I've been shredding all of my plants and leaves and have it composting. I will be adding feeding it to the worm bin so it will make it back into the soil eventually, it will just take a little time
Mulches and straws too. Brown mulch, leaf mulch, comfrey etc. I'd argue that you can never really have too much plant matter in your soil.
Give a variety of it too.
So for now, i'll:
- Drop gypsum and oyster shell from reammending mix. Monitor with soil savvy to identify when they need to be added back
- Pick up the TM7 to address boron, iron and manganese deficiencies
- Continue working towards getting plant material back into the soil.
Hopefully that will balance things out!
Sounds pretty reasonable to me.
The plants grew well and looked good (sorry, i don't have pics of them). Bud density seems decent, though nothing to write home about. The flower is still in cure so i have not yet tried or tested it.
I keep reading how reamending no-till soil should be based on soil tests, so i ordered these tests. I did both logan lab and soil savvy to get an idea if one was more beneficial than the other for future testing
Then I wouldn't worry too much, or assume it's an insufficient amount based purely off your soil test. Trace minerals mean just that and should be in trace amounts.
I would agree with your comment on soil testing, but not necessarily the method. The lab test is great for nutrient levels, CEC etc.
But for reamending you really can't go past the combination of soil pH, bolus + ribbon test, and testing for dispersion.
Texture is more important than anything, besides organic matter / organic carbon.
Yes I have had my water tested. I've posted the results around here somewhere, but the cliffs notes version is <100ppm and the water looked good
As for high soil pH, yes i have some concern there, but soil pH seems to be such a divisive topic, I'm not entirely sure if i should address it. Opinions run the gamut from, "pH everything, check ph" often to "the soil will take care of it, don't worry about pH".
As for the bicarbonate level, i had not identified that as an area for concern.
What are your suggestions?
As you say, you aren't reamending with oyster shell etc, so you "should" see it come down. Water's likely just fine.
Sorry I'm unable to load your soil results, but high potassium levels can spike pH too.
So can highly active things like compost teas.
If your soil test doesn't indicate calcium levels are too high, gypsum will be a good amendment for it and shouldn't affect the soil's ph either.
Usually rich animal waste is good to lower it. So is sulphur. But based off your ingredient list, I don't believe it would be deficient in those things at all.