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| My first post here. Im a small market gardener. I have been doing my soil testing through Logan labs and just tried ReGen Ag Labs, all tests using Mehlich 3. Both labs show almost identical nutrient levels but have very different base saturation numbers. With Logan labs my total for the bases is around 80-85%, but with Regen the total bases is 45-48%. Both show ph 6.3-6.5 and both show organic matter about 7.8%. Logan has hydrogen in the 10-15% range while Regen has it at 52-55%. I was stunned by the Regen base saturation numbers initially but after researching figured out why the huge difference.
Logan labs does base saturation off of the normal soil ph while Regen uses buffer ph which in my case is low at 6.1. With that said I couldn't understand a 6.5 ph with 55% hydrogen. The Regen test doesn't test for aluminum while the Logan test does. I have lots of aluminum in my topsoil. In the above tests its 2800-3000 lbs of AL+++. Apparently this creates a large acidity buffer and Regen is simply seeing it as hydrogen when its really hydrogen and aluminum. Because Logan doesn't do base saturation from the buffer there % numbers are much higher. This also creates a huge difference in CEC with Logan saying around 10 and Regen saying about 20. From everything I've studied since this test it seems the Regen is the more accurate calculation, correct me if you think Logan has a better calculation.
What I'm trying to figure out is if I should just leave the soil alone or begin adding calcium, in this case gypsum because my ph is perfect and it should displace some aluminum, also add magnesium and Potassium. This soil currently has 3000 lbs per acre of calcium and 280 mag, and 180 K. What I don't know is, if all the aluminum is making it harder for plants to get these nutrients, or if the numbers are sufficient and don't worry about the aluminum because my ph is good. This soil is sand with high organic matter because the soil came out of a swamp and I raised my land up to garden and grow fruit trees because we have extremely high water table and flooding here in my part of Florida.
In my fruit tree areas I originally had high ph but sulphur brought the ph down into the 6.5 area and leached out 500-1000 lbs of aluminum in those areas which are now down to 1000-1800 lbs per acre of aluminum depending on the area. So I know the aluminum can be leached, just don't know how necessary this is. Any thoughts are welcome.
Thanks
Corey | |
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Which lab is correct and what would you do?
