How Does The Top Soil Look?

tweedy · May 21, 2018

I am thinking about bringing in some top soil and could only find one company that tests theirs. I figure it is better than going in blind but wanted to see what you all thought on how to bring it up to snuff as far as balancing things goes.

@Slownickel you still on here?

Thanks!

oldskol4evr · May 21, 2018

i asume you did a layer test first! that be were i would start,i have bulk yards near me and i buy the enriched compost from them,black as coal but sand silt and clay are all even across the board,from there you can build mountains hahah,but ya this test above first i seen like this,that magnese count is pretty high ,calcium and magnesium are to low in my opinion,but can also be feed right into the soil ,hell im probally wrong but how many acres you talking about,or hectare if over seas,i screwed up and got 3 yrds of a garden soil from same folks both same price,45 a yrd,did a layer test on the garden soil and even though it was OMRI certified the garden soil barley had organic matter at all in it,mainly peat and sawdust,might work for some folk but here ,you have 3 weeks of winter,1 month of fall which is all the leaves falling from the trees in mid summer and rest year summer,every day watering aint happening if you dig,also compact quick

tweedy · May 21, 2018

Just getting started calling around and asking questions. This is the first test I have seen like this as well. Really just trying to play around with soil balancing and am in way over my head to be honest. Have always run lighter peat based mixes or just done water culture but I want to dip my toes in an actual soil. I have read through the @Slownickel balancing thread here and on another forum but am just kinda lost when it comes to execution of it.
I am a big fan of Albrecht and Reams in a lot of regards so I wanted to give something close to their ratios a shot.

oldskol4evr said:
i asume you did a layer test first! that be were i would start,i have bulk yards near me and i buy the enriched compost from them,black as coal but sand silt and clay are all even across the board,from there you can build mountains hahah,but ya this test above first i seen like this,that magnese count is pretty high ,calcium and magnesium are to low in my opinion,but can also be feed right into the soil ,hell im probally wrong but how many acres you talking about,or hectare if over seas,i screwed up and got 3 yrds of a garden soil from same folks both same price,45 a yrd,did a layer test on the garden soil and even though it was OMRI certified the garden soil barley had organic matter at all in it,mainly peat and sawdust,might work for some folk but here ,you have 3 weeks of winter,1 month of fall which is all the leaves falling from the trees in mid summer and rest year summer,every day watering aint happening if you dig,also compact quick

Homesteader · May 21, 2018

A little hard to read but I think it looks fairly good. Calcium/mag/sodium ratio when read as a % seems good. A little blind on the K % as it doesn't seem to be apples to oranges.

tweedy · May 21, 2018

Homesteader said:
A little hard to read but I think it looks fairly good. Calcium/mag/sodium ratio when read as a % seems good. A little blind on the K % as it doesn't seem to be apples to oranges.

If I calculated it correctly (which I am not confident I did, ha) the potassium is sitting around 2.64 % of the base saturation. So far all of the percentages are looking close to good/great out the gate with the exception of sodium which I am pretty sure I could work on fairly easily.

Homesteader · May 21, 2018

It is also hard to tell if they used a weak Bray or a strong Bray (P1 vs P2) Strong Bray P2 will show total Phos and weak P1 will show available as the acid is weaker. I assume they used strong but knowing the difference between the two is beneficial IMO and knowing which one is even more.

You may be low on phos depending what test they ran.

tweedy · May 21, 2018

Homesteader said:
It is also hard to tell if they used a weak Bray or a strong Bray (P1 vs P2) Strong Bray P2 will show total Phos and weak P1 will show available as the acid is weaker. I assume they used strong but knowing the difference between the two is beneficial IMO and knowing which one is even more.

You may be low on phos depending what test they ran.

I was planning on amending the topsoil with Hendrikus 4-8-4.

www.hendrikusorganics.com/organic-fertilizers/bouquet-4-8-4/

Super low on heavy metals and seems like a well balanced fertilizer. Hopefully that will boost the P levels to where they need to be but not throw everything else out of whack.

How Does The Top Soil Look?

How Does The Top Soil Look?

tweedy

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tweedy

Homesteader

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