Too much magnesium!

I have two beds with acidic soil and too much magnesium.  Bed 1 (pH 6.1) has 160 Mg and bed 2 (pH 6.4) has 234.  I have two other beds with low magnesium.  Bed 3 (pH 6.6) has 35 Mg and Bed 4 (pH 4.9) has 36.

I'm thinking of moving soil from beds 1 and 2 to beds 3 and 4.  I can then buy fresh garden soil for beds 1 and 2.  Then I would test all the beds and amend as needed.  Would this work?  

I recently purchased the property, and never thought to test the soil.  Most of it is very acidic (as low as 4,0 in some spots).  I suspect the wrong amendments were used to raise the pH.  But this is what I have, and I'm trying to figure out how to fix it without it costing me a fortune.  And the less work I need to do the better.  I had both knees replaced over the winter.  I'll need to hire help for much of what I need to do this summer.

If my idea won't work, what should I do?

Hi Diane,
I will start by saying that I am not a soil scientist, but generally speaking, 6.0 to 6.6 is a good PH range for garden soil, so the PH piece for those beds looks fine. The on that is 4.9 is pretty low, but I would add some lime and retest down the road.

As to the magnesium, the lime used to help acidic soil can have a lot of magnesium in it. Maybe ashes from a fire? I don't think those are as high in magnesium, and would help acidic soil.

Honestly, if it was me, I would throw down a layer of chicken feed, a layer of fall leaves, and top it off with 1ft or so of arborist woodchips. Then come back in 6 months and test again. I have absolutely no proof that this would help, but soils with higher levels of microbial life have fewer PH issues.

If I were in your shoes, I would go with the less laborious route and treat the soil condition so that the soil can remain as intact as possible. Encouraging microbial growth and stability will pay dividends in having resilient productive soil.

Do you have access to gypsum? Applying that to the high magnesium soil will help the magnesium get washed away and loosen up the soil if it is high in clay. This will also make more calcium available as it swaps spots with the magnesium particles.

To be safe, I'd probably shy away from veggies with high potassium needs just incase you don't get a perfect balance the first shot and you still have some magnesium tieup going on but you can still plant into it.

I would combat the problem by adding more organic matter.

Make mulch with compost, leaves. straw grass clipping, etc.

Making compost tea would be good too.

Adding Coffee grounds, eggshells and Epsom salts will also help.

Here are some threads that might be of interest to you or others:

https://permies.com/t/211919/minerals-garden-performance

https://permies.com/t/174890/amendments