Re: Re: amino acids? Adelle

[Guest guest]

Adelle wrote many books on nutrition. She died of bone cancer. Anyone

have any ideas where she went wrong?

Shari

----- Original Message -----

From: soilfertility

Sent: Sunday, February 17, 2002 8:26 PM

Subject: Re: amino acids?

> Adelle , an earlier in the last century respected

> nutritionist in her book Let's Have Healthy Children

> says on pg. 92 that soils east of the Mississippi are

> magnesium deficient due to the prolonged use in relationship

> to the rest of the country of lime and chemical fertilizers.

> How do I increase the magnesium levels in my garden

> soil other than with hi mag lime or epsom salts?

Hi Wanita:

With respect for Adelle , I suspect she didn't know very much

about soil fertility. If her statement is your only basis for wanting

to add magnesium to your soil, I suggest that would be a bad idea

without looking at the total soil picture, at least as far as cations

are concerned (cations are just positive ions, the major ones in the

soil are calcium, magnesium, potassium and hydrogen). A simple soil

test should tell you the base saturation percentages of the major

cations.

One major problem with trying to balance available minerals in the

soil is that various minerals are antagonistic to other minerals. So

if you add too much of one which was too low, it may make another

mineral which was in proper supply behave as if there is a shortage.

Magnesium, like any cation you would add to your soil is always in a

compound form. In high mag lime it is in its carbonate form and in

epsom salts it is in its sulphate form. You would probably want to

know the ph and whether sulphur was deficient too before deciding

whether to add either to the soil to address a magnesium deficiency.

Sometimes just adding calcium to soil allows plants to pick pick up

more of other minerals like magnesium.

Chi