[Terrapreta] Fwd: interesting situation

[Philip Small]

Hello Jim:

One can quantify the imbalance by taking tthe shortfall on a % of CEC basis,
convert the amount from meq/100gms to ppm to lbs/acre furrow slice (6 -7
inches, or about 2 million pounds, handy when going form ppm to pounds per
acre).  It can calculate to a far higher need for calcium than common sense
would dictate. Better used for setting a heading than a destination.

For background see
http://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrary/010143albpap/pH.balanced%20nutrition/pH.bal.nut.htm
"As a working code, we have suggested and used the following percentages
saturation to represent balanced plant nutrition: hydrogen l0% calcium
60-75%; magnesium 10-20, (7-15)%; potassium 2-5%; sodium 0.5-5.0%; and other
cations 5%"

Google on William Albrecht for more information.

WA came to prominence when he discerned a high correlation between health
differences in WWII soldiers with the soil calcium status in their locale of
origin. His ratios are specific to that correlation. As you may be aware
soil calcium levels generally increase as one travels west between the
Appalachians and the Rockies.  At the time he tied observed health effects
to animal product calcium levels as tied to forage calcium levels.
Application of Albrecht's ratios in agricultural prescriptions is far more
common in the Appalachian-to-Rockies ag areas than in my area, the Pacific
West of the US. -phil

On Fri, May 9, 2008 at 7:20 AM, Jim Joyner <jimstoy at dtccom.net> wrote:

>  Thanks max.
>
> That statement doesn't appear on A&L's analysis so I've never seen it. I
> guess what I don't understand is, how do you figure the amount of calcium or
> magnesium you need in the soil from a ratio?
>
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