I re-post the info. that I posted last year June 8, 2014:

Cracked-corn is VERY ACIDIC at pH 3.5 if soaked long in water. At that low pH, both bacteria and fungi are suppressed. I use diluted vinegar to zap the black fungus on my shower curtain. Fungi is also suppressed at very alkaline pH, such as baking soda at pH 8.3.

I soak cracked corn to lower my high pH tap water at 8.6. It's acidity neutralizes the calcium hydroxide in my tap water, and helps roses to bloom in summer heat. NPK of corn meal is 1.6 / 0.65 / 0.4 .... that's better than horse manure NPK of 0.44 / 0.17 / 0.35. The biggest drawback of horse manure is the salt-content, plus the de-worming medications given to horse.

Whole-grain corn's minerals profile is impressive, with 39% magnesium, 23% iron, 29% phosphorus, 10% potassium, 30% manganese, 37% selenium, 12% copper, and 15% zinc. Iron deficiency cause yellowing of young leaves, versus manganese deficiency of diffused yellowing. I have both: iron deficiency in my pot plants, and manganese deficiency in my native clay.

http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/cereal-grains-and-pasta/5692/2

Thanks, Strawchicago. So, I gather that what you are saying is that, yes, cracked corn could be a very good idea. As for the "gesso" thing: this is confusing because of the language question. When I Google-translated the word "gypsum", it gave me "gesso",but "gesso" is also the word used in English to indicate a preparation for painter's canvases. The product I am talking about is sold as a fine powder,whereas on Google ,pictures of "gypsum" show a rock! Where do you buy the "gypsum" that you use? perhaps this might help me figure out what this stuff is, and where I might be able to find it here in Italy. As for red lava rock, that is easier-to translate, at least; it's "pietra lavica rossa". However I have not yet been able to find it for sale...
Btw,when I did the red cabbage soil ph test, my soil tested out as being about a 9; i.e., alkaline, but not exaggeratedly so. This may be changing gradually, however, since I have begun mulching. I'm using bark chips,which judging by their aromatic perfume are made up from evergreens. regards, bart

Hi Bart: I agree with mulching with evergreen-bark-chips for alkaline soil and water. Those bark chips, esp. pine-bark is very acidic at pH 4, will lower the high pH of tap water and alkaline soil. Only 10 minutes from me, that town stated on their website that their tap water pH is 9. When I measure my tap water (from our wells different from that town) ... that registered pH 8.6 with fish-tank litmus paper. So when the soil is soaked with such alkaline tap-water, your red-cabbage juice giving a 9 in pH is correct.

After a heavy rain, my soil was tested less alkaline, thanks to rain water pH at 5.6.

Here's the link to Amazon selling SOLUBLE calcium sulfate (gypsum) .. I use that to lower my high pH tap water. http://www.amazon.com/Calcium-Sulfate-Dihydrate-Gypsum-Fertilizer/dp/B008LETYN6

Below show pictures of whitish GRANULAR gypsum to break up my heavy clay.

pictures of granular gypsum

I hope that helps. Sincerely, StrawChicago.

Well,I got the cracked corn and applied a lot to the soil around Clbg. Old Blush and watered it in,so we shall see. But, another question: at the store, I had to choose between 2 products: one was just the coarse cracked corn, the other was the cracked corn mixed with corn meal/flour. I got this latter because the gentleman at the store said it was the more nutritious (for the animals, at least), and I figured that being finer it would break down faster (it was also cheaper!) But was this a good idea? maybe next time should I get the coarser product?

Hi Bart: You bought the right stuff. The cracked corn mixed with corn meal would be best ABOVE the ground. The fine corn meal would lower your high pH tap water. I tested WHOLE-GRAIN corn meal ... dusty & fine as fertilizer, and it worked great when I watered that in. Bolero and Evelyn's leaves both became shiny from the fatty germ in whole-grain corn meal & plus broke out in blooms.

