Comments for International Ag Labs Weblog http://aglabs.com/wordpress Making soil better to grow quality crops Tue, 04 Oct 2011 23:59:27 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Comment on Accuracy of a Soil Test by joevic tabligan http://aglabs.com/wordpress/2010/09/accuracy-of-a-soil-test-2/comment-page-1/#comment-40 joevic tabligan Tue, 04 Oct 2011 23:59:27 +0000 http://aglabs.com/wordpress/?p=48#comment-40 I am from Phil. I just want to ask if you have idea on how to manage a mango plantation and sugar cane farm. what kind of fertilizers is best to improve it's quality. I am from Phil. I just want to ask if you have idea on how to manage a mango plantation and sugar cane farm. what kind of fertilizers is best to improve it’s quality.

]]> Comment on Accuracy of a Soil Test by Jon Frank http://aglabs.com/wordpress/2010/09/accuracy-of-a-soil-test-2/comment-page-1/#comment-39 Jon Frank Mon, 20 Jun 2011 19:08:20 +0000 http://aglabs.com/wordpress/?p=48#comment-39 Mark Carbonized Limestone is lower pH at around the low 7's instead of 9 for plain limestone. This could help your soil immensely. Thanks for sharing. Mark

Carbonized Limestone is lower pH at around the low 7′s instead of 9 for plain limestone. This could help your soil immensely.

Thanks for sharing.

]]> Comment on Accuracy of a Soil Test by Jamie Hurst http://aglabs.com/wordpress/2010/09/accuracy-of-a-soil-test-2/comment-page-1/#comment-38 Jamie Hurst Mon, 16 May 2011 15:00:41 +0000 http://aglabs.com/wordpress/?p=48#comment-38 I am very new to all of this and am looking for how to create soil that can be used to create container pots for herb gardens. I do not want to purchase any soil from our local feed stores because I do not have a glue what is in it. I have sent a sample of my soil at my home of 63'x210' and Luke Lemmers is preparing a mineral mixture to add to this depleted soil for this purpose. I am a master gardener and a graduate of the RBTI School in Tennessee by Dr. Wiles who took over the work or Dr. Reams for helping us to be healthier. I am very concerned about blood test for people and realize the uncertainy for the info we get from that and see why we could have some of the same problems with soil. I know some types of diabetees can be cured because after my daughter and son-in-law came to live with me the Medical Doctors took him off of insulin because he was no longer a diabetic after eating the better food (less meat more veggies & whole grains and less fruit) that I had to offer. I want to be able to use the formula of how to treat the depleted soil and add to it other things to create my own mixture for a certain plant (like Perlite, Vermiculite, peat moss, compost and cow and or pidgen manure. I go for my first appointment tomorrow to help one of my best friends create an herb garden. Please let me know your thoughts as soon as you can. Thank you. Jamie Hurst in Kaplan, LA...337-523-9380 or jamie123hurst@yahoo.com ---also I have a Facebook section but you have to invite me to be a friend I am very new to all of this and am looking for how to create soil that can be used to create container pots for herb gardens.
I do not want to purchase any soil from our local feed stores because I do not have a glue what is in it.
I have sent a sample of my soil at my home of 63′x210′ and Luke Lemmers is preparing a mineral mixture to add to this depleted soil for this purpose. I am a master gardener and a graduate of the RBTI School in Tennessee by Dr. Wiles who took over the work or Dr. Reams for helping us to be healthier. I am very concerned about blood test for people and realize the uncertainy for the info we get from that and see why we could have some of the same problems with soil. I know some types of diabetees can be cured because after my daughter and son-in-law came to live with me the Medical Doctors took him off of insulin because he was no longer a diabetic after eating the better food (less meat more veggies & whole grains and less fruit) that I had to offer. I want to be able to use the formula of how to treat the depleted soil and add to it other things to create my own mixture for a certain plant (like Perlite, Vermiculite, peat moss, compost and cow and or pidgen manure. I go for my first appointment tomorrow to help one of my best friends create an herb garden. Please let me know your thoughts as soon as you can. Thank you. Jamie Hurst in Kaplan, LA…337-523-9380 or jamie123hurst@yahoo.com —also I have a Facebook section but you have to invite me to be a friend

