My wonderful calcareous, pH 7.3 soil is most certainly causing the young apple trees to now develop symptoms of Fe deficiency. I started 3 years ago adding about 6+" of chipped tree mulch to the orchard every year, that stuff gets consumed down to about 1" deep each year thanks to the worms and other soil biota and that is a good thing.
Not wanting to wait for many more years for all those feet of chips to hopefully correct the deficiency situation, I've decided to do either A) foliar applications of the chelated iron and/or B) soil apply it. I am fully aware of the need to use a product with the correct chelator in my soil and have done the research.
Anybody out there ever use chelated micros. out there to correct a micro. deficiency with success? I am also aware that applications will very likely need to be done on a yearly basis to the soil prior to the Spring growth flush, foliar is going to be Pre-bloom and/or post-harvest as best I can determine as of yet.
FWIW, my 8 yo soil test results:
Excess lime "Hi"
Sol. Salts mmhos/cm (1:1) 0.87
% OM 2,5(mod. WB)
P 91 ppm (Mehlich 3)
k 493 ppm (amm. acetate)
S 138 ppm
Ca 5242 ppm
Mg 205 ppm
Na 71 ppm
Zn 71 ppm (DTPA)
Fe 13.2 ppm
Mn 6.7
Cu 1.2 ppm
CEC 29 H=0, K=4, Ca=89, Mg=6, Na=1%
I just re-sampled the orchard today, should be interesting to see the results.
jean001a
gargwarb
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