Everyone has something they can’t stop themselves from nerding out over - but often it’s hard to find people to talk to about it. So go ahead, share your interests, and tell us about them!

  • Track_Shovel
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    10 months ago

    Why are you trying to remove iron? Make sure you’re correctly identifying the symptoms of toxicity if you suspect Iron toxicity in plants, as this is relativity rare.

    To reduce soil iron availability to plants, you need to add a liming agent and target a pH of 7 to 7.5

    • intensely_human@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      10 months ago

      More like prevent it. This was a problem faced by little farming commune back in the 70s, that I recently heard someone talking about.

      Would that liming agent be a natural thing or would it have been pesticides or something? Could that happen from fertilizer?

      • Track_Shovel
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        10 months ago

        Ok, hold on to your hat for a second.

        Iron is naturally occurring in the soil and you don’t usually get toxicity issues unless there’s a source such as mining, tailings or a junkyard or something like I suppose.

        The liming agent depends on what you want to use. Typically it’s something with a higher pH such as wood ash (careful), bonemeal, or lime (CaO)

        By adding the Liming agent you increase the soil pH and reduce the availability of iron in the soil. The total amount of iron will still be there but it will be in unavailable form

        • intensely_human@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          10 months ago

          Preventing the loss of iron. Preventing chelation. The problem was chelation of iron. Goal was to prevent it.

          • Track_Shovel
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            10 months ago

            Sorry, I missed the boat on that one.

            You want to lower pH and use humic acid which will make iron more plant available