The ideal soil 2014 : a handbook for the new agriculture v2.0

For too long the only measurement of food production has been bulk quantity: How many bushels or bales or tons per acre were grown. Tons and bushels are not a measure of nutritional quality. Many have spoken and written about the mineral depletion of the world's soils and the resulting nutrient deficiencies in our food. Until now few solutions have been offered other than taking a nutritional supplement or adding some generic "rock dust" of unknown content to the soil. The Ideal Soil 2014 shows how to restore depleted soil minerals and transform any soil, no matter how poor, into a powerhouse of plant nutrition. A mineral-balanced biologically active soil grows healthy plants, healthy animals, and healthy people. The 2008 edition started a quiet revolution in agriculture. Over the past six years the concepts have been put to the test worldwide and have been proven to work well in all climates and all soils. The 2014 V2.0 edition has been completely revised and rewritten to reflect the knowledge and experience gained over the past six years. The earlier versions were aimed largely at growers in the USA; V2.0 is a World Edition equally usable by those working with any system of measurement: Acres, hectares, pounds, grams, cubic feet, yards, meters or any other measure of weight, area, or volume. New chapters provide in-depth explanations of how to work with high-pH and calcareous soils as well as low-CEC soils that don't have the capacity to retain the optimum amount of minerals. The authors have done their best to answer all of the questions left unanswered in earlier versions. The Ideal Soil V2.0 is the definitive edition of the Handbook for the New Agriculture. This book is about how to grow the most highly nutritious food possible. If you can add, subtract, multiply, and divide, The Ideal Soil V2.0 will show you how to read and understand a soil test and write a precise mineral prescription for any soil or any crop anywhere in the world. Foreword: The Ideal Soil 2014 p 4 Foreword: The Ideal Soil v1.0 p 5 Chapter 1: The New Agriculture p 7 Chapter 2: Cation Exchange p 19 The Idea Soil Chart v 2.0 p 28 Interlude 1: Notes on the Idea Soil Chart v 2.0 p 29 Interlude 2: Conventions Used in this Book p 37 Chapter 3: The Primary Cations: Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium, and Sodium p 41 Chapter 4: The Primary Anions: Phosphorus, Sulfur, and Chlorine p 52 Chapter 5: Secondary Elements: Boron, Iron, Manganese, Copper, and Zinc p 57 Chapter 6: Micro (Trace) Elements and Nitrogen p 63 Chapter 7: Converting PPM to Lbs/Acre Kg/Ha and other Weights and Volumes p76 Chapter 8: Writing the Soil Prescription p 80 Conversion Factors p 92 Chapter 9: Calcareous and High pH Soils p 93 Chapter 10: Low CEC Soils p 102 Epilogue: The Three-Legged Stool p 111 Appendices: Index to Appendices p 118 Soil Sampling Instructions p 115 The Ideal Soil Chart v 2.0 p 116 Mineral content of USDA NOP Organic fertilizer ingredients p 117 Soil Report Blank p 118 Kelp typical analysis p 119 Clay phosphate analysis p 120 Annual uptake of Potassium, Magnesium, and Sulfur p 121 pH and nutrient availability p 122 Reams’ Ideal Soil Recipe p 123 Reams vs Albrecht p 123 Conversion factors p 125 Notes on Cu, Zn, Fe, Mn, and B Copper p 126 Bordeaux mixture p 129 Burgundy mixture p 129 Zinc p 131 Iron p 133 Manganese p 135 Boron p137 References Cited (Bibliography) p 139 Recommended reading p 139 Variation in Mineral Composition of Vegetables by Bear, Toth, and Prince Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA 1948 Introduction and Notes p 140 1948 Report p 142 Primitive Diets: Weston A. Price’s findings on the daily intake of the major nutrients Calcium, Magnesium, Phosphorus, and Iron among isolated groups consuming traditional foods, 1939 p 150 Calculating Total Cation Exchange Capacity: Albrecht/Brookside TCEC p152 Estimating Nitrogen Release ENR from Soil Organic Matter and Protein p 157 Dealing with Excess: Alkaline and High-Sodium Soils, and When There is Already Too Much p 159 Alkaline Soils (above pH 7) p 161 Agricultural Gypsum Uses p 162 Leaching Excess Sodium p166 The “Fertile Mulching” Method for Orchards and Perennials p 168 Periodic Table of the Elements p169