Dirt Diva's Gardens (USA)

I am reading a great book right now that I thought I would pass along. A great read for anyone interested in native gardening as well as survivalists and preppers. Written in 1917. Free link at the bottom from the University of Pennsylvania. 




Amazon Description:

Buffalo Bird Woman, a Hidatsa Indian born about 1839, was an expert gardener. Following centuries-old methods, she and the women of her family raised huge crops of corn, squash, beans, and sunflowers on the rich bottomlands of the Missouri River in what is now North Dakota. When she was young, her fields were near Like-a-fishhook, the earth-lodge village that the Hidatsa shared with the Mandan and Arikara. When she grew older, the families of the three tribes moved to individual allotments on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation.



In Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden, first published in 1917, anthropologist Gilbert L. Wilson transcribed the words of this remarkable woman, whose advice today's gardeners can still follow. She describes a year of activities, from preparing and planting the fields through cultivating, harvesting, and storing foods. She gives recipes for cooking typical Hidatsa dishes. And she tells of the stories, songs, and ceremonies that were essential to a bountiful harvest.



A new introduction by anthropologist and ethnobotanist Jeffery R. Hanson describes the Hidatsa people's ecologically sound methods of gardening and Wilson's work with this traditional gardener.

FREE ONLINE LINK:

digital.library.upenn.edu/women/buffalo/garden/garden.html#I
 

Sounds like everything's starting to get busy over there Diva. Loving it! It's coming into Autumn here so really all I'm doing is preparing to freeze. That'll all change when we finally have our own land... One day. Lol.

Early March is a busy time for gardens where I live. It's set-up and sowing time for productive winter crops.

Planted 7 blueberry bushes today that sprouted off my main blueberry row. Nanking cherries, plums and peaches are all blooming and putting on quite the show. 

What do you use for soil acidifier ?

sulfur? Ammonium fertiliser? citric acid crystals? Something else entirely?

I live in an area that has extremely poor soil - for 6 yrs I've been composting, adding manure, garden soil mix etc etc etc. It's improving, and I even have worms in the garden now. I seem to have better luck with growing in pots!

Wow I wish I had a quick answer but I will give it a shot explaining it.

With incorrect use, gypsum can also cause damage to our gardens. It can wash out manganese, iron, and aluminum from the soils. The removal of these elements may contaminate the watershed areas and will have a detrimental effect on the growth of plants.

It is important to know how much gypsum can you add to your soil to avoid over-application which may cause detrimental effects on our soils and plants. For home gardeners like me, I spread 40 pounds of granular grade gypsum per one thousand square feet of soil. One application will be sufficient for three years, and it can be applied at any time of the year. No worries, as gypsum is neutral and not toxic to animals and humans. I do this on my lawn area only. 

The rate of gypsum would also vary most especially if there are high levels of sodium and magnesium in the soil that may cause scattering of the clay particles.

I am using elemental sulfur specifically to lower the ph for plants that thrive in a lower ph soil. Elemental sulfur is usually used to decrease soil pH because when elemental sulfur goes into the soil, it's oxidized by soil biology, creating sulfuric acid, which lowers the ph. It also attaches to cations and over time it is leached out. Thus I use it to lower Ph for blueberries, strawberries, holly and azaleas. All of these plants grow best in a lower Ph soil. I sprinkle about 2 1/2 cups at the base of each blueberry bush to the drip line and water in. 

I think your situation may be a little different. Your property has a sulfur defficiency?

Sulfur is an anion ( negatively charged Ion). In the soil solution, it is very leachable. Sulfur levels on a soil test indicate how much precipitation an area receives usually, or at least how much water is running through the soil profile. If sulfur is low, that means it's getting leached out. In those types of soils, the majority of sulfur is actually supplied through organic matter. 90% of sulfur in soil is found in organic matter and as biology mineralizes the organic matter, it releases sulfur for plants. While plants take up about as much sulfur as phosphate, much more of it leaches every year than phosphorus.

