Great resource BTW! Thanks Rally. I have a somewhat similar publication buried somewhere in my hard drive and it goes even further than this to show how much a given fertilizer can increase or decrease the ph of the soil. I used it a lot in the past for fertilizer comparisons for our sandy, low ph soil, the trouble was in most cases the local coop didn't carry the stuff I would have preferred to apply. Some of the fertilizers on the list not only add the N, P, K, or other nutrients, they also raised the ph, which is win-win if you have low ph to begin with. Many synthetic fertilizers, such as urea lower ph considerably.
I'd seen similar resources on the other site, but when I found this one I really liked the fact that it had a nice little chart with the values. Unless you could buy it bulk, bonemeal bloodmeal etc... would be SUPER expensive to bring all of your levels up, but I think they'd be pretty manageable to maintain levels, especially in a garden setting.
As far as the pH goes, I've never tested my plot professionally. The home-owners kits with the little pills put it somewhere between 5.5 and 7, which for my needs is adequate. Brassicas, cereals, peas, and clovers aren't too picky, and I've never had much of a problem. I've never really applied much fert, so I don't worry TOO much about driving the pH down. Last year was the most I've applied in the last 5 or so years, and it was 2 bags of 20-20-20 and 2 of 10-10-10. I know it's A LOT less than most people when they plant grains or brassicas.
I digress... I thought it was a pretty cool paper. Even though my interest in biology is larger scale systems, the more I research the more I'm amazed at all of the little feedback cycles that we have with our usage of fertilizers and lime. Heavy fertilizers, will lots of times acidify soils, which means you need more lime. Or there might be a pH problem, but the plants show deficiencies.. rather than correct the pH, lots of people just dump more nutrients or fertilizers. After growing in containers (ninebark and oaks) it's easy to see how there are so many people, generally homeowners, that overuse fertilizers, assuming or being completely unaware of the pH problems). I think that liquid miracle grow is generally 20-20-20, which is a crazy high concentration. Pair that with some appealing marketing, and you've got lots of people using lots of synthetics. Call me a hippie if ya want, but I find the "challenge" of keeping everything as input free, or using more environmentally sustainable inputs, as possible is pretty rewarding. :)
As far as building OM, my top 8 inches are nice pond muck. I'd much rather build down past that 8 inches, or even bring up some sand to make a nice loamy 16 inches. I'm not too worried about my yield, but getting some more variability in what I'm able to plant would be nice.