But when I tested REFINED, white corn meal (stripped off the bran & germ layer) ... it was a disaster. Eglantyne Austin rose HATED that stuff. That stank up, and attracted flies. Whole-grain is always better for one's health, be it plants or people.

The coarser cracked corn is best used below ground, to break up hard clay. The harder the soil when dry, and the stickier it is when wet, indicates high soil pH. COARSE cracked corn, at pH 4, helps soil to be soft, crumbly, and loamy since it lowers the pH of soil. Larger particles is best below ground, since I tested fine particles before, like peatmoss, cocoa mulch, pine fines, alfalfa meal ... and that glued up to alkaline clay if mixed below ground. I hope that helps ... please let me know in the future how that corn-mixture work out for you. Thanks.

So the coarser cracked corn would be good, too, perhaps, since I really want to improve the soil ! The thing is, my Clbg. Old Blushes have been having bad health issues these past couple of years. They start out fine in spring, but as their first flush of blooms open, the plants get both powdery mildew and bspot; by the end of the flush, they are totally defoliated. Then they leaf out again and have better health. Now, maybe this rose isn't suited to my climate, but I hope this isn't the case, since in spite of everything, I love it. I've begun working on both of the mature plants that I have ,and obviously the soil is pretty pathetic. Plant number 1 is between an oak and a cherry tree; the soil is very, very dry and lifeless. I think that plant number 2 's soil is heavy clay. I'm adding lots of organic matter as a mulch, and will be digging it in,but I really would prefer to not have to dig up these very large plants and start from scratch. In the past I've used peat moss and alfalfa HAY and manure,but this may have just "glued up" the soil too much. I saw in another of your posts that you think that heavy, un-aereated soil may encourage bspot,and the idea does not sound in the least far-fetched, IMO. So I think I will be getting the coarser product as well, because my goal is to "loamize" (i.e., render more fluffy and loamy) this sad soil.

Hi Bart: Great observations you have. I agree with what you wrote: "They start out fine in spring, but as their first flush of blooms open, the plants get both powdery mildew and bspot; by the end of the flush, they are totally defoliated.Then they leaf out again and have better health." Spring time gets rain water (pH 6 to 5.6) which release nutrients from heavy clay. After blooming, the plant is depleted of nutrients (esp. potassium and anti-fungal trace elements like zinc and copper). So they drop their leaves.

Comte de Chambord did that to me for 3 years. I was annoyed and dug him up many times to do experiments: cracked corn in the hole didn't work (not enough potassium), sunflower seeds in the hole didn't work (too high phosphorus). Finally I figure out it's the potassium & anti-fungal trace elements, so during heavy blooming, I topped with red-lava rocks (high in potassium & trace elements), plus fresh clay on top. We are lucky to get month-long acidic rain to release the nutrients. Picture below is taken today, June 24, in high humidity 70%, he's 100% clean after the 1st flush:

Note: if you don't get rain to break down the stuff applied on top, then gypsum (with 17% sulfur) helps to break down nutrients. That's why the alkaline rose park put tons of gypsum pellets, along with granular fertilizer on top of their rose beds.

The culprit of gluing up with heavy clay is peat moss, and not alfalfa hay. I dug many holes fixed with peat moss, and they became concrete after a few months, zero earthworms. I dug holes fixed with cracked corn and gypsum .. a year later it's still fluffy. I dug holes fixed with alfalfa hay and cracked corn, and months later still fluffy & moist with tons of earthworms.

Very large chunks pine-bark mixed into clay become fluffy a year later, except it's too dry with very few worms. Big-chunks pine-bark take many years to break down, same with alfalfa hay .. so they can fluff up clay for the longest period. Coarse sand doesn't decompose like organic matter, so that fluff up heavy clay forever, except no nutrients and quite dry.

Cracked corn does sprout baby-corn plants, so I do that before my winter, which zap out the corn-plants. Cracked corn works very well in breaking up clay, since it's very acidic at pH 4, compared to alfalfa hay at pH 5.8. Even when cracked corn sprout babies, it's easy to kill them with a hoe, or mulching. If you can get cocoa mulch, it's excellent at pH 5.4, plus high potassium & trace elements ... that's great for alkaline clay.

