Calcium and Magnesium Deficiency

I'm noticing a calcium deficiency in my garden, My soil test reports low calcium and magnesium. However, I have a soil pH of 6.7, and they told me not to lime since I've already lime up to 6.7 pH from 5.3 pH. Recommendations? Does gypsum affect soil pH?

You could scratch some powdered milk into the top of this MM and water it in as you water your plants! For the magnesium 2 tbs of epsom salt into one gallon of water!

Gypsum won't affect the ph, but the milk and epsom salts seem pretty easy too.
Jo

Great! Thanks, guys. I just bought some Epsom salts from the drug store, and I do have some gypsum felt in the garage. So this should work fine. Cool!

I got to thinking about this last night, don't add any more lime for lots of veggies like the acidity, potatoes, tomatoes, corn, cukes, peppers, broc.,squash, sw. potatoes, etc., there are lots of lists online. Lots like it lower than 6.7.
Are you using MM?
Jo

No, that's why I put it in the non-square foot gardening section. I never could get MM to work because I never had enough of the different kinds of compost to make it work. So, I had to do something else. That's why I made my own compound fertilizer.

Also buying a top soil mix from a landscaper was far cheaper than buying everything in individual bags from the Mega-mart stores.

I'm sorry, I did not read the heading. I'd tell the landscaper that you could really use some (truck load) of good compost. Then you could start a pile of your own. Evidently, overseas, some of the countries just use compost in the beds, for the other materials are not available. Even in a regular row garden, compost is so much more beneficial, than using harsh fertilizers.
After I had most of my beds made and filled, I found a good source of compost for $7 a truckload! I have saved a lot of money by not having to buy fertilizers, plus, I don't even own a hoe!
We love to see pics!
Jo

I saw on this thread that some European gardeners use all compost as it is difficult to get the other things called for in MM. I did not have the finances to get everything I needed, but I had a huge pile of compost and topsoil that was pushed off the area where I built my home. It had been just lying there in the woods of the unused part of my four acres. When I built my bed I used that. Things are growing very well, but I am going to change it for next year. I am going to dig it out and screen it. Then I will add one part each of peat, vermiculite, the original compost after screening, and new compost screened from the pile.

How do you mean: harsh fertilizers?

Damon wrote:How do you mean: harsh fertilizers?

Sorry, may have used the wrong words. It's just my way of saying 'synthetic chemicals'
Jo

Just wondering what you meant. I hope I'm not ever stepping any bounds, but when I said compound fertilizer, it's an complete natural, organic fertilizer made from individual components: cottonseed meal for nitrogen, bone meal for phosphates, greensand for potassium, dolomite lime for calcium and magnesium, gypsum for calcium and sulfur.

The top soil from the landscaping company is made of sand, compost and top soil.

I also make my own peat moss: Collect leaves in the autumn, shred them, and pile them up. This is called leaf mold, and it's a cheap, renewable peat moss alternative.

There's also a rigorous cover crop and green manuring system where I grow my own "fertilizers" and they break down and compost directly in the growing beds. Here's a cool video of the kinds of things I focus on in my garden:

https://youtu.be/Fa2Iejt7W04

Still, no matter who's mix you use, how do you know if everything is in proper balance works unless you have empirical data to prove it?

Grow'em big!
Damon

crushed up egg shells can help with the calcium deficiency. To get a good jump start, see if you can grind them into a powder to mix into your soil, then just crush some new ones to lay on the top part of the soil. So as it decays, it helps feed the plant the needed calcium. That's something I learned from grandmother.

She always tossed watermelon rinds, egg shells and coffee grounds into/onto the soil and her plants always came out beautifully.

Great tip. Thanks!

Do you wash the egg shells first to get the slime off?

I don't wash my eggshells. Once I crack my eggs, I stick the shells in a little butter bowl, kind of let them air dry, then crush them off. But you can wash them before hand if you don't like the slime.

Another way to get quick calcium..crush up calcium tablets and water with that. About a dozen to a gal of water.

Lifted from the SFG Foundation Facebook Page:

"Have you been told to up your magnesium intake? Here are the top 5 herbs to help you do just that. Do you grow any of these? Which one(s)?"
http://www.dietoflife.com/conditions-magnesium-can-relieve/

I missed my herbs terribly....got so hung up with my new 4x4, I forgot to plant basil, cilantro and dill.....


Won't happen again.

I barely managed to grow some dill, basil, cilantro and parsley for last minute drying before winter. The article doesn't indicate how many cups of the herbs one needs to eat for daily dietary needs!

An interesting video on availability of nutrients, such as calcium, to the plants in the garden.

That was kind of interesting but I'm not sure I agree with everything he said. Especially as it relates to All New Square Foot Gardening. In the Teaming with Microbes book, the nutrients are located in the medium. He says they go down. ?? In SFG, replenishing the compost through the growing season is the general way to feed during a long season. Watering the 6" of Mel's Mix is needed daily in hot weather as the Mix dries out quickly, especially with Santa Ana winds. Re-wetting MM is hard to do so it's better to keep it moist all the time. Ground growing, open bottom box growing or deep box growing may be different. But, my beds are all in the air (table top) so watering is very important. Wild Boar Farm is located north of San Francisco where the temps are more mild than my Central Valley. The Napa - Sonoma area is wonderful for growing.

sanderson, again I am in agreement. BER, Blossom End Rot has many causes but the lack of calcium for what ever reason is the root cause. Plant variety, unavailable calcium and over watering are three of the most obvious. In organic mixes the CEC, Cation Exchange Capacity should be higher with the increase of SOM, Soil Organic Matter and thus able to hold onto more nutrients rather than being washed beyond the plant's roots and thus unavailable. Watering is probably one of the most difficult skill to learn, given you have a set amount of 1" per week for most vegetables and most of the vegetables like their roots moist but not wet. But you have to take into account rainfall, relative humidity and daytime and nighttime temperatures to name a few. Brad Gates was correct that over watering will cause splitting and a blander tasting tomato. So we have to walk the fine line of keeping the mix moist enough not to stress the plant and over watering and thus denying the plant the oxygen it needs. The amazing thing is 50% of the mix is space, space for water and space for air and if I had a meter that could read where my mix was at, at any given moment it would take my ability as a gardener up a couple of notches. Sometimes the hardest thing to do as a gardener is to do nothing and at other times is to do less.

I don't remeber the source, maybe "teaming with Nutrient" likely an older different source, but i recall reading that many defiencies are not so much defiecies as an excess of other nutrients particularly NPK if any supple!emt fertilizers have been used.

Another good reason to not use chemical fertilizers, NSR.  The problem usually isn't calcium deficiency, but that the calcium is locked up so it is unavailable to the plant roots.

From a dissertation presented to Cal Poly State University:

Calcium plays a balancing act with other positively charged ions, such as sodium (Na+), potassium (K+), and magnesium (Mg+2). Applying too much of these other positively charged ions may decrease calcium uptake by plants. Sodium ions can also replace the adsorbed calcium, damaging soil structure and decreasing calcium availability.


SOIL NUTRIENT AVAILABILITY PROPERTIES OF BIOCHAR

Mulder's Chart should explain the elemental inter-reactions. There is antagonism and stimulation. Watch the arrows because it can get complex. This is one of the few drawbacks of having many smaller raised beds, it negates have a soil test done which only gives you a starting point but gives a reference as to whether you are making progress or headed in the wrong direction. Here is a link to Mulder's Chart which came out the year I was born along with Hubbard squash.

http://cultivacegrowth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/MuldersChart.pdf