Soil Improvement

[Red Lime]

Hi,

i did some soil improvements with calcareous sand and humus!
I decided to do it with calcareous sand, because in cuba the have red lime-sand.
Does the calcareous sand effect the pH-value of the soil?

Yet, i decided to grow tobacco on one more yard and i also want to improve the soil.
I got some sand for free, it is sand from the gneissic rock!
Can i also use that?
Does the sand from gneissic rock affect the pH-value of that soil?


Red Lime

 

[LeftyRighty]

Have your soils tested, you need to know initial basic characteristics before making major changes.
Yes, calcareous sand (limestone) will raise the pH, gneiss sand is generally neutral or acidic, so test it.
Know your current pH before amending it, ideal for tobacco is 5.8 to 6.5 or thereabouts.

It also depends on the basic type of soil - again, best to have your soils tested, and request recommendations.
If your soils are mostly silts & sand, adding sand is OK.
If you have high percentage of clay, any sand is the worst thing to amend your soil, add only organic material.

Or, another approach - if your soils dry hard during summer dry spells, hard enough that it's very difficult to stick a shovel into the ground or break up clumps, then it's probably clay soils, do not add sand.

 

[Red Lime]

Hi,

thank you for your reply.
I never tested my soil, i do have silt no clay. For having good drainage and for avoiding soil wetness, i added sand and humus, sand and humus is recommended in general.
Afterwards, but i hope not to late, i thought for adjusting the pH-value. So i will test it next week and let you know.

Do the pH teststrips show a proper result? Does it work well?

 

[billy]

if you havent the jar test is easy and free to see soil composition percentages. basically half fill a jar or similar container with soil then mostly fill with water and bit of soap, shake very thoroughly and let settle over a few days and you get clay on top of silt, on top of sand. ideal is considered 2 part sand, 2 part silt, 1 part clay.

for ph i tried doing my own following directions with distilled water and someones expensive meter and it was a full .7 off the state soil lab test. so i dont know how to trust testing done by myself. for me state testing is cheap enough id rather just do that every few years and be confident its right.

but back to soil structure. having soft small clumping soil is made from water stable aggregates, and that is an active biological process, the dead soil composition cant do it alone for long. the natural way to do it is have a good variety of plants as close to all year as possible. then the live roots giving off exudates along with decomposing plants feed bacteria and fungi. and then those things produce the exudates that make the soil stay soft and crumbly.

 

[Red Lime]

Hi,

i tested the pH-value of my soil, it seems to be 7, maybe more. The scale ends with 7 (blue zone), but it seems to be a dark blue? Does that mean, that the value is above 7?

Here is picture from the test:



Do you mean i should lower the pH-value?
Should i do it with peat, iron sulfat, aluminiumsulfat?

Would you recommend a lowering?
Should i do a more exact test before?
Which agent would you recommend, in order to lower it until 15 to 30 of may?

I read that 0,18 kilogramm aluminiumsulfat per square-meter is required in order to lower the pH-value about 1

Thanks a lot, i am happy for your answers!

 

[billy]

might not need to do anything. warmer temperatures and fertilizing make it go down some anyway

my vegetable garden was 7.4 ph and my tobacco plot 6.7 ph from lab testing. these were both before warm weather and fertilizing. i just fertilized them both and they grew equal tobacco plants as far as i can tell.

so with margins of how accurate that test is and its gonna go down some anyway id have a hard time recommending. id either do nothing or slight lower like 0.5