Madame Isaac Pereire rose is known for BS-prone and stingy initially. I achieved the impossible for that one: planted as tiny own-root last August, survived -20 degree below zero winter, and popped up 6 buds in spring, 100% healthy, despite less than 4 hours of sun, in a shady & wet bed. Why? It's planted in nutrients rich-hole: gypsum, cracked corn, and alfalfa hay, then topped with cocoa mulch (rich in potassium, trace elements). Picture taken June 24, month-long rain and extreme humidity:

yeah, I wish I could find these red lava rocks for sale around here...

I also looked for red lava rocks here locally with no luck... (within a 50 mile radius)

Hi Bart and Jim: Wood-ash is equally good for potassium & calcium & trace elements. One time I made the mistake of mixing FRESH horse manure and clay, resulting in salt-burns, which I had to replace the entire bed with Scott's topsoil: less alkaline than the cheap brand, since it has peatmoss (pH 4) ... and the color is really black, since they put wood-ash (pH over 10). The result? Three years of zero fungal diseases on 3 Austin roses .. that's how long anti-fungal properties of wood-ash last.

I reposted the info. that I posted on May 27, 2013:

Two people in HMF reported success against mildew when they dust the ground with wood ash. Wood ash is very alkaline, pH 10 to 12, is OK if your soil is acidic, and you spread wood ash VERY THIN on top of a thick layer of acidic mulch.

Wood ash can burn shallow roots. My Mom in acidic clay, Michigan, used wood ash as fertilizer for 30+ years with zero fungal diseases in her 5-acre garden. She mulched plants with leaves, then spread wood ash on top, then the rain, pH of 5.6, washed the alkaline wood ash to neutralize the acidic layer of leaves.

Wood ash is high in potassium (necessary to fight diseases), plus high in calcium. Both potassium and calcium strengthen cell walls against diseases. Wood ash has boron (lacking in some soils, even at neutral pH), iron, plus all the trace elements. NPK of wood ash is 0-1-3, plus up to 20% calcium.

I found the table of chemical composition for woodash versus limestone (high pH), thanks to Kimmsr in the Soil Forum.

Here's an excerpt from the link below: http://hubcap.clemson.edu/~blpprt/bestwoodash.html
Table 1. Range in elemental composition of industrial wood ash samples and ground limestone.

Wood Ash ******** Limestone Conc. in %

Calcium 15 ******** 31

Potassium 2.6 ******* 0.13
Aluminum 1.6 ******* 0.25
Magnesium 1.0 ******* 5.1

Iron 0.84 ******** 0.29
Phosphorus 0.53 ***** 0.06
Manganese 0.41 ******* 0.05
Sodium 0.19 ****** 0.07
Nitrogen 0.15 ******* 0.01

Microelements Concentration in mg/kg
Wood Ash ****** Limestone
Arsenic 6

Boron 123
Cadmium 3 ***** 0.7

Chromium 57 ***** 6.0
Copper 70 ***** 10
Lead 65 ***** 55
Mercury 1.9
Molybdenum 19
Nickel 20 **** 20
Selenium 0.9

Zinc 233 **** 113

Other Chemical Properties
CaCO3 Equivalent 43% (woodash) 100% for limestone

pH woodash is 10.4 versus pH of limestone is 9.9

Woodash is high in calcium, potassium, zinc, chromium, and all trace elements . Woodash also contains 123 mg/kg of Boron, which is vital for plant growth. Boron is less available in alkaline clay. My soil in Chicagoland is dolomitic alkaline clay.

