While explaining the tests to Dr. Walters concerning how calcium and magnesium work in the soil to be most available to plants, he took pages of notes. He was adamant that much of the information concerning the soil and its health worked the same in humans, but that this explanation concerning soil fertility for his garden was new information that seemed to be shedding new light on a problem he frequently faced in controlling magnesium in people. His comments came while explaining to him how much magnesium in a soil is sufficient and that too little or too much in the soil will cause a deficiency in the plants growing there. To the extent that magnesium in humans really works as it does in the soil, this presents a set of problems for people who, without proper testing, decide on their own to take supplemental magnesium.
In the soil, the correct percentage of calcium regulates or controls not only sodium availability, but also magnesium and potassium. If there is not enough calcium, the others will dominate and influence soil structure to the detriment of maintaining proper soil biology and, in the case of sodium and potassium, even plant uptake may become excessive. But with magnesium there is a different problem. When the soil is deficient, plants will be and should be expected to be deficient. But what most do not realize -- because the bulk of university research around the world embraces the use of pH and rejects the use of cation exchange and the soil’s base saturation of nutrients to determine fertility or lack of it -- is that when the soil is excessive in magnesium, the plants we eat as food do not get enough. A plant tissue analysis will show plants grown on high magnesium soil to be magnesium deficient.
Researchers assume a lack of magnesium in the plants means we need to add more magnesium to the soil, and they do so by adding immediately soluble magnesium, some of which is taken by the plant but most of which is adsorbed onto the soil colloids, only making the problem with proper magnesium uptake by the plants from the soil even worse! Excess magnesium inhibits nitrogen utilization because it results in a lack of magnesium for chlorophyll formation in the plant. Even more nitrogen is then added to try and ensure the plants get enough. The excess adds to nitrate levels in the soil that is then converted to nitric acid that leaches away the needed calcium in what is already, in many instances, calcium-deficient soils.
Most soils in the world are deficient in calcium, as are most foods. Once soils have sufficient calcium, other nutrients can be regulated and taken into the plant more efficiently. Note that many soils are severely lacking in calcium, even in soils with a pH of 8.0+, especially where nitrogen is used in excess. Until the correct percentage of magnesium is present in the soil, there will be problems. Either too much or too little magnesium in the soil means the plants will not get enough. One man's food really is another man's poison, and it is the same for the soil depending on what is still needed and what is not.
An excess of any of the four major cations, calcium, magnesium, potassium or sodium, which are available in proper amounts in the most productive soils, will limit the availability of the other three. Dr. Joe Walters said the amounts required for healthy people are the very same as we find are needed for a healthy soil, which must be achieved to grow the most nutritious plants. So the issue with taking magnesium, if you are lacking in calcium, and most foods are, is that it can make the ailments caused by a calcium deficiency even more problematic.
This is not said to dispute the need for magnesium in nutrition. Most food plants grow on soils with too little or too much of it and are still truly deficient in magnesium. But what type of magnesium should be used, and where do you stop without the proper tests to determine the correct need and required balance of nutrients.
As Dr. William Albrecht pointed out in his work, what is taken up and utilized by growing plants is the exact form of each nutrient which is best for animal nutrition, and he would add, for us as well. This helps make the point that without testing how do you know what should be done? Knowing what can be done to help people with regard to proper testing is so important if one is to know how to proceed and when to stop. Knowing the proper amount of magnesium that is needed, and when enough is enough, is essential if one would avoid other potential problems! Growers need to be reminded that information such as this on magnesium is vital, and it is in our best interest not to guess. Test, re-test, and test again, to ensure you supply only what is needed and in the proper forms and proper amounts. This is especially true when it comes to adequate magnesium and the need for calcium.