MULTI-CROP CASE · RF-4

Tomatoes + blueberries — separate crop decisions

This case shows why one soil test can support more than one crop analysis without averaging incompatible crop requirements into a compromise recommendation.

Matched pair: preserved University of Missouri laboratory evidence from report H46109H-1 → QMA standardized five-page Soil Amendment Plan.

1 · LABORATORY SOIL TEST EVIDENCE

Preserved report evidence — H46109H-1

Laboratory: University of Missouri Soil and Plant Testing Laboratory · Report date: March 29, 2018

Reported factorPreserved result
Native salt pH5.5 · 0.01 M CaCl2
Water-equivalent pH used for crop comparison5.94915
Phosphorus7 lb/acre · Bray-1
Potassium191 lb/acre · ammonium acetate
Calcium5,253 lb/acre
Organic matter2.6%
Selected cropsTomatoes + Blueberries
Sample depthNot reported
Sample ZIP / sample dateNot reported
Source-document note: the standalone original Missouri lab PDF is not presently preserved in QMA files. This panel reproduces the laboratory evidence preserved from report H46109H-1 and is not represented as a facsimile of the original report.

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What Your Soil Test Tells Us

The tested soil cannot be managed as one shared amendment program for tomatoes and blueberries. The water-equivalent pH is about 5.95. Tomatoes require an upward pH correction toward their supported range, while blueberries require a substantially more acidic root zone.

More importantly, the tested native soil is not suitable as the blueberry root zone because calcium is too high and organic matter is too low for the supported blueberry suitability criteria.

Crop branchReleased direction
TomatoesApply 2.5 lb fish bone meal 3-16-0 + 10 lb agricultural lime per 100 ft²
BlueberriesDo not use tested native soil as root zone; create a separate low-calcium acidic bed and test it before correction

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Amendment Recommendations

Tomato phosphorus: Bray-1 phosphorus is low for the selected vegetable basis. Apply fish bone meal 3-16-0 at 2.5 lb per 100 ft².

Tomato pH: apply agricultural lime at 10 lb per 100 ft² on the preserved laboratory recommendation basis. Do not substitute wood ash.

Tomato nitrogen / potassium: do not invent a measured-to-target deficit from printed fertilizer guidelines. Count collateral nutrients supplied by the selected amendment.

Blueberries: do not lime, add wood ash, use fish bone meal, or import tomato-bed soil into the blueberry root zone. Build and test the separate acidic bed first.

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Application Instructions

  1. Keep tomato and blueberry areas physically and operationally separate.
  2. Apply the released fish bone meal and lime only to the tomato area, scaled from the per-100-ft² rates.
  3. Do not apply the tomato amendment program to the blueberry area.
  4. Construct the blueberry root zone from appropriate low-calcium acidic materials with adequate organic matter and drainage.
  5. Test the finished blueberry bed before applying sulfur or nutrient corrections.
  6. Use the new bed test—not the native-soil report—to determine any later blueberry amendment quantities.

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Why These Amendments Were Selected

The tomato branch receives a conventional pH-upward correction and a supported phosphorus amendment. Fish bone meal is used for the phosphorus action while its collateral nitrogen and calcium contributions are recognized.

The blueberry branch is fundamentally different: lowering pH alone would not make the tested native soil a suitable blueberry root zone. The calcium and organic-matter evidence changes the management decision from “correct this soil” to “create and test a separate bed.”

Public-method boundary: this page explains the customer-facing selection logic. Proprietary allocation and balancing procedures are not reproduced.

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Calculation Evidence and Safeguards

EvidenceReleased interpretation
Water-equivalent pH 5.94915Below tomato midpoint; above blueberry target range
Bray-1 P 7 lb/acreTomato phosphorus correction supported
Ca 5,253 lb/acreFails blueberry native-site suitability criterion
Organic matter 2.6%Below blueberry suitability criterion
Missing geometryRates released per 100 ft²; whole-bed totals not invented

Safeguard: tomato and blueberry targets are never averaged. Printed annual fertilizer recommendations are not represented as measured soil targets.

Final status: Released on a per-area basis; tomato and blueberry branches remain separate.

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