Lloyd - As usual you understand the finer points of soil management and soil testing. I'm in agreement as to the value of the Albrecht soil test, with extra attention to trace element analysis and the "balance" or "ratios" between them.
Yet, you ask what makes the mineral balancing soil test irrelevant, or let us say not absolutely necessary, from the humus perspective. My paper on Luebke compost has all the details on humus testing methods used by the European farmers. But you have to click on Google cache to get it. Essentially, with Luebke compost you also have rock dusts amended to the compost windrow. This is clay-amended compost. Thus, you have clay-humus crumb structure with exponential nutrient exchange sites and biological life sites. You have solubilization and mineralization. You have organo-mineral complexes and biotic-mineral complexes. You have enzymes operating at greatly enhanced capacity with the trace elements from rock dusts. When you have a chroma test with pH potential test, Humus value test, and OM test, you have enough information to evaluate a soil. It tells you how much biological activity is underway, how much mineralization is underway, how much humification is underway, etc. Mineral testing, whether typical NPK-lime or a full-blown Albrecht analysis, is just one of several ways to view soils and develop soil management and fertility recommendations. My resource list below attempted to open the doors of understanding for alternative or ecological or holistic approaches to soil testing, with people, lab methods, recommendation philosophies, and resources. Alternative Soil Testing Laboratories http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/soil-lab.html Ideally, one might have the benefit of a good mineral balancing soil test as well as the humus management series of tests, to get a complete picture. The soil foodweb analysis from SFI is another angle. The microbial functional groups analysis from BBC Labs is another angle. These fall into the microbial-humus category on my resource list. So if you complement a mineral test with a microbial-humus test you gain a broader view of the situation and that should help all the way around. Best regards, Steve Diver Lloyd Charles wrote: > From: Steve Diver > > > The typical NPK > > soil test, even the Albrecht soil test, is largely irrelevant from > > this humus perspective. > Hi Steve > I would like to pursue this a bit. Maybe I think a bit different to most but > I reckon the main benefit of a proper soil test (a good Albrecht type > analysis) is the detailed trace element analysis - of course you have to pay > the rate to get it and many people are not prepared to go whole hog on a > soil test. The majors are simple and cheap - you can get Calcium , > magnesium, potassium and sodium off any old twenty dollar soil test and run > an 'Albrecht balance' off those numbers and most times you will come out > with a workable result - there is a bit of math involved and some conversion > figures sometimes - it helps to know the cheap test numbers in comparison to > a perry or brookside but you can do this . OTOH A decent trace element > analysis is not something you can get cheap. For trace element numbers you > need to go to a good lab and pay the price and also do any retests with that > same lab. Trace element nutrition is something that many organic farmers > neglect almost as badly as their chemical cousins and I really dont see how > you can get this right (or know that it is right) without some proper soil > testing. > Of course I dont know those Swiss soils - maybe they are so loaded with > minerals and energy that the farmers dont need to look for anything extra - > Quartz crystal that I have seen from there is the best energetically. > Tell us what they are doing that makes testing irrelevant > Cheers > Lloyd Charles
