Soil test results

[duajones]

As you can see, my soil is very high in several areas. To the point I am thinking I may not have sent a good sample, maybe too much of my amendments in the soil I sent. So I called A&M and they said its possible and that they see high levels like that in newly amended beds. This was my first year gardening in the ground in this area. I amended the beds with cotton burr compost, manure, alfalfa and humate, and some coffee grounds. They suggested I retill or turn the soil over and send another sample. Any thoughts?

[feldon30]

Wow, I don't know why the numbers are so high. The super-high phosphorous... Did you use Super Triple Phosphate anywhere in the garden?

[duajones]

Morgan, I have no idea why the phosphorous is so high. I didnt use super phosphate. I just amended the soil as mentioned and used tomato tone, a little epsom salts and a touch of lime in each hole. Side dressed with tomato tone a couple times and thats it. I plan to let the soil dry up a bit and then either till or use a spade to turn the soil, then send in another sample to be tested

edited to add that this is the same area that I have grown tomatoe in containers the past couple years, and generally used MG as the fertilizer and fertilized much more often. Dont know if that is the reason for the high levels or not.

[landarc]

Duane,
I would retill the soil, make sure it is a representative sample and get it retested. For future reference, normally, a soils test should be done prior to amending and tilling. It is easier and more representative of the overall soil composition if you do it then. It is possible that there is a artificially high level of nutrients in the soil if you were watering containers with the use of fertilizer in this area, as not all of the fertilizer would necessarily be held on the plant or in the soil. I kind of doubt this though, as normally a higher level of salts would be present if that where the case.

It is possible, though unusual, for there to simply be a higher than desirable amount of P in your soil. Would kinda speak to the natural base material your soil comes from. I have seen quite a few oddities over the past 20 years of looking at soils reports just in the Northern California area alone.

[duajones]

Bob,

If indeed I do have a higher than desirable amount of P in my soil. What can I do about it? Could I plant something pretty densely in the bed to try and extract some of the P, and some of the other nutrients that I am high on?

[Granny]

duajones, as far as I know "too much" is not a problem in the way that "not enough" is. I would ignore it unless you are having problems.

[duajones]

Im not having any problems but would still like to impove the tilth of the soil as it is pretty compacted clay. Im thinking of maybe adding peat in late fall

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by duajones

Im not having any problems but would still like to impove the tilth of the soil as it is pretty compacted clay. Im thinking of maybe adding peat in late fall

I’m going to try and help out here a little, ‘so you guys with this type of soil can take it for what it’s worth.

First off I have had a lot of experience with this type of soil and sandy soil.
I must tell you that using peat is a very short term remedy for loosening up tight clay soil.
It breaks down too fast; it won’t be there next year.

A better remedy in my opinion and others is to add a 3 inch layer of sandy loam, a 3 inch layer of compost and a 3 inch layer of composted manure.
Go rent a good tiller, one of the fast running rear tine tellers is best and till all of this in to the soil a little at a time.
A mix of 1 inch at a time for the above ingredients would be best.
What you are trying to do is to mix up all of this soil with your existing soil so it will not crack and be hard.

Wait until the soil you have is fairly dry to do this if that is possible with all of this rain.

Do this in the fall and then in the spring till real good one more time plant your tomatoes put down mulch and watch how well they grow
We also fertilized with rabbet and chicken manure later in the year.


I did this when I was a teenager on our 3 acre garden with cow manure from a hundred head of cattle that hung out at the barn and composted saw dust from the sawmill across the road.
I would first run the tractor with an 8 foot tiller at right angles to each other and then run the tractor at 45 degree angles to that.
Then I would put down all of the cow manure and saw dust in a layer all over the garden and till it in with a giant gravely garden tiller.
This fixed the tight black soil we had and had a pretty nice garden; actually it was one of the best in the area.

My reward for this was I got to eat and maybe get to take the 1 ton truck to the swimming hole.



Worth

[duajones]

Worth, Compost and Manure were a part of my original plan along with leaves, coffee grounds and such. I planned to add these each year until I got the tilth that I wanted in the soil. But If I am indeed that high on P, I will need to stay away from compost and manure. Just have to retest and take it from there

[amideutch]

duajones, a couple things I read about P.
The heaviest concentration of P is in the first 8-12" of the soil.

Even though the ph does affect the supply of available P, fixation (unavailability) is greater on clay loams than on sandy loams. This is because the amount of P adsorbed by a particular soil is in relation to the total surface area of the combined soil particles.

In alkaline soils the availability of P drops between ph 7.0 and 8.5. This is because of the inability of the roots to absorb P in this ph range.

So even though you have high levels of P, all of it may not be available to the plants due to (fixation) because of the type of soil or its ph. So in most likelyhood your plants won't "OD" on the P. But I would retill the soil and have another test done. Hopes this helps. Ami

[duajones]

I appreciate the replies as this is all new to me. My goal is healthy soil with good tilth. Looks like the addition of some sandy loam certainly wouldnt hurt. It may be awhile before I can send in another sample. When I do, I will post the results and maybe you guys can steer me in the right direction at that point. Thanks again

[dice]

What kind of manure?

Compost is not typically high in phosphorus,
so you can probably add all that you want
of that. Same for cow, steer, or horse manure.

Did you dump out your old containers into the
beds one fall and till them in the next spring?

[duajones]

Cow manure is what I used, back to nature brand. I did not dump my old containers in the area. The compost I used is cotton burr compost.

http://www.backtonaturecompost.com/cbc.html

[dice]

Maybe cotton burrs themselves are high in phosphorus,
making that stuff quite a bit higher in phosphorus than
typical homemade compost (grass clippings, shredded
leaves, shredded weeds, kitchen wastes, wood ash,
etc), which are typically low in phosphorus compared
to nitrogen and potassium.

You should take a sample from your yard away from
the raised beds and have that analyzed (assuming
that you haven't fertilized). That would give you a
better picture of what was already in the base soil.

You could also mix up a tiny raised bed with what
you used before, someplace where you never placed
containers, and have that tested, to see if it duplicates
the results you got from the raised beds that you have
now.

From the looks of your plants and fruit this year, though,
I wouldn't assume that the phosphorus level is excessive. Like Granny said, more like "abundant".

[jdwhitaker]

The high phosphorus reading is very common in Texas soils, especially if you have heavy clay. You probably would have had a high reading before ever amending the soil. The high phos can lead to iron deficiency among other problems. There's not much you can do other than avoid adding phosphorus as was recommended.

It should also be noted that there is some controversy as to the validity of the test. You probably had your test done by A&M. The organic garden promoters in Texas (Howard Garrett, Malcolm Beck) claim that test done by A&M always incorrectly shows high phosphorus and that you should ignore this or get a test done by someone else that they endorse.
http://www.dirtdoctor.com/view_question.php?id=351

http://froebuck.home.texas.net/toppage.htm

...I personally support the Aggies on this one.

Jason