Thanks Ann for tempering my quick statement. There are, however, more
positive effects from really working at the soil biota development. In
high pH ranges we are having far more successes with allowing the
plants to control their own root zone pH. It's really amazing when we
see drops in pH without chemical amendment. I'm told there are also
successes with low pH soils.
We've given up on traditional testing and looked more towards Morgan
extractions, what A & L calls S7. These results seem to given a
clearer picture as to what is PLANT available rather than IN the soil.
By addressing nutrition as plant available and monitoring the soil
biology low pH soils are also less problematic. At least that's the
opinion of the researchers we've been working with.


regards,
tomj
www.livesoil.com


On Mon, 24 Feb 2003 05:59:33 -0500, Ann wrote:

Tom Jaszewski expounded:

pH is a figment of inorganic gardeners
imagination....

Tom, that's not true. You need to put in a disclaimer that it depends
on where you live. Without limestone, my soil is naturally 4.5 to
5....way to acid to grow grass. And I do grow a nice lawn,
organically, using regular old fashioned limestone applications twice
a year.




Regards,

tomj