Soil test results

[Bio boy]

I had my soils tested 2 grow rooms after 4-8 tills and got results of why I had problems I’m trying to understand them but weee what a web to dig inside

sample a is a full bed 3.5ftx3.5ft and 12cu ft with 6 vegging plants That look deficient as hell . So their applications to correct problems is different than my next sample as I can’t mix the bed

sample b is mixed to peat soil mix lightly amended by the company biobiz and tested its in bags ready to pot up so can be evenly mixed beforehand

my take from this is
ca is high as hell and sodium is both can bind an leach out with sulphuric and citric acid but only by bacterial actions they are released I don’t know about adding them or when to stop so

molybdenum is supplied by bacteria too and that’s low here my iron and sulphur are fine so adding them to reduce ph seems a bit touch and go although they do take several months to break down and will be depleted by then that could be an option

the p and k and mg are excessive so I don’t need to add epsom for a while it was other problems not mg so added peat will reduce the p k and mg I guess nitrogen will be high too but didn’t test that the peat will reduce ph too but is not a direct adjustment to rely on

manganease is stimulated by bacteria it’s In a lot but in small amounts carrots are known to grow in salty soil and have manganese the green tops chopped would reduce ph with a green mulch too and add natural air passages like my diakon radish do with them long roots

Again I am guessing I’ve a lot of research I’ve not added yet as I’m still confirming and researching but all up I feel that my meals and feeds have over fertilized the soil and addition of a low ph peat will benefit the bpk ph ca will buffer on the peat and release sodium too moly will come with bacteria when the herd comes back and manganese with a carrot crop lol

mg is fine so I need plain ro water from now on and test at the end of my grow again

 

[X15]

Good Luck! Let us know how things go. Got any pics of the plants that are suffering?

 

[Bio boy]

Good Luck! Let us know how things go. Got any pics of the plants that are suffering?

I will get a pic in the morning for ya. I don’t dare plant my next ones in pots there my rate cuts lol need to find out about the soil before they go in

but the ones in the bed already I will get pics the middle one seems to be getting better but edges are freaking out purple stems weird chlorosis

I read till 5 ca can build up ? I have no idea the numbers seem off the chart but also says not for peat and organic soils which the tester didn’t mension pfft

also confusing as 1 sample was mixed equally to a ready made soil biobiz all mix and has similar results to my fresh amended bed that wasn’t mixed with a complete soil

hope a wizard knows what’s going on here like @dank.frank or @Microbeman but holidays I guess everyone’s out shopping atm lol

fail option would be to go get some gianokalong soil to use instead but that gota be fed like a bitch to get it going

 

[Bio boy]

Good Luck! Let us know how things go. Got any pics of the plants that are suffering?

 

[Bio boy]

No idea how to but at least think it’s what am reading about atm

Salinity amendments

Salinity Management - Salinity amendments

ucanr.edu

 

[Three Berries]

No idea how to but at least think it’s what am reading about atm

Salinity amendments

Salinity Management - Salinity amendments

ucanr.edu

They all do the same thing it looks like, either adding gypsum directly or use acid and microbes to make it in the soil. But it does not look like it removes the sodium.

 

[X15]

So that info on salinity is the kind of stuff I used in the Turfgrass industry and doesn’t really pertain to potted plants so much. Salinity is tricky and can really become a losing battle, pretty quickly. As theres usually underlying issues causing the build up, and salinity is often battled with mucho h2o… and there’s just Not much give with potted plants or large beds (organic soil) and the amount of h2o required to really make a diff. Things need to cycle.
Try to keep in mind your h2o, Nutrients, plus quality and quality of amendments, times your e.t. rate and overall microbial health will all play into the longevity of your above ground soil. You need your plants roots help too. So when things build up it might be easier to buffer things by removing what you can and replacing with some fresh peat or some spent Soil you know has less of what your target issue is..