Woodash has 70 mg/kg of copper, a fungicide in Bordeux mixture. It has 233 mg/kg of zinc (compared to 113 in limestone) a fungicide fraction in Mancozeb spray. It has boron, another fungicide for dry rot. It has 65 mg of lead, compared to 55 mg of lead in limestone, also a fungicide. Finally woodash has 57 mg of chromium, another fungicide, here's a quote:

"In the past, chromium was also used in cooling towers as a rust and corrosion inhibitor and as a fungicide. "

http://corrosion-doctors.org/Elements-Toxic/Chromium.htm

Here is a link that might be useful: Clemson.edu on wood ash

I re-post the info. which I posted in 2013 for wood-ash:

Woodash can also be used as insecticides ... see this excerpt from eHow: "Wood ash is a safe alternative to insecticide use in the garden. Wood ash repels insects, slugs and snails by drawing water from their bodies until they are dehydrated. Sprinkling ashes around the base of plants will control surface feeding insects."

Wood ash has high pH above 11, very caustic to my skin when I took wood ash from the neighbor's fire place. Its causticity kills insects on contact. Here's another excerpt from link below: "Abstract: Laboratory assays demonstrated that wood ash is toxic to adult and larval stages of the Colorado potato beetle. Insect mortality reached 100% among larvae and beetles continuously exposed to wood ash for periods of up to 10 days ... "

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12230-012-9234-7

When I googled on "Tradescant rose", I found this info. in EveryRose.com. :

"I was once told by a rosarian that if a rose, or any other shrub gets rust, treat the soil with wood ash. I've tried it on numerous rose and other flowering shrubs and find that it works wonders. The rust seems to disappear over night." Mandy Fox, zone 4, Adirondacks, NY

Here is a link that might be useful: EveryRose.com on Tradescant rose

Caution: Wood-ash burns plants ... my Mom always tell me to put that away from roots. In the fall she raked leaves (acidic pH from 4 to 6), then put wood ash on top, and let the rain & snow work that down. In the spring she applied that to her plants. I never see any fungal diseases in her large garden, that include her rose bushes. But people in dry & alkaline California use wood ash to kill weeds. Here's an excerpt from below link:

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/gardening/wood-ash-can-be-useful-yard-if-used-caution

"Ash from a cord of oak meets the potassium needs of a garden 60 by 70 feet, he said. A cord of Douglas-fir ash supplies enough potassium for a garden 30 by 30 feet. Both types of ash contain enough calcium and magnesium to reduce soil acidity (increase soil pH) slightly.

One-half to one pound of wood ash per year is recommended for each shrub and rose bush. Spread ash evenly on the soil around perennial plants. Rake the ash into the soil lightly, being careful not to damage the roots. Never leave ash in lumps or piles, because if it is concentrated in one place, excessive salt from the ash will leach into the soil.

Do not use if soil pH is more than 7.0 or if potassium levels are excessive.

"You may want to have your soil analyzed periodically to determine its need for lime and potassium," said Sullivan. "As a general rule, acid soils that would benefit from ash application are usually found in those places in Oregon that get more than 20 inches of rain per year. Do not apply ash to newly germinated seeds, as ash contains too many salts for seedlings. Do not add ash with nitrogen fertilizers such as ammonium sulfate (21-0-0-24S), urea (46-0-0) or ammonium nitrate (34-0-0). These fertilizers produce ammonia gas when placed in contact with high pH materials such as wood ash. "http://extension.oregonstate.edu/gardening/wood-ash-can-be-useful-yard-if-used-caution

O dear, this is when I start just getting so confused...getting a real soil test done here seems to be an expensive and difficult venture,so I've basically discarded that idea,but I did do the red cabbage ph test, which gave a result of about 8-9. So, alkaline. But I'm constantly adding organic matter, I've mulched with wood chips,and for the most part, the plants only recieve rain water (I have no running water at my land, so I harvest rain water, and established plants must rely on rainfall). Now, if I use cracked corn as a fertilizer, wouldn't the wood ash balance out the acidity of the corn? because both of these products are easily available to me (we have wood-burning stoves),and it seems to make more sense to use these rather than go looking for gypsum, red lava rocks,etc,which would likely be prohibitively expensive in the long run : my garden is VERY large,with hundreds of roses; we are not talking about a suburban plot!

