hi, Naysen,
about the PH subject: ooooh, it's so complex that you definitely shouldn't ask a fellow who writes zillion- miles long posts about it
just some simple stuff:
* don't take those charts of PH effect on particular nutrients as a ruling standard, it's just a starting point absolutely insufficient to make any conclusions from it. the complexity of the issue is that an enormous number of variable factors will also directly influence the process of nutrients uptake of a plant along with PH status- stuff like weather, water, chemicals, air, the plant itself- this is a never ending list.
e.g., on magnesium: it's general optimal availability to a plant is in 6.4+ PH level, any lower makes it harder for a plant to consume it. in other words, even slightly acidic soil could create a problem, while it excellently tolerates slightly alkaline ones. but, in practical reality, a huge percentage of alkaline soils is alkaline because of a high presence of calcium, which for it's part compromises the uptake of magnesium ( antagonists- those two directly compete one another for the uptake ). eventually, in such a case we could have a situation where the problems with magnesium actually origin from an alkaline soil, which by a definition should be very suitable for it?! and just imagine what kind of additional influence would be done by a heavy amount of PH- low rainfall to this equation...
there is a trillion zillions of such details in nutrient availability and uptake by plants, that's why i so hardly try to escape the issue
. most commonly, symptoms of affected plants and precise details on significant variable factors should do so we can determine the problem and it's origin ( which is the actually important thing there ), but quite often it's not possible without some serious additional analysis, or it's at least not that easy.
* maybe the easiest way for me would be to describe how i deal with my constant magnesium deficient status ( originating from PH level 6 of the soil, which i prefer because i add significant amounts of humus and peat moss to it every year, with the intention to revive a poor piece of clayish land which i bought along with a house some 8 years ago
):
- as first, i'm aware that it will appear with the start of intensive vegetation and serious fruit setting beginning; magnesium is a mineral with the most significant function as an mayor integral part of chlorophyll, and it's only natural that the deficiency will start appearing visible at that specific stage.
- i do approx. 80% of ferts organic, but for a starter ( 5-7 days after planting to the garden ) fert i use a crystal complex ( macros + micros water soluble ) NPK 15-30-15 + 2.4Mg ; this helps with magnesium significantly, and the formula is just perfect, with no danger of creating a dis- balace ; ( as a matter of facts, for those of you who also enjoy growing flowering plants, try to find such fert and use a mild solution drench on your plants once a week, see what happens and thank me later
)
- on the other side, with fungicides i always go slowly and play safe ( organics- copper, mancozeb, propineb, mixture combinations ) and keep an ''open spot'' for a very specific one- trifloxystrobin. this one is specific because of it's mild nature ( we talked about it on the other thread ), but it is also highly stimulative to the plant's photosynthesis. eventually, when symptoms of magnesium deficiency start appearing ( usually when first fruits are at some 25% of it's final size ), i simply do a foliar with an adequate Mg fert, and then some 3-4 days later i spray the fungicide. with such a procedure i aim for the following:
- the foliar treatment will not mess with my soil and create a potential dis- balancing starter effect
- the fungicide which stimulates photosynthesis comes after the prior fert application have added some new chlorophyll energy to my plants, which eventually creates a double effect- disease protection + healing the Mg deficiency but with an additional significant energy boost to the plants, which usually ends up with some 10-15% higher yields.
and, just for info, although i speak much of pesticides around here, i am not a ''chemo- maniac'' who feeds his family consisting of a loved wife and adored 2 years old father's daughter with fungicides, the above mentioned systemic treatment is usually the third application in the period of 45-60 in- ground days of my plants. as a comparison i can say that an average European farmer completes this cycle of a tomato with approx. 5-6 applications of much worse stuff
but, on the other hand, i myself would never listen to me on the subject since the system of tomato growing which i apply is to specific and took me 15+ years to develop so i could spend 5 of using it
ok, time to go, hope this might help you somehow,
br,
ivan