Firstly, contact us so we can come and take a soil sample. When you get your soil test results, you will also receive an Analysis of Sample plus an Action Plan. Our aim is to balance the soil chemical elements so that the transition to a biological system is much easier. The products recommended for this balancing are natural soil stimulants; some are registered organic products and all are soil building products.
The first action you need to undertake is to balance out the calcium/magnesium soil ratio. The easiest option is to review the results in the soil report under “Percentage” in the “Adjusted CEC (Cation Exchange Capacity) column.
Understand your type of soil: For a clay-based soil, Calcium percentage needs to be 65-68% and Magnesium needs to be 12-15%. For a sand-based soil, Calcium percentage needs to be around 60% and Magnesium needs to be around 20%.
The soil profile needs to have the following elements where Calcium is in the greatest proportion followed by Phosphorus then Potassium, followed by Magnesium and then Sulphur, all in proportion.
In both cases, the CEC needs to add up as close to 80% as possible. Most soils I encounter require an amount of calcium to be applied, so without jumping to an immediate conclusion, the soil test will reveal the available phosphorus and/or available sulphur, which will help to determine the product we recommend to use. A number of growers/farmers use lime, dolomite or Gypsum because the calcium is low. However, lime (calcium carbonate) is a very hard element to break, releasing the calcium, and unless your soil has plenty of sulphur or phosphorus in the form of an acid or plenty of lactobacillus bacteria then lime will certainly NOT be the best product to use. Growers put out lime and see no or very little result because they do not have the naturally occurring acids to break the lime down so the soil can utilise it. There are a number of other products to use such as Soft Rock Phosphate, CMP or N-Fix Ag which will get the calcium components active within the soil profile.
A good soil profile will have more calcium than phosphorus, more phosphorus than potassium, more potassium than magnesium more magnesium than sulphur. That is the way nature intended the soil balance to exist. Any questions email soil@soilcharge.com.au
