Thanks and you're absolutely right. The agent didn't answer his phone Friday. I had suggested testing my finished compost but he didn't think it was important. I disagree.
I do have a tandem load of garden soil I was building more beds with so I'll be able to top the bed off with about 4" or so of lower P soil. The biggest problem with high P is that plants become deficient in iron and zinc and therefor fail to grow. I can't stress enough how important a soil test is. Had I or most other people had a problem with plants failing to thrive, we may have tried fertilizer. If the fertilizer used had anything other than a zero in the second spot (N-P-K), the problem would have been exacerbated.
Any fertilizer I use will have to contain nitrogen only.
300 ppm is considered high enough to cause problems for plants. Mine is over 700 ppm.
I'm sure I can correct the situation in time. I wouldn't have been able to if I didn't have the soil test to know what I was dealing with.
Peculiarly, it is akin to having a sick chicken and immediately starting to medicate or bite the bullet and take it for a necropsy so you know the correct course of action.
Even heavy feeders like tomatoes only remove about 30 lbs. of P per acre. Fortunately P over time becomes chemically bound in the soil and unavailable in solution, unlike nitrogen which flushes out quickly.
The problem is just as bad for organic growers as for those using excessive amounts of chemical fertilizer. 20 tons of cow manure per acre will accumulate 1200 lbs. P over 20 years and chicken manure is much worse.
I do use straw in the run but not enough. Making it worse likely is that after the chickens are done, I top it off with finished compost but that is made up mostly of shavings and manure from the coops.
In the future I'll use much more shavings in the coops and muck them out more often and add more brown material like leaves and grass clippings to the compost.
People keep trying to grow grass in their runs or the bare area in front of the coop to no avail. The soil is too compacted and too high in phosphorus.
All one can do is dig out a few inches and bring in fresh soil.
I'm sure it was important.
Too bad you couldn't find a local place near where she lives that would deliver rather than ship from afar.
When catastrophe happens, there isn't time to consider other options.
