Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Iron Fe
50
89 ppm - 50 ppm = 39 ppm
39 ppm of Iron should be added to this soil.
Manganese Mn
Manganese is essential for the production of fertile seeds. There is an atom of
Manganese at the center of the germ of every seed. Fruits like peaches and plums
are often found with a shriveled seed if the plant is deficient in Manganese. This
does not necessarily mean the soil is lacking in Manganese; it may simply be
deficient in one of the other essential minerals such as Iron, Zinc, or Copper. They
all need to be there in their proper proportion.
The Ideal Soil chart calls for
Mn to be 1/3 to 1/2 of Iron
. Unless the soil CEC is
above 15 meq and the test shows it contains above 150 ppm Fe, we do not need
or want to go above 50 ppm Manganese, and ideally, we do not want Mn to be
more than ½ of Iron. One reason for this is that high levels of Manganese have
been linked to BSE (Mad Cow Disease) and other degenerative neurological
ailments, especially in soils that are deficient in Copper and Zinc. This does not
mean that all high Mn soils are dangerous or will pose problems, but it is wise to
add sufficient Iron to a high Mn soil. See the section on Manganese in the appendix
for more details.
The soil report tells us that the Mn level is
Manganese Mn
11
Our desired
Iron
level is 89 ppm, so “ideal” Manganese should be ½ of that or 45
ppm.
45 ppm - 11 ppm = 34 ppm
34 ppm of Manganese should be added to this soil.
Copper Cu
Copper should equal ½ of Zinc. Zinc is 16.4 ppm, which we will decide below is
adequate. Copper needs to be
16.4 / 2 =
8.2 ppm total desired Copper
The soil report reads
Copper Cu
1.07
