Category Archives: Soil

Composting – An Introduction

Composting…there are a million ways to do what the earth does naturally in your own backyard. The problems faced by the backyard composter are the limited materials you have available to compost,  the space available for composting, and the lack of machinery or equipment that ease the labor of quick compost methods. But even with […]

Compost Tea Brewing

I’ve been reading a lot about garden ecology these last few months. Garden ecology focuses on the biology of each zone of the garden: deep soil zone, root zone, rhizosphere, leaf zone, outer environment. The healthier each of these zones are, the better your plant grows. What I’ve come to learn is that healthy soil […]

Iron (Fe)

iron is one of the 13 essential elements for plant growth, and is considered a micronutrient based on the concentration required for plant growth principle form of uptake: ionic forms (Fe2+, Fe3+) amount required for healthy plant growth: 100 ppm, dry soil matter soil conditions related to iron deficiencies: calcareous soils with low soluble iron waterlogged soil acid […]

Copper (Cu)

Copper is one of the 13 essential elements for plant growth, and is considered a micronutrient based on the concentration required for plant growth principle form of uptake: ionic form (Cu2+) amount required for healthy plant growth: 6 ppm, dry soil matter soil conditions related to copper deficiency: peat & muck soil calcareous sands leached acid soil […]

Boron (B)

Boron is one of the 13 essential elements for plant growth, and is considered a micronutrient based on the concentration required for plant growth principle form of uptake: boric acid (H3BO3) borate (BO33-) boric acid is preferred over borate as a condition of increased pH (increased alkalinity), boric acid converts to borate relatively immobile in the plant […]

Sulfur (S)

One of the 13 essential elements for plant growth and is one of the 6 Major Elements, based on concentration required Sulfur is essential to good flavor in vegetables principle form of uptake: ionic form sulfate (SO42-) amount required for healthy plant growth: 1,000 ppm, 0.1%, dry soil matter application of about 20 lbs sulfur per acre is […]

Magnesium (Mg)

principle form of uptake: ionic form (Mg2+) One of the 13 essential elements for plant growth and is one of the 6 Major Elements, based on concentration required amount required for healthy plant growth: 2,000 ppm, 0.2%, dry soil matter soil conditions related to deficiencies of magnesium: acidic sandy soils subjected to high rainfall or irrigation […]

Calcium (Ca)

One of the 13 essential elements for plant growth and is one of the 6 Major Elements, based on concentration required calcium is needed in much greater quantity than all the other elements combinedIG calcium is naturally abundantIG principle form of uptake: ionic form (Ca2+) amount required for healthy plant growth: 5,000 ppm, 0.5%, dry soil matter […]

Potassium (K)

One of the 13 essential elements for plant growth and is considered one of the 6 Major Elements, based on concentration required principle form of uptake: ionic form (K+) potassium primarily moves through the soil via diffusion soil factors that affect uptake of potassium by plants: soil moisture movement of ions temperature the level of decomposition of […]