 

[X15]

If you really want to keep that soil… Grow some carrots like you mentioned, grow some greens, clover, some radish. Just grow stuff and let the roots fix what they can. Get some long vegetative cycles going so they can migrate around and get deep into that thing. They will eventually become channels for later root growth. Highways baby!
Good microbial diversity will allow things to cycle more efficiently.

 

[Bio boy]

If you really want to keep that soil… Grow some carrots like you mentioned, grow some greens, clover, some radish. Just grow stuff and let the roots fix what they can. Get some long vegetative cycles going so they can migrate around and get deep into that thing. They will eventually become channels for later root growth. Highways baby!
Good microbial diversity will allow things to cycle more efficiently.

The only reason I really wanna keep it is told it gets better with time
and cause of the cost to get another 12cu mixed up lol
last thing I wanna do is compromise my yields though

do you think the soil tests could be wrong as I am organic matter someone said they dissolve everything and test and in a fert fed garden that would be ok or you would see missing and apply that there should only be that there not more built up
but organic being all in mulched up layers and minerals slowly digesting what digests over months if they did break it down in 1 go that would be damn salty and alot of npk like what’s shown

since worms got in the middle plant seems to be green the edges seem to be shading though

I’m wondering if I innoculate it again as I dont even have any bugs crawling anymore in my soil Like I did before it was heaving lol

what would you do with having like 500litres of soil like this ?

 

[Chunkypigs]

who or what type of business did that soil test? I assume it's from the EU somewhere?

the interpretation on soil tests is highly skewed to regional soil make up and for conventional commodity crops, not for cannabis with high expressions of secondary metabolites grown in the ultra light mixes we use that have huge levels of organic matter supplied by peat and compost.

there is no real agreement about the ideal quantities quantities for mineral content in soil and interpreting test results is a bit like witchcraft. when you have very high levels of calcium like you and I have it's advised to have a special test, the AA8.2ph to get a more accurate estimate of Calcium while using the Melich 3 test for the rest of the figures going into the Base Saturation percentages.

the mix you are using is miles away from soil in a field and also very far from what most bagged soil sold for canna. the CEC is in the mid 80's, about 8 times higher than what I have on my land.

one of the first things people are looking at from a soil test is base cation %'s but they didn't give you any so I plugged them into my spreadsheet.

sample A

Sample B

your sodium levels are just way high and flushing the material with water and gypsum might help but might still leave you too high, since the beds are small I would be tempted to start from scratch because the CEC is already so massive.

Slownickle suggests aiming for a CEC of 12.

one thing many people agree about in mineral balancing is the you want the same level of potassium, Phosphorus and Sulfur expressed in elemental ppm. your P and S values are 10-15 times lower than your K.

Calcium levels are argued about but agreed that they should be 68-85% of the base cation %, you are low on both but if you had a AA8.2 test run to get accurate numbers for high calcium soil it would probably look very low.

without discussing the micro nutrient levels it's no surprise your plants are unhappy as the macros are out of balance so far.

adding something like TM-7 to your feeds would help with your low levels of MN, Cu, Zn...

there is a free book in pdf form online called the ideal soil by Astera that is a good starting point to help understand what these tests tell you and how to respond to them, the author has several threads here on ICmag.

Balancing Soil Minerals

Balancing Soil Minerals Hi All- Michael Astera here. I'm starting this thread hoping to get a discussion going about the connection between soil minerals and world class cannabis. Some ICMag members know me from the soilminerals dot com website or from The Ideal Soil book, or from email...

www.icmag.com

great thread here by Slownickle on soil balancing here too.

