Calcium and Magnesium Deficiency

I'm noticing a calcium deficiency in my garden, My soil test reports low calcium and magnesium. However, I have a soil pH of 6.7, and they told me not to lime since I've already lime up to 6.7 pH from 5.3 pH. Recommendations? Does gypsum affect soil pH?

You could scratch some powdered milk into the top of this MM and water it in as you water your plants! For the magnesium 2 tbs of epsom salt into one gallon of water!

Gypsum won't affect the ph, but the milk and epsom salts seem pretty easy too.
Jo

Great! Thanks, guys. I just bought some Epsom salts from the drug store, and I do have some gypsum felt in the garage. So this should work fine. Cool!

I got to thinking about this last night, don't add any more lime for lots of veggies like the acidity, potatoes, tomatoes, corn, cukes, peppers, broc.,squash, sw. potatoes, etc., there are lots of lists online. Lots like it lower than 6.7.
Are you using MM?
Jo

No, that's why I put it in the non-square foot gardening section. I never could get MM to work because I never had enough of the different kinds of compost to make it work. So, I had to do something else. That's why I made my own compound fertilizer.

Also buying a top soil mix from a landscaper was far cheaper than buying everything in individual bags from the Mega-mart stores.

I'm sorry, I did not read the heading. I'd tell the landscaper that you could really use some (truck load) of good compost. Then you could start a pile of your own. Evidently, overseas, some of the countries just use compost in the beds, for the other materials are not available. Even in a regular row garden, compost is so much more beneficial, than using harsh fertilizers.
After I had most of my beds made and filled, I found a good source of compost for $7 a truckload! I have saved a lot of money by not having to buy fertilizers, plus, I don't even own a hoe!
We love to see pics!
Jo

I saw on this thread that some European gardeners use all compost as it is difficult to get the other things called for in MM. I did not have the finances to get everything I needed, but I had a huge pile of compost and topsoil that was pushed off the area where I built my home. It had been just lying there in the woods of the unused part of my four acres. When I built my bed I used that. Things are growing very well, but I am going to change it for next year. I am going to dig it out and screen it. Then I will add one part each of peat, vermiculite, the original compost after screening, and new compost screened from the pile.

How do you mean: harsh fertilizers?

@Damon wrote:How do you mean: harsh fertilizers?

Sorry, may have used the wrong words. It's just my way of saying 'synthetic chemicals'
Jo

Just wondering what you meant. I hope I'm not ever stepping any bounds, but when I said compound fertilizer, it's an complete natural, organic fertilizer made from individual components: cottonseed meal for nitrogen, bone meal for phosphates, greensand for potassium, dolomite lime for calcium and magnesium, gypsum for calcium and sulfur.

The top soil from the landscaping company is made of sand, compost and top soil.

I also make my own peat moss: Collect leaves in the autumn, shred them, and pile them up. This is called leaf mold, and it's a cheap, renewable peat moss alternative.

There's also a rigorous cover crop and green manuring system where I grow my own "fertilizers" and they break down and compost directly in the growing beds. Here's a cool video of the kinds of things I focus on in my garden:

http://youtu.be/Fa2Iejt7W04

Still, no matter who's mix you use, how do you know if everything is in proper balance works unless you have empirical data to prove it?

Grow'em big!
Damon

crushed up egg shells can help with the calcium deficiency. To get a good jump start, see if you can grind them into a powder to mix into your soil, then just crush some new ones to lay on the top part of the soil. So as it decays, it helps feed the plant the needed calcium. That's something I learned from grandmother.

She always tossed watermelon rinds, egg shells and coffee grounds into/onto the soil and her plants always came out beautifully.

Great tip. Thanks!

Do you wash the egg shells first to get the slime off?

I don't wash my eggshells. Once I crack my eggs, I stick the shells in a little butter bowl, kind of let them air dry, then crush them off. But you can wash them before hand if you don't like the slime.

Another way to get quick calcium..crush up calcium tablets and water with that. About a dozen to a gal of water.

I missed my herbs terribly....got so hung up with my new 4x4, I forgot to plant basil, cilantro and dill.....


Won't happen again.