Sorry, Morph - I was in a "rant mood" last night and didn't get to finish this. Back to the grind this morning. I'll get on this shortly.

Pauly:

It's Boron (Twenty Mule Team Borax) purchased locally and Copper Sulfate (EBAY) for you.

Let me know when you have them.

Only the Copper definitely needs a bump. Copper Sulfate from EBAY for you. The Boron is a tad low at 0.7, but we could either let it slip for now or you could do a 0.5 tablespoon/1000 sq ft tweak with Twenty Mule Team Borax if you want to.

Let me know when you have the Copper Sulfate.

Now we're getting somewhere! There is a definition problem here. I'm assuming that we're talking about compost. REAL compost. In real compost, it does not matter whether there was goosegrass in there, crabgrass seeds, grandma's oak leaves, or rutabaga peelings. The process of making compost reduces ...

Gary: You *might* have noticed that I've been passing all the Iron stuff off to Morph for the past 6 months or so. He's studied the particulars of Iron more than me, but it's also that I personally have backed away from shorter-term Iron solutions. I think "instant" Iron solutions have reached the p...

Can I offer an opinion that isn't the prevailing media-frenzy flavor-of-the-month? I don't buy the whole thing about Lead in the compost, the Milorganite, the "heavy metals" and blah and blah and blah. To listen to the media, the Lead in ten cars driving past your house is attracted to dust which yo...

We had ours go kaput this year too. We wound up buying the new HE (high-efficiency) Whirlpool unit that is top-loading, but I swear the damned thing washes a ton of clothes with less water than I can drink at a single sitting. It requires special detergent, but very little of it. Being a gadget fan ...

Ah, yes! Someone else ringing the bells at the gates of Hell... Comfrey. Here's my opinion: I personally wouldn't recommend it for someone with less than an acre of land, unless it was a half acre with no neighbors. The process of turning Comfrey into liquid fertilizer involves letting it decay in a...

Ah, Comfrey!! Comfrey is one of "THOSE" plants. I put it in a class with Horseradish. Once established, it is nearly impossible to eradicate without weekly efforts for an extended period of time. My first experience with this group of plants came from my childhood. My Dad wanted to grow his own hors...

Typical me. I only read down far enough to get the UMASS page and dived in. Here were my initial reactions (notes to self): - "triage case" - so-so Ca, low Mg - good ratio - maybe 2/3 Cal and 1/3 Dol - OWWWWWW on CEC - same block as Morph's mom? Bad grading? - don't like the BaseSat - needs B & Cu -...

Agway has a Calcitic Lime? Are you positive? If they do, I must walk past the stuff every time I go to get my SBM. I will be kicking myself for a week.

Exactly the feeling I got when I switched. But it still absolutely floored me when the microherd ate 14" of finely-chopped leaves in mid-Fall. You'll probably have a few jaw-droppers to tell in the future. It really reminds me of scuba diving. Sometimes I scuba dive in the Keys and people that are n...

Nah. Now we know a lot more. Like the 23 CEC is coming from the organics and not the soil structure. One of the best examples I ever saw of that.

So, where next? You tell us where you want to go and we harass you mercilessly help you get there. You paid your dues - where do you want to go?

That is one of the best jar soil structure tests I have seen in a while, and the picture is great. An object lesson for those of you who say that you can't read the things. Click on the picture to enlarge it. The bottom stuff is various sizes of Sand. Pauly's first mark is good. That's just about th...

the bacteria and fungi are still reproducing like mad and filling every available apartment

Exactly. The larder will be full of, ummm, never mind. Just like us.

I see all KBG.

It looks a tiny bit bunchy, but I see that characteristic blueness everywhere that screams KBG to me. I'm betting on the different rates of growth theory. A real close-up of a bunchy spot would make ID'ing it easier. Dude, I think you're looking for trouble where there is none, though. We'll drop by...

Yeah, that would be something --- grass growing in twisted corkscrews and alternating yellow and brown tips. Just before it croaked. For five years. I have an idea ---- you do it! I'll write a very sympathetic posting when I see the photos.

Ummm, how do I say this nicely? I really hesitate to recommend something that I haven't tried myself. If you really want to try it on a section for a year, I'll tell you how in a PM - but I'm not publishing it because some wahoo will take my "use 3 ounces of this" and publish it as "I used two pound...

Mini: Glad to hear that you got comfortable with the solution. Many people expect organic solutions to either fertilize like a synthetic or kill like a chemical, but are oh-so-safe to be around. It's just not possible - the synthetics are much "denser" in their potency, and are pinpoint-engineered t...