Slownickel lounge, pull up a chair. CEC interpretation

A great video to watch. Personally, I agree a bit more with Albrecht and Tiedjens.... closer to 85% Ca. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-aOvYH-HNQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player

www.icmag.com

there are videos here that might help but the channel is mostly promotion for their classes in indoor living soil gardening and soil mineral chemistry.

https://www.youtube.com/@thecrescivemethod/videos

this guy is a good resource on IG.

https://www.instagram.com/soil_doctor/

Soil Doctor

www.soildoctorconsulting.com

 

[Bio boy]

who or what type of business did that soil test? I assume it's from the EU somewhere?

the interpretation on soil tests is highly skewed to regional soil make up and for conventional commodity crops, not for cannabis with high expressions of secondary metabolites grown in the ultra light mixes we use that have huge levels of organic matter supplied by peat and compost.

there is no real agreement about the ideal quantities quantities for mineral content in soil and interpreting test results is a bit like witchcraft. when you have very high levels of calcium like you and I have it's advised to have a special test, the AA8.2ph to get a more accurate estimate of Calcium while using the Melich 3 test for the rest of the figures going into the Base Saturation percentages.

the mix you are using is miles away from soil in a field and also very far from what most bagged soil sold for canna. the CEC is in the mid 80's, about 8 times higher than what I have on my land.

one of the first things people are looking at from a soil test is base cation %'s but they didn't give you any so I plugged them into my spreadsheet.

sample A

View attachment 18793707
Sample B

View attachment 18793708

your sodium levels are just way high and flushing the material with water and gypsum might help but might still leave you too high, since the beds are small I would be tempted to start from scratch because the CEC is already so massive.

Slownickle suggests aiming for a CEC of 12.

one thing many people agree about in mineral balancing is the you want the same level of potassium, Phosphorus and Sulfur expressed in elemental ppm. your P and S values are 10-15 times lower than your K.

Calcium levels are argued about but agreed that they should be 68-85% of the base cation %, you are low on both but if you had a AA8.2 test run to get accurate numbers for high calcium soil it would probably look very low.

without discussing the micro nutrient levels it's no surprise your plants are unhappy as the macros are out of balance so far.

adding something like TM-7 to your feeds would help with your low levels of MN, Cu, Zn...

there is a free book in pdf form online called the ideal soil by Astera that is a good starting point to help understand what these tests tell you and how to respond to them, the author has several threads here on ICmag.

Balancing Soil Minerals

Balancing Soil Minerals Hi All- Michael Astera here. I'm starting this thread hoping to get a discussion going about the connection between soil minerals and world class cannabis. Some ICMag members know me from the soilminerals dot com website or from The Ideal Soil book, or from email...

www.icmag.com

great thread here by Slownickle on soil balancing here too.

Slownickel lounge, pull up a chair. CEC interpretation

A great video to watch. Personally, I agree a bit more with Albrecht and Tiedjens.... closer to 85% Ca. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-aOvYH-HNQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player

www.icmag.com

there are videos here that might help but the channel is mostly promotion for their classes in indoor living soil gardening and soil mineral chemistry.

https://www.youtube.com/@thecrescivemethod/videos

this guy is a good resource on IG.

https://www.instagram.com/soil_doctor/

Soil Doctor

www.soildoctorconsulting.com

It’s a place called hill court farm
it’s a small farm that do tests n shit 3 microbiologists so kinda trusted em

this is what they did
Phosphorus (P): Olsen P extraction (0.5M NaHCO3)

Potassium (K), Magnesium (Mg), Calcium (Ca), Sodium (Na), Manganese (Mn): 1 M Ammonium Nitrate extraction

Sulphur (S): 0.016 M K2PO4

Boron (B): Hot water extraction

Iron (Fe), Zinc (Zn), Copper (Cu), Molybdate (Mo): 0.5 M EDTA

pH: Extracted in deionised water

Organic Matter (OM): Loss of ignition at 400 °C

effective Cation Exchange Capacity (eCEC): Charge-equivalent sum of Ca, K, Mg,Na.


thankyou for the reply and transferring that to data
I will remix my sample b which is still in bags waiting advice like this and ditch the soil .

bloody sample a though there in the bed ! Kinda can’t uproot em easily can i ? What if I increased their volume with a comfrey bracken compost we have local organic
is there maths for how much to add for reduction lol like adding new soil on top

or could dig out as much as I could by hand til I see roots and replace it ? I’m crying now or would ya pull em out n risk the shock arghh right on Xmas makes it hard got 2weeks till delivery’s back up

