Lawn Defecient in Potassium

[firerobz]

I have been doing an organic progran for 4 years now and just had a soil test done and my "k" is very low. What is a good organic solution to raise it? I aerate and top dress with compost every year. Any suggestions?

[Prolawnservice]

organic sop

[NattyLawn]

Greensand as well.

[naughty62]

clean hard wood ash . composted leaf and lawn clippings

[Smallaxe]

Ash would be my solution as well. Just not sure of what would be a good delivery system.

[Newt*]

Wood ash can change the pH or your soil as it's like adding lime.
http://www.uri.edu/ce/factsheets/pri...dashprint.html

Newt

[dishboy]

Alfalfa pellets have a good amount of potassium

[greenjeans_il]

Wood ash is an excellent source of potassium, but like it was mentioned how to deliver it and what about the pH?

The answer is to add the wood ash to your compost. Let the microbes tie up the potassium in the compost and hold it in plant available form. Then amend your soil with the potassium enriched compost.

If good, aerobic biological diversity is maintained in the compost you will not have any issues with pH when using this method. You may be able to sway the pH a little by creating fungal vs. bacterial dominence and vice-versa, but relatively speaking it can be maintained as neutral.

This method also works for calcium, nitrogen and just about any other nutrient you can name. It all depends on the inputs of the compost like bone meal or blood meal respectively. When the microbes fix the nutrients you lose very little if any to leaching. Natural selection as well as chemical signals make the nutrients available to the plant as the plant needs them.

Greenjeans

[dishboy]

Originally Posted by greenjeans_il

Wood ash is an excellent source of potassium, but like it was mentioned how to deliver it and what about the pH?

The answer is to add the wood ash to your compost. Let the microbes tie up the potassium in the compost and hold it in plant available form. Then amend your soil with the potassium enriched compost.

If good, aerobic biological diversity is maintained in the compost you will not have any issues with pH when using this method. You may be able to sway the pH a little by creating fungal vs. bacterial dominence and vice-versa, but relatively speaking it can be maintained as neutral.

This method also works for calcium, nitrogen and just about any other nutrient you can name. It all depends on the inputs of the compost like bone meal or blood meal respectively. When the microbes fix the nutrients you lose very little if any to leaching. Natural selection as well as chemical signals make the nutrients available to the plant as the plant needs them.

Greenjeans

Or you could just open bag of alfalfa pellets and apply with a broadcast spreader, .........to easy I guess....

[greenjeans_il]

Please be more specific; how much potassium is in alfalfa? How many bags of alfalfa will the other person need to effectively raise potassium levels in their soil? One bag will do the trick? Or several bags over a period of years?

I don't think it's as easy as you imply and can certainly be more costly as opposed to achieving supreme results through the application of composted wood ash. Using alfalfa meal as a maintenance measure would be more appropriate where in this case to deal with a severe deficiency it would be faster and more economical to use composted wood ash.

Please try not to be sarcastic. It's rude.

Greenjeans