Soil Testing Results in my garden in CA

[Got Worms?]

6.0 and rising will be fine for your tomatoes. Tomato plants will grow in soil anywhere from a PH of 5.5 to 8.0, but do best between 6.5 and 7.0. (slightly acidic) Most people shoot for the 6.5 because it falls within the range of most veggies. Add half the lime and rake it into the top 2" of soil a couple of days before you plant this season, and add the remainder in the fall. This won't burn your plants. By next year your PH should be closer to the 6.5 recommendation. Try to do your soil tests in the fall so you have all winter for your PH adjustments to take effect. Use calcium carbonate and not dolomite. If you need magnesium later, you can always use Epsom salts. Changing PH is is not something that is done in one shot. It is some something done over time and fine tuned so that you know where it is and which way it is going, as it will not stay where you want it forever.
Charlie

[habitat_gardener]

Originally Posted by Ms. Jitomate

...How about hardwood ashes? It was suggested in this website, http://www.grow-it-organically.com/c...html#alternate. But it doesn't say how much it is going to change the pH. They also suggest oyster shells and eggshells but I also have enough Calcium. What can too much Calcium do to my soil? And how much will oyster shells and eggshells change the pH?

iirc, Solomon discussed other sources such as wood ashes and oyster shells and said to avoid them because of possible heavy metal contamination or other negative effects on soil.

Both authors advise working on improving the fertility of the soil and balancing the nutrients, rather than adding things to bump the pH one way or another, which is counterproductive.

Both of the soils books I mentioned recommend agricultural lime (=calcitic lime) as the best source of Ca. Based on your soil test results, it looks like 1 pound per 100 square feet would be a good amount for your soil. The right amount of Ca increases the availability of other nutrients and microbial activity. Physical signs of Ca deficiency, according to Nauta, are grassy weeds, dandelions, and thick woody stems. Nauta says too much Ca can create too much air space in the soil so that it's hard to keep wet.

If I wanted to bump up the pH, I'd just add compost and let the soil microbes do the work. Nauta recommends no more than a 1/4 inch layer. You can add some kelp meal for trace minerals -- 1/3 to 1 lb. per 100 sq. ft.

[habitat_gardener]

Originally Posted by Ms. Jitomate

...I have never had good luck with heirloom tomatoes -- the maximum I have gotten was one tomato per plant....

I used to think I couldn't get big tomatoes with my cool summers until I started adding a handful of alfalfa pellets to the planting hole. Before alfalfa, small tomatoes. After alfalfa, big tomatoes, and good crops even in years that everyone else around here said were bad tomato years. But I've also always used homemade compost, too, and lots and lots of mulch.

Maybe it's the varieties? or the planting time?

[Sun City Linda]

LOL, I hear your determination but sometimes mother nature moves slower than we would like. I dont really know anything about dirt and only a little about growing heirloom tomatoes, which I do in containers. I do know that orgainc materials take a while to break down as opposed to synthetic materials, which are generally immediately available.

Again, I think a local, privately owned nursery is your best bet. If you can find one, show up at nonpeak hours with your test results and see what kind of suggestions you get.

[Got Worms?]

If you're having a lot of trouble growing tomatoes in fertile soil and your PH isn't that far off then maybe you should look to some other conditions which may be the cause, like: do they get enough uninterrupted sunlight... at least 6 hrs. Do they have decent drainage. Is the soil friable, is it light enough to hold both water and air? What about compost. Do you add compost from municipal sources that may be contaminated with herbicides (golf course grass trimmings) etc. Just trying to figure out this one tomato per plant thing, which is just not normal.

A cause for concern: A high concentration of zinc in the soil is not normal in nature and can have an adverse reaction on plant life. The most common ways zinc gets concentrated in soil is by living too close to a metal smelter or plant that alloys metals. Another is by adding coal ash, fly ash, or coal cinders to the soil as an amendment, mistakenly believing that it is good for the soil. It is not. It is poison. Wood ash is okay. Sorry, I don't want to scare you, I just want to make you aware that a little zinc is good for both plants and humans, but a lot of zinc is bad for both plants and humans. Zinc
Charlie

[RayR]

The amount of lime that they are recommending to bump your PH up a little is very small at 70lb/1000sq/ft, hardly enough to overdose your soil with Mg or Ca if you use Dolomite. Your ratio of Ca to Mg is real good, so you are in no danger of compaction from too much Mg.
Your Cation Exchange Capacity @ 14.0 meq/100g is kinda low, the lower the CEC, the faster carbonates like lime will raise your PH. People with high CEC soils would expect lime to act slowly, but your soil isn't their soil.
As habitat_gardener said, "The right amount of Ca increases the availability of other nutrients and microbial activity.", your organic matter content is high, bumping up the PH a little will increase bacterial activity and help break it down.
Also Tomato plants are going to consume quite a bit of Ca and Mg through the season, so adding a tiny bit more isn't going to hurt anyway.

[Ms. Jitomate]

This area has not been planted with heirloom tomatoes. I think part of my problem with heirloom tomatoes is selecting by description on the labels at nurseries rather than thinking about my microclimate. I can easily grow Early Girl, Champion, and Big Beef. I get lots of sun because it faces south. I plant by March 17 here in Pasadena, California. This year I concentrated on tomatoes from two seed companies in California, Wild Boar and Heritage Tomato, which have tomatoes growing in their nursery or farm.

Local nurseries here don’t grow anything in their nurseries. They have trucks delivering their plants to their location. I struggled to find a large quantity of growing media for my seeds until I went into a hydroponic store. As I mentioned earlier, one nursery manager said my pH was ok and recommended I don’t add anything. Another nursery owner wanted a copy of my soil analysis test because he had never had a customer bring one in but he did say “dolomite lime” was the same as dolomite.