Sulfur is critical in the creation of aromatic compounds—also termed secondary metabolites—in the onion family. When onions make your eyes burn or when garlic has a strong flavor and aromatic scent, that is sulfur. Researchers have found that most crops prefer a sulfur to nitrogen ratio of about 15:1. But cruciferous plants, like the cabbage plant family, actually prefer 3:1. The amino acids in alliums and the production of cruciferous plans are maximized with a lot of sulfur.

Sulfur and nitrogen are critical in amino acids and proteins in plants. They are partners in almost every protein in a plant. Optimal sulfur to nitrogen ratios have been found for many crops. Often times when nitrogen is too high, it makes plants much more susceptible to sulfur deficiencies.

Interesting tidbit**Sulfur in soil has a very interesting history. For the longest time, the majority of sulfur actually came from air pollution. Before we started controlling sulfur dioxide about 40 years ago, it would just fall out of the sky. One textbook states that up to 45 pounds per acre of sulfur would be deposited per year. Sulfur deficiency was very rare. Once we began controlling air pollution through cap and trade programs, we quickly started experiencing sulfur deficiencies in different soils.

I prefer gypsum, magnesium sulfate, potassium sulfate, or langbeinite (also known as K-Mag) as good organic sources of sulfur. It depends on what cations you need because sulfate is actually a carrier in most of these products to bring in other catatonic nutrients.
Deficiencies of sulfur can physically manifest as the whole plant becoming chlorotic. There's a light pale yellowing on the whole plant. Unlike nitrogen, it doesn't just show up at the bottom. It'll show up on the whole plant.

From my understanding, sulfur toxicity will never happen. What happens when sulfur gets too high is that it becomes the primary culprit in increasing soluble salts, or electrical conductivity. If you look at a soil with high soluble salts, there is likely a lot of sulfates. I've seen sulfur on the Logan Labs paste test upwards of 150 ppm. This is too high in my opinion because it pushes the soluble salts (EC) too high. When that soil dries out, your plants will likely experience osmotic stress. I don't have a specific target. I strive for sufficiency first, and then balance with all of the other nutrients and have a healthy level of soluble salts. Usually sulfur will follow suit. It also totally depends on what crop you're growing.

I am out of my element here since I have no experience at all with Australian soils and it's problems. In the U.S. most State Universities have an Agricultural Extension office in each county. You can take your soil in to the Extension office and they will run an analysis. According to the analysis they will recommend any adjustments that need to be made to your soil through amendments. It usually costs just a few dollars per test. The Extension office also has Extension agents which work with farmers and gardeners in their communities. These offices also train volunteers to go out into the community and assist with gardening questions and usually work with children's groups etc as well. That is what the 'master gardener" program is which is what I do. If Australia has a similar program I would suggest before anything to have an analysis of your soil.

Farmers here apply gypsum to fields at rates or 1-2 ton per hectare every few years to replace sulfur removed by Canola crops.  That lower rate equates to 100 grams per square metre.  

It won't damage structure.
Just be aware that gypsum is a type of salt and heavy applications can cause salt damage to sensitive plants.

Heavy applications can induce potassium deficiency.

A handful per square metre every few years should provide all the sulfur your plants need.

Sulfur can also be applied as Sulfate of Ammonia if you want to add some extra nitrogen at the same time.  
Or if you want organic and have chooks ... old eggs.  I used to crack old eggs (not rotten!) into little holes in the ground between my broccoli plants ... the yolks are full of sulfur and trace elements the plants grew magnificently and after harvest you could see large amounts of root-mass concentrated in the spots where the eggs were put.

old eggs. I used to crack old eggs (not rotten!) into little holes in the ground between my broccoli plants
_ _ _ _
We have done that with old eggs on occasion..
We also save egg shells in a plastic bread bag hung on a cabinet knob.. When full, crunch down and keep filling.. When full, tie off and put in freezer until spring..

Put in a bucket of water, mix with a paint stir tool on a drill motor until you get a fine granular soup.. Mix under the surface of compost or black dirt on top of compost, on top of chicken, rabbit barn cleanings in raised beds.. Anything like this is bound to add something to your soil a plant can use..