I think you have hit the nail on the head, Steve. This could vary according to the soil, but I don't know of any short on ferrum. There are certainly plenty short on copper. We now have some orchard soils with toxic quanties of copper as copper sprays have been used in the past for fungal control. As the Brookside Laboritory test for minor elements I think it would be a good idear to be informed before making a change. There might also be a case for using hardened wood for some implements. This has been used in the past in Italy and New Zealand, In other places too no doubt. Peter.
----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, March 04, 2002 6:25 AM Subject: Re: Copper garden tools, ..still > The use of copper is not quite related to copper as a soluble element, but as > a ''mineral'' in its raw elemental form in very small and tiny filings as the > soil abrades micro-amounts of the cu away from the tool. Iron destroys soils > water holding capacity and certainly has other deleterious effects, yet we do > not analyze the need for iron when we apply a steel implement to our soils > and abrade this elementinto our soils. SStorch >