I am a late convert on compost. I have been making my own compost for the last two years using my grass, leaves, kitchen scraps, neighbor’s leaves, chicken manure/bedding, newspaper, and vegetable garden waste. When I don’t have enough I have bought compost, usually at Whole Foods Market. Somehow after reading the suggestions I remember reading somewhere that compost can adjust the pH in blueberries as needed but I don’t remember where I read it.

I discussed the Zinc problem with my husband and these are what we came up as possible contributors:

• Chicken wire – 3 years ago
• Old galvanized pipes from my house which were re-purposed to hold up the chicken wire
• Rebar – 2 years to fix the chicken wire where the dog pushes in
• Plastic coated stakes that lost their plastic coat – 3 years holding up chicken wire
• Metal pet enclosure, also re-purposed after we removed the chicken wire to keep pets out, which we looked up in the website, has “long lasting silver zinc coating.” – only 5 months up.

No metal smelters or plant that alloy metals in my area and we don’t add ash or cinders to our soil. I also used a stainless steel scooper to scoop out the soil sample mailed out.

[Redbaron]

Your soil is good. Almost great. Go ahead and add the dolomite and sulfur like they say and maybe a little greensand (optional) and your soil should be very productive this year. In a way, if you follow their instructions, your soil is almost ideal.

Here is why. Dolomite releases very slowly. But right when the nitrogen which is high starts lowering, the Phosphorous and new calcium will be releasing ever so slowly, and right when you need it. The soil should switch from being ideal for growth to almost ideal for fruiting.

All you need is to make sure you inoculate with Mycorrhiza and the biology will help make sure your plants get what they need, when they need it. The dolomite might not completely have adjusted your over-all Ph yet, but the tiny root hairs and Mycorrhiza will locate the tiny particles of dolomite and find enough of what the plants need as the overall soil slowly adjusts.

Good Luck!

[RayR]

The high zinc level is another good reason to follow the liming recommendation, Zinc availability decreases with an increase in PH and in the case of dolomite lime, Zinc is locked up by the magnesium carbonate molecule.
High Zinc levels have a negative effect on soil life, maybe that's a possibility why the organic matter levels have remained so high.

[tqn626]

They sell Dolomite lime at San Gabriel Nursery, 8 bucks for, I think 2 lb box. My soil is pretty bad, I ended up just dumping new soil on the old one and made a raised bed out of bricks.

Wish I could buy LGM planting mix in bulk, the company is based in south el monte, called them and they said they don't sell to individuals =(.

[Ms. Jitomate]

Thank you all for your thoughts and the explanation of the chemistry involved in the soil. I feel more confident following through with the recommendation and buying the correct products to add to my soil. I wish you were all local so I could share my future tomatoes with you!

[dice]

Could have been accumuluted via buildup from years of using
synthetic fertilizers that were sourced by the companies that
sold them from industrial waste (or even mostly organic fertilizers
that had a "micronutriet additive" sourced from industrial waste).

Do a www search for "Bay Zinc" and "fertilizer" some time to
grasp the true scope of the problem.

Remediation usually is a process of growing trees in the soil
that will take up excess zinc, lead, cadmium, etc, then
harvesting the trees and disposing of them.

[Ms. Jitomate]

I'm not much of a fertilizer user but about 10 years ago I added gypsum because the soil wasn't holding water well--advice from a nursery worker. I didn't see any difference in water retention so that's when I started dumping dry avocado leaves and kitchen scraps in this area. 28 years ago when we moved in there were roses planted in that bed but I pulled them out because they were very old with big trunks and I wanted tomatoes. Maybe the previous owners used rose fertilizer.

I will definitely do another soil test next year.

[habitat_gardener]

Originally Posted by Ms. Jitomate

I'm not much of a fertilizer user but about 10 years ago I added gypsum because the soil wasn't holding water well--advice from a nursery worker. I didn't see any difference in water retention so that's when I started dumping dry avocado leaves and kitchen scraps in this area. 28 years ago when we moved in there were roses planted in that bed but I pulled them out because they were very old with big trunks and I wanted tomatoes. Maybe the previous owners used rose fertilizer.

I will definitely do another soil test next year.

Is it at all possible that the zinc was from whatever tools you used to dig the soil?

[Ms. Jitomate]

Well, I put more time researching this high level of zinc in my soil and I found this article from a Plant and Soil, June 1978, www.springerlink.com/index/3137N50553PV5585.pdf which states that it could stunt your corn. Corn was the last vegetable planted there this past summer and I did get the shortest corn stalks from previous years. I had no idea why. I thought it was weather related. It states,

"At 15.9 ppm Zn level, the growth of maize became stunted and this effect intensified with further increase in zinc level."

So I researched where this zinc may be coming from and I find another article from Clemson University, http://www.clemson.edu/public/regula...onutrients.pdf.
It states,

"In old peach orchards, zinc soil toxicity can occur following years of applying zinc-containing fungicides. Repeated use of sludge, slag, or poultry litter, all of which can contain high
concentrations of zinc, may result in soil zinc toxicity. The potential for a zinc toxicity can be
reduced or eliminated by liming the soil to raise the water pH above 6.0 or 6.5, the pH level
normally recommended for the crop growing or to be grown."

Well, I have been adding my chicken manure exactly 3 times in my three years I have had chickens. And, I have purchased chicken manure from the garden stores and added that to my soil prior to owning chickens. Could this be the real source of the increase in zinc? I thought chicken manure was one of the best organic fertilizers. Any thoughts?