Soil test results, looking for help deciphering

Hi there I'm looking for some advice correcting my living Soil, it's based on coots mix but the results worry me as some of the nutrients seem sky high, I'm from UK and its the first time I have made soil mix, it was mixed over a year ago and left under a tarp mostly, the only thing I can think to do is remix with a lot of peat moss to dilute it and lower the pH, its at 7.2 at the moment, any advice is much welcome

Peat moss is a good way to go lowering the ph for sure. You could flush the soil with water to get rid of extra fertilizer. some of the soil test kits available can be really inaccurate from what I’ve experienced using them.

Thanks Redskare, I'm most worried about the the phosphorus and sulfur levels they seem super high! Obviously I don't think you can remove either of those on there own?

I would say 1 part peat moss 4 or 5 parts soil and use dolomite lime to help stabilize ph a bit, and inoculate the medium early on with a good inoculant like Recharge which is pricey, but has beneficials, humic, fulvic, and aminos. Pretty good stuff.

How old is the soil

It been perking for a month ish

Yeah it would be easiest to flush all of it and then add organic all purpose fertilizer if you’re going organic

OK thanks, it's been sat in garden under tarp for over 12 months occasionally liftef tarp for few days to get rained on

I don't do Los,but us a year too long to perkilate

My only initial concern would be the sulphur, as there is no way to equalize a soil and not effect all the other amendments within that soil when the soil has that much sulphur in it. Yeah with that much sulphur in that mix, your plants will have all kinds of trouble uptaking things like Calcium, Magnesium and Zinc. Anyhow to me, a few of their middle term analysis guideline / baseline ranges are way off. From what I have been taught through the years, is that the minimal / optimal ranges for the best soil to grow cannabis in are below.....

P = 40 - 60
K = 60 - 100
calcium = 400 - 800
copper = 4 - 8
zinc = 4 - 8
iron = 40 - 80
manganese = 6 - 10
sulphur = 30 - 50
boron = 1 - 3
magnesium = 60 - 100

And one special note... the total sulphur content rate should always be within 20% of the total phosphorus content rate....

example... if P = 60, then the optimal sulphur content rate would be 48

Thanks piratebug, I can't understand where all the sulfur came from! Plants initially grow really well then seem to lock out with what look like a lot of deficiencies especially phosphorus with purple veins and stems/stalks, also magnesium, some cultivars seem to be effected more than others, but if I repot into a bigger pot with more soil then they recover well until it seems to happens again, not sure what to do

It's organic soil, you don't flush it.

"Dilute" it with some peat moss and add fresh compost to further dilute and especially to get your microbes live and kicking. Strong bacteria and fungus will help make a better environment for your plants. If you're into using stuff from the forest add some rotting wood chunks for more aeration and more fungus. From there find some way to add a little calcium.

youraveragehorticulturist said:

It's organic soil, you don't flush it.

"Dilute" it with some peat moss and add fresh compost to further dilute and especially to get your microbes live and kicking. Strong bacteria and fungus will help make a better environment for your plants. If you're into using stuff from the forest add some rotting wood chunks for more aeration and more fungus. From there find some way to add a little calcium.

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Thanks I think I'm going to expand it with some more sphagnum peat moss, the recipe was 1/3 peat moss 1/3 compost and worm castings(not my homemade unfortunately) and 1/3 pumice, plus per cubic foot 1/2 cup each of neem, kelp, crushed crab shells and 1/4 cup gypsum and 1 cup mix of basalt and volcanic rock dust plus small amount of clay minerals, barley powder and seashell grit

I hate to hear that you are having these problems. Coot's Mix is supposed to be mild and problem free. I wonder what is going on.

It looks like a Mehlich 3 test without a saturated paste test. What that means is that you are not able to see what is being locked out. I hate looking at Mehlich 3 tests alone because they don't really tell you anything. With your phosphorus being so high, I bet that your iron and other micronutrients are being locked out even though this test says that they are high. Did you have the choice of getting a saturated paste test? If I were to get only one test, I would get the solubility test which is the saturated paste. The Mehlich 3 test alone is worthless, sorry...

MustangStudFarm said:

It looks like a Mehlich 3 test without a saturated paste test. What that means is that you are not able to see what is being locked out. I hate looking at Mehlich 3 tests alone because they don't really tell you anything. With your phosphorus being so high, I bet that your iron and other micronutrients are being locked out even though this test says that they are high. Did you have the choice of getting a saturated paste test? If I were to get only one test, I would get the solubility test which is the saturated paste. The Mehlich 3 test alone is worthless, sorry...

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Thanks Mustang, so I read with the high phosphorus and organic matter to cut out the mulch(I had a good 2 inch of straw) and don't top dress, after removing the much which was pretty decomposed they have sprung back, so see how it goes thanks again

rdf said:

Thanks Mustang, so I read with the high phosphorus and organic matter to cut out the mulch(I had a good 2 inch of straw) and don't top dress, after removing the much which was pretty decomposed they have sprung back, so see how it goes thanks again

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What I was saying is that a Mehlich 3 test by itself is no help. You need a solubility test to show you what is actually being locked out, like a Saturated Paste test. If I had to choose between a Mehlich 3 only and a Saturated Paste test only, I would choose the Saturated Paste test. I'm pretty sure that you have a Mehlich 3.

I looked at the bottom of your test and I'm unfamiliar with the Modified Morgans Extraction, is it a solubility test? I don't have time to look it up right now, but if it's a solubility test, that's all that matters. Go with it...

MustangStudFarm said:

What I was saying is that a Mehlich 3 test by itself is no help. You need a solubility test to show you what is actually being locked out, like a Saturated Paste test. If I had to choose between a Mehlich 3 only and a Saturated Paste test only, I would choose the Saturated Paste test. I'm pretty sure that you have a Mehlich 3.

I looked at the bottom of your test and I'm unfamiliar with the Modified Morgans Extraction, is it a solubility test? I don't have time to look it up right now, but if it's a solubility test, that's all that matters. Go with it...

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Thanks for the advice I should have got some before sending my sample, sorry I'm not familiar with soil sampling methods but I think I'm going to try remix it to bring pH down a bit, and maybe sample again taking your advice about getting Saturated Paste test, solubility test