new to organics

Johnny-mariseed said:

I only water to run off once every 4the watering to make sure the bottoms are staying damp. (Deep breath) soooo... what your saying is I probably have enough mag in there and probably enough sulfur also so when I add the gypsum that will add calcium and in turn will attach to the mag and sulfur that already,in educated theocracy, exists and supply's the plant? You lost me at Epsom salt on my crusty bag. Are you talking about the calcium attaching to...what salts exactly if I don't use bottled nutes salts from like say rabbit piss? ...and leeched out you mean flushed out the bottom? Which would in turn be a good thing. Apparently I'm not advanced as much as thee, respectably. I just got lost.


Sooo... let's just say this...guy I know... waters twice with epsom salt to correct a sulfur issue that was actually a calcium issue that was causing a sulfur issue and then said guy top dressed with 1lb of gypsum per 5 gallon container as directed on package and watered with ACT... do you suppose my friend would be on the right track? Thanks for your patience?? Lol so to much calcium may stop k uptake or at least appear that way?

Click to expand...

Rasta Roy said:

It depends on the kind of calcium...But yes it can lock out K, usually by raising your soil pH too high...But gypsum doesn't do that.

Click to expand...

NaturalFarmer said:

@Johnny-mariseed This kind of depends on the make up of your soil, the pH and whether you water to run off. The gypsum will dissolve and the calcium becomes freed up for the plant, while the sulfate (-- anion) will usually bond to another (++ ion) like magnesium and create epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) which will then leach and form crust on your bag. If you have high amounts of salts though, I think it would prefer to attach to sodium (++) and then can be leached out in the same way. If none are present, it could rob your Potassium however, but most soils have enough mag to not have to worry about this.
I topdress once the plant gets about a foot high and don't reapply.

I have finally given too much sulfur to my plant, but it only lasted until the plant got to about 24 inches and I saw no signs of the excess. (burned copper teeth on leaves margins that I thought was K)

Click to expand...

Wetdog said:

You add lime for the total amount of mix, not just the peat. *I* prefer dolomite lime since it covers both cal/mag and pH buffering. Oyster shell flour isn't bad, just extremely expensive to ship. I've also seen people who mistakenly get chicken scratch oyster shell which is totally useless in a soil mix due to particle size.



Wet

Click to expand...

Rasta Roy said:

I've had this excess sulfur issue before as well! Was a pain to diagnose I had to get a soil test to figure it out.

Click to expand...

greasemonkeymann said:

damn dude!
that's hard to do
I've used a LOT of langbeinite in my mixes and haven't seen that yet
course I think its a slow release sorta thing
but I love me some sulfur!

Click to expand...

greasemonkeymann said:

useless yea, but I use it in every mix I have cuz it's puuuuurdy
i'm actually not kidding, I love that shit, it's super cheap and works as aeration too

Click to expand...

Wetdog said:

Annnnd, it just might help with pH buffering in 4 or 5 years time. LOL

Hmmmmmm ... Never considered it as aeration. Super cheap here also, just heavy as shit. Maybe I'll snag a bag when my kid is around to hump it for me.

Wet

Click to expand...