I thought you were the one who had chlorotic jaboticabas.
Organic material is great, but it doesn't provide nutrients in the right ratios, and it can make some nutrients less available. A funny example of this -- even though I'm on calcareous soil, many of my trees showed symptoms of Ca deficiency (soft, low brix fruit, leaf symptoms). This is because the top 9 - 12 inches of my soil is black compost (the result of a decade worth of tree trimmer mulch application), and the feeder roots of most of my trees prefer that portion of the soil. However, compost is notoriously low in Ca. A couple thousand pounds of gypsum solved the problem :-).
I also had chlorotic jabos that got worse and worse as I added more compost. Now that I've started using fertilzer, they've all greened up.
my house was built on a swamp
they had to truck in sand... LOTS of sand.
now, after 30yrs the soil isnt just sand.
grass clippings going back into the soil absolutely helped it.
i take grass clippings, leaves, and lots of yard waste, old vines, sunflower stalks etc...
all chopped up and put under the fruit trees.
its 6 in thick in some spots.
when i move back the mulch, there is a ton of life.
it teams, it moves...
springtails, worms, little bugs jumping and crawling
all of them eat, and hence, all of them excrete waste. (fertilizer)
the soil has been transformed in 3 years.
its very rich, and i have lots of healthy trees...
the Jabo that looked chlorotic is likely the result of being transplanted,
then dug up , and planted again.
something like Pine in abundance is low in calcium.
(Oak and Birch also are BTW)
but, my mulch is from a very diverse set of plants.
all compost is not made equal.
Linden, Hawthorn, Elm, maple and most weeds are high in calcium.
i would worry about a lot of grass as a fertilizer because it is mainly bacterial
as opposed to woody mulch which is more fungally dominant.
"chop and drop" as termed in Permaculture means to use plant matter as mulch
if you use stems and twigs, and leaves, and grass etc...
there is a mix of fungi and bacteria. There is also a higher diversity of species
each one having different mineral ratios.
For your place Jeff,
1ft of woody mulch could easily have been anaerobic, which would have made it acidic.
certain plants may have a hard time uptaking Ca.
also you need a lot of nitrogen to break down that much woody mulch.
adding greens would have balanced it out. giving it nitrogen and bacteria, and different minerals.
I tend to look at things through natures lens first.
True, most of us are planting trees that have been selected by man
and not grown in their natural environment.
and this will lead to the need for amendments, or, other solutions.
But, i would rather add calcium by using plant matter that is high in Ca