Last summer we did some Proof of Concept testing at the New Mexico Consortium labs, determining if the Supramolecular Aromatic Chemistry coming from the Humic molecules in TerraPro provided a Mechanism of Action in fixing or controlling sodic saline conditions. The tests went well and with positive results, however there were a few steps that got missed or left out that I'd like to get some measurements on, so Anna and I will do a repeat of a similar tests using our new lab in Los Lunas. I'm hoping that Kevin Devine and Stephen Gomez, both highly qualified professional chemists can help me do some test and measurements once the grow out phase is completed. I collected 20 gallons of soil from this spot near Socorro New Mexico where even the native salt grass was beyond its tolerance and could not grow. You can see the salt grass growing close to the collection site but not on it. I've taken the soil back to the lab, will send samples off to a lab for a pre-test analysis, and follow that up with a post test analysis. In the meantime we shall see what increment of TerraPro gives us the best performance germinating some stuff. When we did this last summer with Los Alamos National Labs, the post soil analysis phase was skipped because the soil was thrown away after the roots of the plants were extracted and measured for microbial characteristics. I asked that the soil be returned to me, but that didn't happen.
I was recently asked to provide a simplified explanation on the importance of Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) values. My Response: CEC is the ability of a soil to hold onto plant nutrients. The finer the particle size the higher CEC value, generally speaking. For example sand particles are course and visible to the naked eye, where as clay particles are fine and are not visible to the naked eye. So clay will have a higher CEC value than sand. It is obvious to most of us that sand cannot hold onto water or nutrients as well as a soil with a finer texture. Therefore, soils rich in Clay and Loam size particles are universally recognized as being better for farming - CEC explains this. The numerical value for CEC represents how much nutrition can be held by a given amount of soil. For example one pound of a clay loam soil with a CEC value of 20 will hold 4 times as many nutrients as a sandy soil with a CEC value of 5. 20/4 = 5 . It's all about math, for example Nitrogen in