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Reviewing the facts

6037 Views 24 Replies 9 Participants Last post by  aquaverde
I've been reading the western fertilizer Handbook recently to try and figure out more on fertilizing.

Here is an excerpt:
Balance is import in plant nutrition. An excess of one nutrient can cause reduced uptake of another. An excess of potassium, for example, may compete with magnesium uptake in crops. A heavy application of phosphorus may induce a zinc deficiency in soil that is marginal or low in zinc. Excess Iron may induce a manganese deficiency.

It says nothing of Potassium inhibiting Calcium. I think the problem is Magnesium levels instead of calcium, that is why all these expiriments seem to be irradic and unconclusive. Magnesium is being left out. I have a GH of 8 and Dosed a AG grade Potassium chloride that had a considerable amount of Mg. Over time strange problems occured in Micranthermum micranthemoides(Sp?). Now it has completely melted away. The only think i can think of to solve the problem is starting over from scratch and treat deficiencies as they show up until i get a handle on things.

The book also suggests and i dont want to type it all out so i will abbreviate:
Visual symptoms of nutrient deficiencies can be useful but are not conclusive. Only a trained proffessional can know if it is a deficiency or another problem like root aeration and toxicity.

Also incase you didn't know (Like me) Necrosis is the death of tissue and Chlorosis is the yellowing of tissue.

Please discuss this if your interested i want to know what the experienced people have to say.

Also can anyone tell me how exactly i get a water report. The website for my area is very confusing, would i find a phone number in the yellow pages?
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Barbeque stuff is charcoal, half burnt wood and other stuff to get it to burn evenly. I don't think it's a plan.

They do sell bags of charcoal made specifically for adding to potting soils. I think this would be cleaner and less likely to leach weird things.
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