]]> Comment on Accuracy of a Soil Test by Clay all over farms http://aglabs.com/wordpress/2010/09/accuracy-of-a-soil-test-2/comment-page-1/#comment-37 Clay all over farms Mon, 16 May 2011 12:35:12 +0000 http://aglabs.com/wordpress/?p=48#comment-37 i will share our families expirience, We farm on heavy clay soil bearbrook clay they call it, They once called it lake champlain. The soil had a naturaly high K value and to make things even harder to plow was the high mg and low calcium. This was not a very good situation as we now know for crop growth. at the time my father was believing a locale college and all they ever said was to and more k and so we did and things got worse and it was at this time that our father got in to researching things a little more instead of taking the easy way out and calling the college for more multinational corporation advice. he was able to atend a field day with a neighbour of ours, it was the casi books that got him interested and from there on we started on ridges which we are still on today but we break them down every two years to help airate the soil. Going to the ridges was the first step then we started banding the herbicides planter or cultivator. liquid systems were installed on every planter cultivator to make better use of our fertilizer dollars. after a few years pure ridgetilling and not breaking the ride we got a hard lesson on the subject fertilizer quallity from then on we were using orthophosphate rater than polyphosphates since we are in a cold climate orthophosphate does not need to be converted to be available and who really wants those heavy metals from the automobile industry anyways way to expensive for what would otherwise be a hazardous waste. It was at this piont that things started to turn around for use the crops were doing much better the worms were starting to increase in numbers but we still had one thing we did not like and that was the rate of drainage the soil still did not drain like we would like it would take to long for the soil to dry to plant making it realy hard for use to plant and when we could it would dryup and make cement causing seed to soil contact to be very low. Ao we had to add some stone dust from a quarry about 2 km from us to increase th calcium content this inproved the situation but still not to the piont that we liked and our ph was getting up to high so we had to use Gypsum to get things moving a did things ever start to change the drainage was working alot better, as if it removed a lower hardpan that we had failed to remove with our tillage practices. at this piont we became in contact with the reams soil testing kit wich at that time we did not know it was a special testing procedure my dad had bought the kit from a locale consultant that was retiring. after about a year we relized what we had in our hand the very thing my father had been looking for a test that would not confuse him to death and that worked, with more reasearch and study it became aperant to us that conventional farming was not going to work for us and sustainable farming was the way to go it was working the soil crop yields showed it we are able to be more confident about the yields soil drainage after a rain less disease problems and less rotting of grain. I will post more another time, as it stands today conventional soil tests are good to give one an idea of what is in the soil not available the reams test is the one that closely reflects what is going on in the field. i will share our families expirience, We farm on heavy clay soil bearbrook clay they call it, They once called it lake champlain. The soil had a naturaly high K value and to make things even harder to plow was the high mg and low calcium. This was not a very good situation as we now know for crop growth. at the time my father was believing a locale college and all they ever said was to and more k and so we did and things got worse and it was at this time that our father got in to researching things a little more instead of taking the easy way out and calling the college for more multinational corporation advice. he was able to atend a field day with a neighbour of ours, it was the casi books that got him interested and from there on we started on ridges which we are still on today but we break them down every two years to help airate the soil. Going to the ridges was the first step then we started banding the herbicides planter or cultivator. liquid systems were installed on every planter cultivator to make better use of our fertilizer dollars. after a few years pure ridgetilling and not breaking the ride we got a hard lesson on the subject fertilizer quallity from then on we were using orthophosphate rater than polyphosphates since we are in a cold climate orthophosphate does not need to be converted to be available and who really wants those heavy metals from the automobile industry anyways way to expensive for what would otherwise be a hazardous waste. It was at this piont that things started to turn around for use the crops were doing much better the worms were starting to increase in numbers but we still had one thing we did not like and that was the rate of drainage the soil still did not drain like we would like it would take to long for the soil to dry to plant making it realy hard for use to plant and when we could it would dryup and make cement causing seed to soil contact to be very low. Ao we had to add some stone dust from a quarry about 2 km from us to increase th calcium content this inproved the situation but still not to the piont that we liked and our ph was getting up to high so we had to use Gypsum to get things moving a did things ever start to change the drainage was working alot better, as if it removed a lower hardpan that we had failed to remove with our tillage practices. at this piont we became in contact with the reams soil testing kit wich at that time we did not know it was a special testing procedure my dad had bought the kit from a locale consultant that was retiring. after about a year we relized what we had in our hand the very thing my father had been looking for a test that would not confuse him to death and that worked, with more reasearch and study it became aperant to us that conventional farming was not going to work for us and sustainable farming was the way to go it was working the soil crop yields showed it we are able to be more confident about the yields soil drainage after a rain less disease problems and less rotting of grain. I will post more another time, as it stands today conventional soil tests are good to give one an idea of what is in the soil not available the reams test is the one that closely reflects what is going on in the field.

]]> Comment on Chilean Nitrate Temporary Price Reduction by Howard Lawrence http://aglabs.com/wordpress/2009/05/chilean-nitrate-temporary-price-reduction/comment-page-1/#comment-36 Howard Lawrence Sun, 24 Apr 2011 03:46:46 +0000 http://aglabs.com/wordpress/?p=11#comment-36 Where is this shipping from, and what is the freight cost to Tallahassee Fl.? Where is this shipping from, and what is the freight cost to Tallahassee Fl.?

