Anything and everything is possible with plants my friend there is only observation that is open to interpretation of the beholden just as there is no way to learn everything about plants I don't believe I have a few different sayings I consistently repeat to myself and my friends......
Whoever said growing is easy clearly has never done it before and if they tell you o you tell yourself that you got it figured out and learned everything about plants that you can or need to know..... heh heh heh Buddy!!!! you best go find yourself a new hobby and leave it at that because the only thing that we actually know for sure about plants "for the most part" is what they eat and we don't even get those correct
The three pools of nutrients in soil. The total extractable pool is assessed using very strong
extracting agents, while the exchangeable pool uses less and less strong extractants, until the soluble where
weak extracting agents are used. In natural soils, it is the bacteria and fungi that make enzymes and
organic acids to solubilize nutrients from rocks, organic matter, clay, sand and silt particles, and tie-up
those nutrients in their living biomass, as well as organic matter waste products. Nitrogen is not held in
rocks, but N-fixing bacteria perform the same function. These bacteria immobilize that fixed N in their
biomass. In both cases, predators are required to mineralize these nutrients into inorganic forms the
plants require.
Components of Soil Nutrient Pools Tests used for each pool
Total Extractable
Exchangable
Soluble
Biology Biology
Roots
Bacteria
and Fungi
Grind; Conc. Nitric
acid, combustion
10% HCl, H2NO3
Melich III
Bray 2
Amm. Cl / BaCl
Colwell
Olsen, Bray 1
Melich I
Morgan (Reams)
1 M KCl, Universal
Soluble nutrient concentration does not predict what the plant will take up. It does not predict what
nutrients will be solubilized in the next instant. To predict what will be made available to plants requires
knowledge of what plant material is present as food for the microbes (how active will the bacteria and fungi
be?), what population of bacteria and fungi are present that can solubilize nutrients from parent material,
from humus and dead plant material, what population of predators of bacteria and fungi are present and
how active they are consuming bacteria and fungi, and releasing soluble nutrients.
Consider the following information based on extractions of nutrients from soil. The original soil contained
on average only 1.8 ug of phosphate per gram (ppm) of soil. Rock phosphate and compost were added to
achieve a value of 75 ppm phosphate, on average. Two weeks later, soil from the same field was sampled
using the same methods and phosphate was 200 ppm. Bacteria has decreased slightly, and fungi had
increased by nearly 2-fold. Nothing was added to the field in the intervening 2 weeks. No fertilizer, no
pesticides, no tillage, no seed, just grass growing in the field.
Where did the “extra” phosphate come from? Did the lab have a problem? “Messed up” in their
assessment? Which time?
Think it through. Plants were growing, making exudates, feeding bacteria and fungi in the root system.
Phosphate was solubilized from a plant-not-available pool. Organisms solubilize many nutrients. If the
organisms are present, and have foods, they will perform nutrient cycling processes.
What then is the chemistry information that we need in order to predict what will become available to
plants through the course of a growing season? If we know the extractant methods used (see right hand
side of Figure 3), we can properly interpret what part of the nutrient pool is being assessed by any soil
chemistry test. If we then know the biology in that soil or compost, the activity of the bacteria and fungi,
the activity of the predators, then we can begin to predict the rate at which N, or P, or other nutrients will
become available for plant use. Examination of any of the journals in the area of soil ecology, e.g., Applied
Soil Ecology, or Soil Biology and Biochemistry, or Biology and Fertility of Soil, will reveal that this area
of investigation is beginning to be understood.
The problem in agriculture has not been a lack of nutrients, but a lack of the proper biology to make those
nutrients available to plants. The total extractable nutrient level is in excess in most soils examined so far.
But the biology has been destroyed.
Similarly, compost contains plant-available (soluble) nutrients, exchangeable nutrients but an even greater
pool of plant-not-available nutrients that will only be made available as the bacteria and fungi in the
compost solubilize those nutrients, and then protozoa, nematodes and microarthropods release those
nutrients from the bacteria and fungi.
Compost contains both excellent biomass of organisms (bacterial and fungal biomass both in excess of 300
micrograms per gram, protozoa in excess of 50,000 individuals per gram, and nematodes in excess of 60
per gram) and high levels of total extractable nutrients (16,000 micrograms of N per gram of compost,
9,000 micrograms of P, and similar levels for most other nutrients).
Compost tea contains soluble nutrients extracted from the compost. Nearly all of the soluble and
exchangeable pools will be extracted, plus perhaps 50% of the total pool in compost, based on assessment
of the compost after tea production. For example, an assessment performed by the Environmental Analysis
Lab at Southern Cross University showed that the three pools (as shown in Fig 2 above) in a good compost
contained about 286 micrograms of soluble N per gram dry weight of compost, about 340 ug of
exchangeable N, and 17,000 ug of total extractable N per gram of compost.
That means, in a compost tea (2000 L or 500 gal of water using 15 pounds or about 7 kg of compost),
approximately 45,500 micrograms of N were released into the 2000 L of water. One application of
compost tea would supply a small but significant amount of N. And even more, when soil organic matter is
present, and humic materials were added in the compost tea, a continuing supply of N would be provided to
the plants through the nutrient cycling processes the biology provides.
Several compost tea applications could supply all the N a crop needed. But even more, a single application
of one ton of compost plus compost tea could supply everything a crop needed, from nutrients to disease
protection to weed prevention.
Compost contains many years worth of any nutrient. As long as the biology remains un-compromised by
toxic chemical additions, the organisms will cycle those nutrients into plant-available forms. This strongly
suggests that compost is a fertilizer; an organic fertilizer. Compost tea will contain many, but not all, of the
nutrients that were in the compost. Compost quality is critical to understand, in order that we can
maximize nutrient concentrations in the tea. Understanding the role of the organisms is all important,
therefore.
Natural systems don’t require additions of inorganic, soluble (and thus very leachable) forms of nutrients to
maintain productivity. The most productive systems on this planet are systems which do not have, and
have not ever had, inorganic fertilizer applied.
If we want clean water, we have to get the biology back in our soils. If we want to grow and harvest crops,
we have to build soil and fertility with time, not destroy it. The only way to reach these endpoints is to
improve the life in the soil.
Thanks To
Elaine R. Ingham, PhD
For allowing me to put this up
Now there is something actually worth printing @MIKEZILLA the best food and drink and drive to work them genetic limits pushing what you can holding steady on what you can't bump to create a perfect environment I would be slapping everything I got with the ability to implement these acts into what I can do sometime in the future I may try but I like to run the risky tisk tisky way and hop them out at 2500 until they burn when I feel they are ready sometimes I just go loko the same thing as what you just read but mine is salty poisons lmao