Hi Bart: Fantastic idea you have !! I agree: I would put cracked corn below the bark-chips, to prevent birds & animals from digging that up. Then I put wood-ash on-top last. To prevent cracked corn from sprouting, put bagged cracked corn in your freezer for 1 week before using. Hubby bought me a large bag of cracked corn last fall, and it stored in my cold garage (below freezing) for 3 months. In the spring I used it, and zero corn sprouting. However, the new bag of cracked corn bought in spring: it sprouted corn-plants all over !!

Wood-ash is very good for roses. My Mom used that for 30 years and I had never seen fungal growth on her roses: no mildew, no black spots, no rust. She had a 5-acre garden and never water her roses. I re-post the composition of red-lava rock compared to wood-ash, and you'll see wood-ash is far superior in anti-fungal agents:

pH of woodash is 10.4 compared to pH of 9.9 for limestone, and pH of 8.2 for red-lava-rock. Woodash has 20% calcium, plus high in potassium, zinc, and boron. Woodash is most effective since it's faster release, due to smaller particles. Below values are in p.p.m (parts per million, as in water contains 1 ppm of fluoride).

Wood Ash Calcium 15 Potassium 2.6 Aluminum 1.6 Magnesium 1.0
Iron 0.84 Phosphorus 0.53 Manganese 0.41 Sodium 0.19 Nitrogen 0.15

Microelements Concentration in mg/kg for Wood Ash
Arsenic 6 Boron 123
Cadmium 3 Chromium 57 Copper 70 Lead 65 Mercury 1.9
Molybdenum 19 Nickel 20 Selenium 0.9 Zinc 233

CaCO3 (calcium carbonate equivalent 43% (woodash) 100% for limestone)

Let's compared wood ash to red-lava-rock, has less zinc than wood-ash. Zinc, copper, calcium, boron plus potassium are anti-fungal agents. For red lava rock, in p.p.m, it has 6 phosphorus, 59 potassium (way-more than wood-ash), but only 6 in zinc. Red-lava-rock advantage is high iron at 10, copper at 5 (compared to 70 for wood ash), magnesium of 2, and boron of 10 (compared to 123 for wood ash). The highest compositions in red-lava-rock are: calcium at 1.3 mg/100, manganese at 0.6, and sodium at 0.5 mg/100.

For anti-fungal agents, wood ash is number one. For potassium and iron, red-lava rock excels. Below are my 1st-year gallon-size, own-root Austin roses planted in topsoil which has peatmoss (pH 4) to balance out wood ash (pH 10.4). Lots of blooms, and no black spots nor rust for years afterwards. But notice just a touch of mildew, since I topped that with salty horse manure, plus salty high nitrogen-chemicall, plus sulfur. I stopped those foolish experiments and mildew went away ... they are clean for the past 4 years. Picture taken at above 80 degree in hot & dry summer:

Ohh, love this combination of colors Straw, thank you.

Bart, if possible please upload some pictures of your garden and rose blooms. It's been over ten years or so since I've been to Italy so it would be great to see pictures of Europe and roses (two of my favorite things).

Hi Msgirl: My sister went to Europe many times .. she was disappointed in the gardens in France. She's in Northern CA, which have great gardens, hard to beat with perfect CA climate.

Bart: Since your soil gets rain water, rather than tap-water ... it's more accurate if the red-cabbage-test is done with rain water. I use distilled water, neutral pH to do red-cabbage-testing. One time I forgot and used tap water, and ALL my soil samples look like pH 9 !!! My tap water is very alkaline, it's 8.6, but sometimes higher.

I think I used de-mineralized water; I know I didn't use tap water or distilled. I know that water in general in Italy tends to be pretty alkaline; in any case, it leaves calcium deposits and you have to use an anti-calcium deposit product in the washing machine for every load,so clearly that would falsify any test.

