Masters of Health Magazine October 2017 | Page 45

Furthermore, when potassium and sodium fill at least 10% of a soils’ nutrient-holding capacity (that is 10% plus of its total saturation) it blocks manganese uptake. This will cause manganese to be deficient in the food we are growing. Manganese affects how well the plants grow, bloom and set fruit. Plants will be shorter when manganese is deficient. For livestock manganese deficiency can also cause serious breeding problems.

The comments about applying too much compost are not meant to discourage its use whenever and wherever needed, but to caution against using too much. You can’t manage what you cannot correctly measure. Using a good soil test to help determine what will build quality in the organic foods you grow will bring the most satisfactory results.

Sulfur

Soil fertility courses teach -- and many who deal with fertilizer consider -- sulfur as a secondary element. It is not. Sulfur is just as much a primary fertilizer as phosphorous and is needed even more when it comes to growing most crops being produced as food. We find that far more soils suffer from a severe deficiency of sulfur than of phosphorous.

When considering the nutrient content of plants, between 0.2-0.4% is phosphorous. Sulfur in plants also makes up 0.2-0.4% of their nutrient content. The form of sulfur plants take up most is sulfate (SO4). The concern with phosphorous is keeping it in a form that is available for plant use. It is not easily removed from the soil. Sulfur is more easily lost from the soil than phosphorus. It is relatively easy to leach sulfur in its sulfate form out of a soil. Yet more phosphorus than sulfur is usually applied to grow crops.

There are several reasons why this has come to be the case, but too much to write about in a single article on organic growing. For those who would like to learn more, see the chapter on sulfur in Neal Kinsey’s Hands-On Agronomy.

Sulfur is considered to be needed for plants at 1 part sulfur to every 10 parts of nitrogen. From our experience, this is still not sufficient for many plants grown for food and feed.

Crops need sulfur for root, shoot, and wood growth. Soils need 50ppm of sulfate sulfur to overcome a sulfur deficiency in plants. This is generally eight to ten times more than the average soil will contain.

Many organic growers will dismiss the need for more sulfur by claiming they get a sufficient amount from compost or the manure used for making compost. There is a problem with that type of thinking. The old saying “You can’t get something from nothing” holds true in this case. Soils that are deficient in sulfur produce plants that are deficient in sulfur resulting in feedstuff or foodstuffs that are deficient in sulfur. The manures produced from such sulfur deficient materials and used to make compost should not be expected to supply the sulfur needed for proper fertility. We analyze hundreds of composts and manures for nutrient content. Very, very few have enough sulfur to supply what is needed even when liberally applied to the soil.

Sulfur is needed for the production of protein in food and feed crops. Moreover, it is a major key to palatability. If taste is lacking in food, one of the first considerations should be whether a sufficient amount of sulfur is being utilized.

Sulfur helps seedlings survive the negative effects of a cool damp soil. It increases root mass by 25-30% or more when present in the needed amounts and correctly applied. By building sulfur to at least 50 ppm minimum in the soil, a 25% increase in trunk growth, by caliper measurement, for fruit trees, timber, landscape plantings, vine and/or any other woody plants can be achieved. To increase the size of onions, garlic, tulips and iris, or any type of bulbs, apply a sufficient amount of sulfur based on an accurate soil analysis. Conversely, too much sulfur is antagonistic to phosphate performance. The relationship between sulfate and phosphate availability in the soil helps demonstrate the principle that all elements need to be sufficiently in balance.