]]> Comment on Accuracy of a Soil Test by Tom Gibson http://aglabs.com/wordpress/2010/09/accuracy-of-a-soil-test-2/comment-page-1/#comment-35 Tom Gibson Wed, 23 Mar 2011 19:02:31 +0000 http://aglabs.com/wordpress/?p=48#comment-35 The test results don't show what test was ordered so I am not sure what product/service you are showing. Can you show examples of S-1, S-4, and S-5 or label your results so we can see what information you are giving on those tests? The test results don’t show what test was ordered so I am not sure what product/service you are showing. Can you show examples of S-1, S-4, and S-5 or label your results so we can see what information you are giving on those tests?

]]> Comment on Accuracy of a Soil Test by Jon Frank http://aglabs.com/wordpress/2010/09/accuracy-of-a-soil-test-2/comment-page-1/#comment-34 Jon Frank Tue, 21 Dec 2010 21:07:24 +0000 http://aglabs.com/wordpress/?p=48#comment-34 Muchas gracias, siempre es bienvenido al blog. Esperamos que vuelva siempre para encontrar noticias y actualizaciones valiosas. Muchas gracias, siempre es bienvenido al blog. Esperamos que vuelva siempre para encontrar noticias y actualizaciones valiosas.

]]> Comment on Accuracy of a Soil Test by Jon Frank http://aglabs.com/wordpress/2010/09/accuracy-of-a-soil-test-2/comment-page-1/#comment-33 Jon Frank Tue, 21 Dec 2010 21:04:37 +0000 http://aglabs.com/wordpress/?p=48#comment-33 Marcus, You are on the right path but Sea salt by itself won't get you where you where you want to go. It is much better to analyze soil, provide what is missing (including sea salt if sodium is low), then repeat yearly. See www.highbrixgardens.com for more info. -Jon Marcus, You are on the right path but Sea salt by itself won’t get you where you where you want to go. It is much better to analyze soil, provide what is missing (including sea salt if sodium is low), then repeat yearly. See http://www.highbrixgardens.com for more info. -Jon

]]> Comment on Accuracy of a Soil Test by Jon Frank http://aglabs.com/wordpress/2010/09/accuracy-of-a-soil-test-2/comment-page-1/#comment-32 Jon Frank Tue, 21 Dec 2010 21:00:37 +0000 http://aglabs.com/wordpress/?p=48#comment-32 Gary, Except for Wendell's field the other samples were selected to give a side by side comparison of testing results. Production not known. The calcium is high in Wendell's field because the soil was derived from a high calcium subsoil. You can be sure he has not added any calcium in except possibly a small amount of gypsum. Gary, Except for Wendell’s field the other samples were selected to give a side by side comparison of testing results. Production not known.

The calcium is high in Wendell’s field because the soil was derived from a high calcium subsoil. You can be sure he has not added any calcium in except possibly a small amount of gypsum.

]]> Comment on Accuracy of a Soil Test by Marcus Ferrell http://aglabs.com/wordpress/2010/09/accuracy-of-a-soil-test-2/comment-page-1/#comment-31 Marcus Ferrell Tue, 21 Dec 2010 14:28:51 +0000 http://aglabs.com/wordpress/?p=48#comment-31 I'm a firm believer in testing. If you don't know what's missing how can you make it available to the plants? BUT, I am also a firm believer in testing the human body to determine what IT is lacking in as well. Then put THOSE missing elements in the soil for the plants to process and make available to the body. It's a more holistic approach I think. We are what we eat, but I feel it does little good ot eat something that's not providing everything the body needs in balanced proportions. This spring I will be putting this theory to the test with a small garden (1/4 acre) using seas salt as a fertilizer to replenish the soil, backed up with soil testing before and after application, plus having my own self tested for deficiencies. I am making arrangements with a local university to have my produce tested for nutrient and trace element content, and as a control, I will be sending produce from local markets along with mine to be tested as well. Sea salt contains 90+ minerals and trace elements, all which have runoff from the land since forever, and I want to see exactly how many my plants will take advantage of and pass along to ME in thier fruits. My belief is this : If you heal the soil, the soil will heal the plants on it, and the plants will pass that healing along to the person who eats them. I’m a firm believer in testing. If you don’t know what’s missing
how can you make it available to the plants? BUT, I am also a firm
believer in testing the human body to determine what IT is lacking
in as well. Then put THOSE missing elements in the soil for the
plants to process and make available to the body. It’s a more holistic approach I think.

We are what we eat, but I feel it does little good ot eat something that’s not providing everything the body needs in balanced proportions.

This spring I will be putting this theory to the test with a small garden (1/4 acre) using seas salt as a fertilizer to
replenish the soil, backed up with soil testing before and after
application, plus having my own self tested for deficiencies.

I am making arrangements with a local university to have my produce tested for nutrient and trace element content, and as a control, I will be sending produce from local markets along with mine to be tested as well.

Sea salt contains 90+ minerals and trace elements, all which have runoff from the land since forever, and I want to see exactly how many my plants will take advantage of and pass along to ME in thier fruits.

My belief is this : If you heal the soil, the soil will heal the plants on it, and the plants will pass that healing along to the person who eats them.

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