Thanks for the info., bart, I tested bottled waters: both the reverse-osmosis and the mineral water: they both are alkaline. Distilled water has neutral pH but it's quite tart for me. I used distilled water to make juice one time ... had to put tons of sugar in.

Well, if I manage to find red cabbage again,I'll try it again with rain water. Still, it's a pretty safe bet that my soil is more or less alkaline, though a store-bought soil-test kit I tried long ageo gave me a neutral result.
Now, let me pick your brain further, if I may. Seeing that we are talking about all natural fertilizers,I'm assuming that at least some of them are going take a longish time to break down enough for the plants to be able to use. I am wondering if another issue is timing of application. First, let me explain the rhythym of my garden and weather. Here, winters are very mild in comparison with those of much of the USA. Roses only lose their leaves usually in late December, and already by early February the new little bud stubs are peeking out. The sun, however, is so low in autumn that I don't get any real blooming. In other words, I think they go into a semi-dormant state,rather than any true dormancy. Autumn and winter are when we get rain for the most part, too,so presumable this would be a good time for a plant to work on it's roots. Then, spring comes: all too often it's drier than a gardener would like (and remember, I can't provide real watering myself),and also hotter,and things "explode"into growth.So, I'm wondering if maybe I ought to be aiming to start fertilizing much earlier in the year than I have in the past, that is,in winter? (here, we should prune in December-January) or maybe even in autumn? because as I said, I think that these plants are probably working on their roots during much of fall and winter;( in fact, I suspect that their main "dormant" period might be more like July and August, when it's just so dry and hot!) and we are not talking about quick-acting chemical fertilizers, but rather organic stuff that needs time to work. I just get the impression that perhaps part of the problem is just that they need a lot of nutrients to support that spurt of growing and then blooming that happens in spring.
I also want to point out that both Fellemberg and Deschamps in my garden were stunted and sickly. I dug both up and they are now in pots in my cramped and muggy little space in front of the house.Yet both are looking pretty healthy! so maybe it's just the fact that here at the house thye are recieving regular water and getting fertilized with a liquid fert. .

I agree with what you wrote, Bart. Liquid fertilizer is best for plants, and organics need water to break down. Re-quoting what you wrote: "Autumn and winter are when we get rain for the most part." It would be best to apply organics in Autumn, before the rainy-season.

I apply organics before the ground freeze (late November), so organics have 5 months of winter snow and spring rain to move down the soil. There's a research that stated "solid phosphorus only move down 1 inch. per year", that's why soluble phosphorus is best. Organics need acid, either acidic rain or sulfur to break down. That's why the chicken manure I put down in autumn still gunk up on-top in dry spring. In contrast, the manure mixed with sulfur, dissolved faster in the rain, than just manure alone. Cracked corn is acidic .. when I got the smaller-particle-corn as fertilizer, it work within a week. Bone meal is alkaline, that did not break down, but gunk up and burnt roots. Blood meal is acidic if there's rain, and the release is fast, within a week. Wood-ash is VERY alkaline, that need to apply months in advance, along with an acidic agent (cracked corn) to break that down.

We had a dry spring this year ... so glad that I DID NOT apply chicken-manure back then. Then we have tons of rain this summer, and I apply chicken-manure again with no problems. Organics is best when there's rain.

What my Mom did in the fall was to rake leaves into a compost pile ... during fall & winter she dumped wood-ash weekly on top. Wood ash is best for the compost pile, rather than right on top of roots. Wood ash is so concentrated in salt & high pH ... that it's best for many months of rain to dilute that. I put chicken manure in late November, right before the ground freeze, then early dry & cold March, I still see that gunking on top. Only when the weather warms up, and there's rain .. that it finally break down. There are many factors for organics to move down to root-zone: TIME: at least 1-month for large particle. HEAT: organics breaks down faster when the weather is warm. WATER: need to move phosphorus (1 mobility) and potassium (3 mobility) down. ACID: acidic organics break down faster than alkaline.