TOPIC: Soils, and a new Q about depletion rates in the soil.

Yours do look remarkable!!!

I only have a few 3 year olds. None of them look like those of yours. Mine are smaller, and shorter.

They are really doing extremely well. There is a downside though. I have been combating voles for a good while now, I have to find a permanent solution. You know what they say about ginseng,libido and sexual potency.... The more they eat the worse it seems to get.
A growed up field is below my plantings and I feel that is where they are coming from so its getting bush hogged tomorrow. I also now have some \"hill kitties\" living up there for about a week.They have took to there home well so far, iv been feeding them about every two days and they have made a downed tree there home. Hopefully they will soon get with it and do my patrolling for me.

Hillhopper

Hill kitties... what a concept. Might have to try that!

Nice looking stuff Hill. Very nice.

Whitjr,

I agree with...ahhh....with whoever up the thread that said your soil tests will be the best way to get your answer in the real world. However, my initial reaction is that Mother Nature works in cycles. What is taken in one place, is returned and replenished in another. I don't remember where I read it, but someone said that they did a study and found the leaves of trees -especially maples- are basically a calcium drop every fall. Perhaps that is Nature's way of replenishing the calcium used by other plants.

Good question, I'm happy to see you still asking them!

b Castle- I'm just a thought-provoking guy. Getting others to think and to do is how I make my living. Sometimes I'm seen as merely sarcastic, however hardly ever dull.... LOL.

While I have become a decent agronomist with this farming endeavor, I can't say that I've had any formal training. Folks that have phD's like Dr's Persons and Davis have learned all this stuff as a matter of coursework. Not me - I know the lungs and heart, hunting and music.

I posed a similar Q to Dr Davis via email, and her response:

\"Depletion of those elements (Ca and Mg) should be quite slow in the woods setting, but you can pull soil tests every year or so to monitor them. Nitrogen is very mobile and usually not monitored and has not been an issue with wild-simulated ginseng, in my opinion.\"

I agree that your best bet to understanding depletion in your plots would be checking your soil tests yearly, but if they are true wild simulated the results would be beneficial only to the forestry industry in your area. But they already know this info.

guy

- and yes they are very healthy for three year old plants grown without fertilizers. Could the farm fields above and below your plots be supplying extra nutrients you are not aware of?

guy

Brad ,that would be Mr. Beyfuss, 1 or 2% calcium for maple leaves.

guy

Guy- wait, wait... I just re-read this theread.... Dr Beyfuss has chimed in here on this thread? Really?

Hillhopper: How did you \"encourage\" your hill kitties to take up residency on the hillside?