Author Topic: Baseline Reports for Plant Tissue Nutrient Analysis?  (Read 856 times)

Daintree

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Baseline Reports for Plant Tissue Nutrient Analysis?
« on: June 28, 2017, 01:39:10 PM »
Hi All,
I am growing a few plants in my greenhouse that are not generally known in cultivation.  Trying to sort out their nutrient needs has been a challenge.  In particular, a couple of my dacryodes edulis were looking funky, and none of the online pictures pointed me in the right direction.

There is a local lab that does plant tissue analysis for crops and trees, so I took some samples in to them.  I had one tree that was doing well, and one that was looking horrible.  Turned out the bad one had several issues, including an iron overload (comparing the "happy" plant to the "unhappy" plant), although I do not use much iron at all.  Some of these jungle trees seem to prefer poor soil, I guess! I have found that soil analysis doesn't help much, since the soil may be fine, but it doesn't have what THAT plant needs, or has too much of it. For example, in healthy, nitrogen-rich soil, my cinnamon isn't happy.  Less nitrogen, happy cinnamon! Plus, because I use a high-quality potting mix and my plants are in containers, there is far less of an issue with soil problems compared to plants in the ground.

Anyway, I am now in the process of taking other "healthy" samples in to have them tested, and try to establish a baseline for what they need.  It is still sort of a crapshoot, since a plant can be in the process of suffering, but not showing symptoms yet, but over time, I am hoping to establish what "normal" is for some of these plants.

So, my question is - Is there someplace where I can find baseline tissue analysis (not soil) reports for some of these plants, so I don't pay to reinvent the wheel?  Namely, cherimoya, soursop, custard apple, ice cream bean and theobroma cacao. 

The lab I use tests for nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulfur, zinc, copper, manganese, iron and boron.  I realize that different labs may use different testing methods, but they usually state what methods they use, so the results may still be helpful.

Thanks!

Carolyn

 

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