd keep it easy an inexpensive to start...

LOL

Lloyd

Good gardening, Mary

We should be careful to get out of an experience all the wisdom that is in it -- not like the cat that sits on a hot stove lid. She will never sit down on a hot lid again -- and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one anymore. -- Mark Twain

Dan

I'm trying to figure out how this issue went wrong. No matter where you read about him, Steve Solomon is not a household name. Nor is he a popular forum name. Had you searched the forums, you would have realized that. Then the COF thing is not only a new acronym, it is a foreign concept. So this got off to a bad start. But so do lots of questions. When you did not help us to help you, things deteriorated, at least for me.

You are new so you probably have not read many of the problems and resolutions here. It is almost always important where the original poster lives because that is where your soil and environment are. If you lived in Florida and someone gave you an Alaska answer, that might not be very helpful.

Please, no hard feelings. We will cooperate with you if you cooperate with us.

To summarize the good points of the solution, you should probably not slavishly follow someone elses recipe. You should not use materials that worsen your soil situation. You should probably look for cottonseed meal to improve your soil. One thing that has not been mentioned is growing plants adapted to your region and soil. If you don't want to grow blueberries, then your soil might be fine as it is.

And as for why he's still using his COF in Tasmania.....well it sounds pretty acidic down there too. If fact, most of the garden books I've picked up assume you have acidic soil. And I'm beginning to think that if you apply compost constantly then pH is unimportant after a year or two.

I try not to be slavish to any one scientist's/person's viewpoint on gardening. I use their theories and experiment in my own garden. Science has a nasty habit of not seeing the forest for the trees.

I totally agree. In my opinion gardening is similar to using recipes. Thanks for the ideas and then suit them to our own situations.

Concerning this site and using abbreviations such as COF is fine but somewhere near the top of the thread someone should point out what the abbreviation stands for so those of us not in the know understand what it means.

The book HOW TO Grow More Vegetables by John Jeavons also advocates the use of dolomite limestone on pages 19 & 21 of the 1979 hardbound edition. However, also on page 21 under the heading SOIL MODIFIERS, Dolomitic Lime is characterized as "(a) good source of calcium and magnesium to be used in acid soils. Do not use lime to ‘sweeten’ the compost pile; it results in a serious loss of nitrogen."

It would seem from the previous quote that the reason for the nitrogen loss is considered to be due to the use of lime while Dr. Reams lays it directly on the magnesium in the dolomitic lime.

Terran