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Grittyville, WA

I saw a chinese study said it helped with fusarium in cucumbers. Has anyone ever used calcium oxide plus ammonium sulfate which would then spontaneously convert to ammonium gas and gypsum? I dont know if the reaction could take place in the soil or under plastic. I dont know how fast the reaction would be the study said the ammonium in the air was 1500 ppm and this improved the pathogen levels and fungal diversity in the soil. Sorry dont have the link right now.

12/18/2018 7:51:23 AM

Grittyville, WA

I dont want to have to reinvent the wheel so if anyone knows about this please share what you know/ email me.

12/18/2018 7:57:44 AM

Grittyville, WA

I guess i will be the first to try this. Any luck fumigating with anything else? But i'm not eager to try anything more toxic... Ammonia sounds perfect. Its cheap and organic. Maybe I will do a comparison of two patches. It is lighter than air though so it may not diffuse evenly if your ground is not flat. Again looking for any thoughts/comments. Will get this set up soon. Should be interesting.

12/20/2018 9:02:41 AM

Grittyville, WA

I will set up two patches side by side... both under plastic but only one will get ammonia gas treatment. I will plant four seeds from the same seedstock on each side. Maybe I will be able to observe some differences...

12/20/2018 9:15:51 AM

Grittyville, WA

I will keep the ammonia sulf. / calcium mix separate from the soil so the ammonia gas itself will be the only difference. Maybe i will complete this project in late march. Let me know if you think it might work or not.

12/20/2018 9:23:36 AM

Princeton Kentucky

I believe that if you combine the two, the oxide portion would remove a hydrogen from thee ammonium and release water along with a strong concentration of ammonia most likely way higher than the 1500 ppm, especially under a confined space such as plastic and or mulch. Pretty sure this action would make it to where the process would rob all the available nitrogen to the plants. It would deplete the nitrogen in the soil. I too read this process years ago in an article on growing in Asian countries. I'll do some more reading and if I find anything worth noting I'll let you know! Good Luck

12/21/2018 11:58:03 AM