On 12/07/11 7:52 PM, sometime in the recent past Gunner posted this:
On Dec 4, 9:41 am, wrote:

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Wilson 44.69, -67.3

44.69, -67.3 : Long/Lat? Acadia region of Maine? If so, have you
considered seawater infiltration? This link is bit wordy but it may
give some hydrology insight: http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/2003/circ1...ading156057192
as well as: http://www.maine.gov/doc/nrimc/mgs/e...k/section4.htm
.

From a hydrological or geological aspect, its highly unlikely any
watering in your life time is going to reach 200+ ft depth. So it is
also highly unlikely that surface contaminants are involved in your
water from either you or your neighbors If you ARE in Maine, pretty
much granite thus iron, isn't it? Don't see much limestone sources
in your region as a possible. Regardless, it would take a huge amount
of minerals (organic or inorganic) to change a pH factor by 1.7.

So with your stated practices and my region guess, it doesn't sound
like your soil is the causative here and 8.7 is in pH range of
seawater. So you may have or had zones of seawater infiltration in
your aquifer, ergo, a myriad of elements would be present that would
cause your plant's chlorosis. Consider an analysis beyond pH testing
as proper protocol to specifically identify what is going on and take
immediate corrective action. Otherwise, you risk test trials of
every Garden Guru's " have ya tried..." theory. Those are usually
based on highly biased folk lore and/or personal bent which usually
just eat up time and money.

Recommend as a start you give your County AG Extension office a call
as well as have your water analyzed for more than just pH and test
your present soil conditions to see where they stand. Think about it a
minute... with today's testing procedures, you would mostly likely
have already had a scientific starting point and a course of action
plan to test off of.

Good luck Wilson and please update what and how you do.
You have my area correct and we do hear from time to time that drilled wells
are high in salt & need to be re-drilled. As you said, ground level activity
isn't likely to affect the aquifer 200+ feet down unless some sort of crack
in the ledge runs vertical.

The one thing that concerns me is that, while I'm in an area with low
population density and am, in fact, living in the woods, I live near a Navy
base which has been 'abandoned' and rezoned for housing. This base had it's
own reservoir & water treatment plant, but since giving it away to the town,
almost everyone of the houses on the base has had a drilled well put in and
all are within a half mile of my well. I suspect that these new wells have
put such a demand on the aquifer that the flow pattern of the aquifer might
have been changed. And yes, I'm within a half mile from the ocean, so sea
water sounds more plausible if the base wells have lowered the 'pressure' of
aquifer resulting in new sources feeding it. God, I hope that isn't the case.

As for my failed garlic crop, I had that raised bed tested this past summer
and the soil tested with a pH of 7.2.

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Wilson 44.69, -67.3