The Random thought thread

[onetrack]

The minerals and elements in the soil definitely affect the taste of the fruit or nuts. In my neck of the woods, the gravelly ironstone soils of the Darling Range produce superb-tasting citrus and stonefruits.

Your Pacific Ocean-facing slopes are possibly mineral deficient, after millions of years of increased rainfall causing soil leaching, as compared to the lower rainfall, Western slopes of the GDR.

 

The water in the Perth Hills is highly mineralised, with dams having a blue water colour, due to the mineralised water. The minerals are generally calcium, magnesium and silica, and they are leached out of the weathered granite and dolerite rocks, the pipe clays (kaolin) and the lateritic (ironstone) gravels, that are the common rocks and soils of the Perth Hills. This water is used to irrigate the orchards and provides additional beneficial minerals to the fruit and nut trees.

"Cracker dust" (fine dust from dolerite or granitic rock crushing for roads and ballast) is often used as a fertilising agent, which dust acts as a slow-release provider of calcium, magnesium, silica, and other beneficial minerals to plants, as it breaks down over time.

 

Elsewhere in W.A. where "light" sandy and sandy gravel soils proliferate, there is a need to apply trace elements to enable the plants to take up the nutrients in the soil. Failure to apply trace elements means poor crops and trees, and plants that struggle to thrive - even if you have applied other fertilisers such as nitrogen, phosphate or sulphate fertilisers.

The primary trace elements needed are copper, zinc, manganese, and molybdenum. As indicated, only "trace levels" are needed in the application, but the results are impressive when carried out.

 

For many decades, "light" sandy soils were regarded as useless in W.A., especially for grain cropping, until an ag researcher at the UWA in the early 1930's, found that trace elements were needed on the sandy soils to enable the plants to uptake the nutrients in the soils.

Once this was done on a broadacre farming scale, the yields of wheat, barley, and oats multiplied enormously, and large areas of light land were then cleared for agricultural use.

Trace element application is generally only needed every 5-10 years, it is a long-lasting soil beneficiation treatment.

[willedoo]

The main rock around my area is rhyolite. A lot of years ago I had a bloke with a dozer do a slight contour modification, basically pushing off the topsoil, doing a cut and fill then replacing the topsoil. Before he replaced the topsoil, he pointed out some patches of a purple coloured, soft chalky rock that had been exposed. He told me it was rich in minerals and that bananas did really well with it. Turned out he was right. I planted Lady Fingers on that area and they did really well considering the shallow topsoil depth. I fed a lot of flying foxes and bush turkeys on those bananas. The flying foxes weren't too bad; they wouldn't rip the bags apart and would just eat the end bananas on the bunch that they could reach at the bag openings. The turkeys would fly up onto the bags, rip the bags open and peck bits out of every banana on the bunch. They wouldn't eat complete bananas, just destroy the whole bunch by partially eating every single banana.

[willedoo]

42 minutes ago, onetrack said:

For many decades, "light" sandy soils were regarded as useless in W.A., especially for grain cropping, until an ag researcher at the UWA in the early 1930's, found that trace elements were needed on the sandy soils to enable the plants to uptake the nutrients in the soils.

Once this was done on a broadacre farming scale, the yields of wheat, barley, and oats multiplied enormously, and large areas of light land were then cleared for agricultural use.

It always amazes me what they can do in that light soil. A cousin of mine farms around 11,000 hectares in the Tammin area and they get into a fair bit of high tech stuff. At that scale a lot of it is about minimising costs so a lot of their decision making is data based. It's another world from where he grew up with black soil metres deep.

[facthunter]

Sugar affects the taste the Most. Unripe fruits are Bitter tasting. The Plant MAKES the sugar. Of course soils will alter the Fruit taste but not the sweetness which was my Point. High acid or alkaline figures will Kill Plants but Lime (alkaline) is considered to "sweeten" the soil but not in the way putting sugar in it would. Neutral Ph makes More Nutrient available to the Plants. Microbes and Worms Help the soil provide more nutrient and Urea (nitrogen) makes leaves greener..  Soil testing is a Must with Farming and knowing where the water table is.  Nev