North Central Ohio, across the Corn belt ! | Below is the work from OSU
Soil-Life
quote. As we all know.
1. It can take 1 to 4-5 years for an application of dolomite or calcium lime, even Calcium Sulfate to be fully effective. concerning Cation adjustment and changing a soils PH.
2. I have personally never seen a rapid, less than 10 year. Healthy change in soil Ca./Mg ratios, if at all. the Idea of actually changing Numbers for a legitimate reason is absurd.
Unless the soil is Overloaded, saturated with Free salts. ( ONLY the Mass Leaching the free salts will Lower the soil PH and the soil will become Aerobic eventually. ) this can take years also
and changes in tillage and soil drainage may be needed also.
3. IF the work at OSU included a RAPID un natural adjustment of soil cation Ratios ? and they claim they did. and if they used any Salts of any form to create heavy leaching, washing of soil Cations.
Rapidly to create a Chemistry Lab type environment within a Plow furrow environment ? app. 2 million pounds of soil.
( The washing and leaching of soil K. alone could dramatically Change, reduce yield. )
this alone Would certainly create such an Interaction of free cations battling for position to stabilize that one would have to Question any and all Immediate Results. as Statistically conclusive.
NOW if ONE were to go back to those exact sites today. and Pull current samples to see where the soil chemistry was today. IT may be quite revealing. ????
Because solid soil science judgment will tell us that the adjustment of Cation Ratios for Healthy long term effects is a very slow and Sensitive issue.
especially on Light soil's , as mace works with. and quite Impossible on heavy clay soils. as Wilson, Gerald J. and the Lake bed soils of Northern Ohio regions have.
So in Light of the Massive Ratio adjustment process used by the OSU researchers. and others Maybe.
We would have to ask.
1. How were the ratios magically and instantly adjusted Equally at 13 sites.
2. were the 13 sites of the same soil type parent material. % sand, silt and or % clay content. ? Important or NOT. we would need to know the natural soil chemistry First for proper evaluation.
3. Where are the parallel soil analysis Data to determine the P. K. and associated Micro Nutrients that we all know are critical to crop production.
4. If the Nutrient K. was washed out or Hindered because of amounts of Salts being added. to adjust some of the sites ratios ???? then we need to know.
5. Tissue analysis. where are the documented Tissue analysis showing what was going on in the Plants at these sites.
Unless there are a documented set of soil and corresponding tissues to correlate with the plot sites. ? Plot yields. the Plot may raise more questions than adequate answers.
And Last. what were the Yields. Low overall, medium or average. ? and a Ten season Minimum of plot data would be required to get enough solid data to be Viable with such Stable ratio adjustments being maintained. in my opinion.
or Maximum high yield to stress the sites for maximum Nutrient efficiency. ????
What was the applied fertility program on these 13 sites. ???
Again, As I have shared Many times on this site.
I never apply Cations to Adjust Numbers. but to obtain Yield and soil Health results. = Profit for the individual Farmer.
( Ratios are for those selling specific Products to cure ALL of YOUR ailments just as some of the re searchers comment on. )
But in My opinion, the research itself to disprove these claims is as subject to Scrutiny as the Product claims themselves. In my opinion.
quote OSU
Working with corn and soybeans, McLean and coworkers at Ohio State changed the Ca:Mg ratio in soils at 13 sites. The results of that study are listed in Table 2.
Looking at the five sites that produced the highest yield, the Ca:Mg ratio varied from 5.7 to 26.8 and 5.7 to 14.3 in 1975 and 1976 respectively. For the five sites that produced the lowest yield, the ratio varied from 5.8 to 21.5 and 5.0 to 16.0 in 1975 and 1976 respectively.
Based on the results of this study, it was obvious that the ratio had no effect on corn production. A similar consideration of ratios and soybean yields leads to a similar conclusion.
Table 2. Calcium/magnesium ratios at five sites that produced the highest corn yields and five sites that produced the lowest corn yield.
Yield Level Calcium/Magnesium Ratio
1975 1976
five highest yielding locations 5.7 to 26.8 5.7 to 26.8
five lowest yielding location 5.8 to 21.5 5.0 to 16.0
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Calcium to Magnesium Ratio
