Brad Morse wrote:So many questions so little time. I originally posted this question in hugelkulture but it seems to be more relevant here. I am trying to set up a small truffle farm in the Puget Sound area. The soil PH there is between 4.5 to 7 depending on the area so I wanted to make huglekulture on contour and have the soil ph increased to 7.5 to 8...
Hey Brad, we've worked through the same problem set in Northeastern Arkansas. We originally began (in 2012) with some advice from folks in Oregon and added 120 tons of agricultural lime to 3 acres in an attempt to raise the pH from an average 5.3 to 8.0. Lat year we started applying liquid lime (CaCO3), but still topped out at 7.8...short of our final goal of 8.3. While we have seen huge improvements in soil structure, amazing grass growth and a 5 fold increase in cation exchange capacity, we could not get past 7.8. We met with some folks at AgriGro (
http://www.agrigro.com - based a few miles north of us in Southern Missouri) this summer in a search for a better supplier of liquid Ca. In working with their lead agronomist, we realized that we were out of balance with Ca compared to Mg, K and Na. Honestly I felt some chagrin at first, but when I re-read my notes and literature references, I realized that much of what is written is oriented on the addition of lime or Calcium in some form. It might have been oversight on my part, but I didn't see a lot of material covering the interrelation between Ca, Mg and K for increasing pH. I sent our 2012 (start) and most recent USDA soil tests in and Tim T. at AgriGro was kind enough to provide his opinion on application rates and organic sources (some of which AgriGro did not sell, such as SulPoMag) to restore our balance and get to 8.3 or slightly higher.
Hope that helps...
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