Subject: Soil problems and citrus

From: [email-masked] (Matthew Shugart)
Date: 22 Apr 1996 18:59:12 GMT

Greetings.

I just bought a Chandler pummelo tree on trifoliate (semi-dwarf)
rootstock.  I went to dig a hole for it and discovered that the previous
owner of my house must have used the site as a small dump when he was
building something. The site contained a lot of fragments of what looked
like tile of some sort, and I removed a couple of wheelbarrow loads of
what looked to be mostly crushed cement or similar material.  The soil
that is left in the planting site still contains some of these shards,
mixed in with my soil, which is probably best described as on the sandy
side of loam.  I have no drainage problems, although sometimes the soil
gets very compacted.  I tested the pH and it was about 6.5, if I can
believe the test kit that I bought at Nurseryland.  (How accurtate are
these things? I expected a higher pH reading for this area.)

My question is, do I need to worry about the remianing shards of tile (or
whatever it is) in terms of nutrient availability for my tree?  Should I
either try to dig the rest of it out or amend the soil (or both)? 

I'd appreciate responses by private e-mail, although I encourage you to
post here, too--it is good to see the increased activity on this newsgroup
(at least activity seems up since I first started reading).  But I have
trouble accessing the Newsgroups from home, but no trouble with e-mail.

Thank you very much for any help you can provide.

Matthew
Carlsbad (North San Diego County), California

P.S.  If you haven't tasted the Chandler, you are in for a treat if you
ever find one!  Pummelos may be starting to catch on in the US at last;
they have been big in the Middle East and parts of Europe for a long
time.  (Actualyl, one thing you can say about pummelos is that they are
alwasy BIG!)

---

From: [email-masked] (BRateaver)
Date: 24 Apr 1996 04:58:14 -0400

The junk was probably left by the builders. It is easier for them to hide
it in a shallow grave than rake it off, and dispose of it in a landfill.
This way it costs them nothing.

No, by now whatever would have hurt the soil organisms from the leftover
cement is long since washed out, so go ahead and use the land as is,
unless the chunks are so big they interfere with your digging.

But you do need to amend the soil where you plant.

Everyone should really amend his entire plot, so all the soil is top
notch, before planting anything. If it is too late for that, at least
amend the planting hole before you plant an item.

Why not read the foregoing reply I made to the man who ordered trees from
Stark Brothers?   If you can't find it, and you want me to, I can repeat
it for you, but please believe me, I know the right thing to do.  Having
the soil just right for soil organisms is the whole answer, if drainage is
OK.

B. Rateaver

---

From: [email-masked] (BRateaver)
Date: 24 Apr 1996 04:58:33 -0400

pH is of no importance whatever, as long as you amend the soil to be
excellent for soil organisms.

Really good soil will grow anything.

Exposure to light , wind, source of cold and heat can make a difference,
but not pH if the soil is right.

Soil tests are of no value. The soil varies from spot to spot, from one
elevation to another, from low to high, from sink to sink.  Anyway, they
are based on cations, which have no relevance, since plant roots do not
pick up ions from the soil solution, since roots are bathed in mucigel in
which soil orgnism live, and they work over whatever comes in trom the
soil solution outside. The roots get secondhand goods from the soil
organisms.  Plants absorb molecules and particles, supplied to them from
soil organisms.  

B. Rateaver

---

From: Ian Johnson <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 30 Apr 1996 06:27:05 +1300

Ingrid K. Buxton wrote:
> 
> [email-masked] (Matthew Shugart) wrote:
> >....previous owner of my house must have used the site as a small dump when >he was building something. The site contained a lot of 
fragments of what >looked
> .. the crushed cement stuff could also be gypsum which would give you
> a low pH reading..  neutralize with lime.. and keep testing and limming until the
> area is well neutralized... Gypsum is nuetral: Calcium silicate. Nuetralising(?) with lime will only 
add Calcium and increase pH. Get a quick test for pH before liming. 
There are pH test kits in the range 4 - 8. Take a sample of the soil 
(say 50 ml) and add 1.5x as much water (preferably rain water or 
distilled) then mix  and after 10 minutes take pH reading. If its alkali 
(above 7) then lime otherwise dont.
Gypsum is known as claybreaker. It is used extensively in parts of the 
world where they want to add Calcium but not raise pH, and it joins to 
soil particles causing the clay to break up. It is used in the building 
industry for wallboards and this is its probable source around your 
property. If it is gypsum then it will have littledetrimental effect on 
your plant growth. It is also relatively soluble and will disperse over 
time.
-- 
Dr Ian Johnson
Johnson Consultancy - Specialising in Environmental and Floricultural 
Research and Consultancy 
Phone +64 9 2358530
Fax +64 9 2356057
Glenbrook Rd, RD1 Waiuku NEW ZEALAND

From Ricky Tan Thu May 23 14:05:25 EDT 1996
Article: 2431 of alt.agriculture.fruit
Path: newz.oit.unc.edu!news_server.cs.unc.edu!news-server.ncren.net!news.duke.edu!zombie.ncsc.mil!nntp.coast.net!howland.reston.ans.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in1.uu.net!zdc!zippo!drn
From: Ricky Tan ([email-masked])
Newsgroups: alt.agriculture.fruit
Subject: World Wide Distributor Wanted for Patended Agriculture Product
Date: 12 May 1996 00:51:40 -0700
Organization: Zippo
Lines: 39
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>
NNTP-Posting-Host: 168.160.76.214

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