Thaught bigger cec better battery you had meh il go read his post and figure that one out
will check out the links now

appart from sodium. Don’t mine match the video almost ?
Ca 65-80 I’m 63
mg 12-25. im 15
p4-8 I’m 8.3
and a cec of 15 well I thaight that would be a good thing was told it’s like the bag that holds the food

i have just woke up btw dehydrated waiting for coffee figuring what I missed in your write up cause I wrekon your right and I’m missing somthing there few smokes and I’ll be awake lol

 

[Bio boy]

The mrs asked me why I can’t just add copper and stuff be done with it But finding it hard to explain to her

the soil is missing phosphorus so bone meal could be added to increase that up then dilute with peat but doesn’t help the salt ca or the minerals

ive thaugh about Dalefoot compost it’s a good compost From comfrey bracken sheep wool hot composted
I could dig out as much soil as possible and replace it with that let the roots grow into there .
I’ve watered the bed till runoff on the tray to try wash shit down but doesn’t really help long run

my bagged soil b I can bin and rebuild from good compost

my beds my worry

 

[Chunkypigs]

The mrs asked me why I can’t just add copper and stuff be done with it But finding it hard to explain to her

the soil is missing phosphorus so bone meal could be added to increase that up then dilute with peat but doesn’t help the salt ca or the minerals

ive thaugh about Dalefoot compost it’s a good compost From comfrey bracken sheep wool hot composted
I could dig out as much soil as possible and replace it with that let the roots grow into there .
I’ve watered the bed till runoff on the tray to try wash shit down but doesn’t really help long run

my bagged soil b I can bin and rebuild from good compost

my beds my worry

I had my soils tested 2 grow rooms after 4-8 tills and got results of why I had problems I’m trying to understand them but weee what a web to dig inside

sample a is a full bed 3.5ftx3.5ft and 12cu ft with 6 vegging plants That look deficient as hell . So their applications to correct problems is different than my next sample as I can’t mix the bed

sample b is mixed to peat soil mix lightly amended by the company biobiz and tested its in bags ready to pot up so can be evenly mixed beforehand

my take from this is
ca is high as hell and sodium is both can bind an leach out with sulphuric and citric acid but only by bacterial actions they are released I don’t know about adding them or when to stop so

molybdenum is supplied by bacteria too and that’s low here my iron and sulphur are fine so adding them to reduce ph seems a bit touch and go although they do take several months to break down and will be depleted by then that could be an option

the p and k and mg are excessive so I don’t need to add epsom for a while it was other problems not mg so added peat will reduce the p k and mg I guess nitrogen will be high too but didn’t test that the peat will reduce ph too but is not a direct adjustment to rely on

manganease is stimulated by bacteria it’s In a lot but in small amounts carrots are known to grow in salty soil and have manganese the green tops chopped would reduce ph with a green mulch too and add natural air passages like my diakon radish do with them long roots

Again I am guessing I’ve a lot of research I’ve not added yet as I’m still confirming and researching but all up I feel that my meals and feeds have over fertilized the soil and addition of a low ph peat will benefit the bpk ph ca will buffer on the peat and release sodium too moly will come with bacteria when the herd comes back and manganese with a carrot crop lol

mg is fine so I need plain ro water from now on and test at the end of my grow again

you can do whatever you like, add more minerals or rip out plants and start over.

I found the Crescive soil balancing class very helpful and saw big increases to my yield and quality after getting my levels close to the targets that Slownickle advocates for nutrients. pushing my micronutrients higher has made the biggest positive change in my flower quality, much more flavor and aroma!

it's a complex subject that took me a few years of study and practice to start to understand and this season i ran 3 beds with different levels of nutrition so I could compare.

Indoor living soil beds seem to be difficult to get dialed in for many folks. the Crescive group has a good training program for them if you can afford the classes. I prefer working outdoors with the sun but not everyone has a good space for that. good luck moving forward with your project!