Table 2

Means and standard errors (n = 4) from initial soil samples taken at the start of the experiment in 1996 at three depths (0–15, 15–30, and 30–45 cm) from biodynamic (BD) and organic plots before treatments were applied.

Soil	BD	Organic	BD	Organic	BD	Organic
property	(0–15 cm)	(0–15 cm)	(15–30 cm)	(15–30 cm)	(30–45 cm)	(30–45 cm)
pH in H₂O	6.9 ± 0.10	6.9 ± 0.02	7.0 ± 0.07	6.9 ± 0.00	6.8 ± 0.05	6.8 ± 0.06
pH in CaCl₂	6.8 ± 0.08	6.8 ± 0.03	6.8 ± 0.05	7.6 ± 0.91	6.6 ± 0.05	6.7 ± 0.17
Organic matter (g/kg)	24 ± 1.5	24 ± 3.1	22 ± 1.2	20 ± 1.7	22 ± 5.2	18 ± 2.0
Biological respiration (g/kg C/wk)	15.0 ± 3.0	12.0 ± 4.9	11.0 ± 5.1	9.0 ± 3.6	10.0 ± 3.8	13.0 ± 4.6
Total CO₂ output (mg/kg/wk)	715 ± 162	589 ± 265	512 ± 243	369 ± 161	500 ± 244	488 ± 209
Water soluble aggregates (g/kg)	250 ± 30	300 ± 21	233 ± 24	290 ± 29	210 ± 21	217 ± 22
Conductivity (mmhos/cm)	0.4 ± 0.07	0.3 ± 0.07	0.2 ± 0.00	0.2 ± 0.03	0.2 ± 0.00	0.2 ± 0.09
Available phosphorus (mg/kg)	10.7 ± 2.7	10.3 ± 2.3	8.0 ± 0.0	10.7 ± 2.7	8.0 ± 0.0	8.0 ± 0.0
Nitrate (mg/kg)	30.7 ± 8.2	33.3 ± 6.8	12.0 ± 1.5	20.0 ± 9.1	15.0 ± 2.0	16.0 ± 4.5
Reserve phosphorus (mg/kg)	18.7 ± 4.7	24.3 ± 2.8	11.0 ± 3.0	17.7 ± 8.7	12.3 ± 3.0	13.3 ± 5.3
Chloride (mg/kg)	4.7 ± 0.9	4.7 ± 0.7	3.0 ± 0.6	4.3 ± 0.3	11.0 ± 6.7	7.33 ± 2.8
Sulfate (mg/kg)	32.3 ± 23.3	6.0 ± 1.5	4.0 ± 1.0	6.3 ± 2.4	5.7 ± 3.7	3.7 ± 0.3
Potassium (mg/kg)	194 ± 25	208 ± 12	210 ± 53	183 ± 25	147 ± 31	163 ± 14
Sodium (mg/kg)	52 ± 12	58 ± 14	62 ± 20	54 ± 16	67 ± 23	54 ± 15
Calcium (mg/kg)	2889 ± 386	2491 ± 157	2938 ± 320	2259 ± 401	2270 ± 346	2193 ± 135
Magnesium (mg/kg)	925 ± 66	839 ± 46	1168 ± 211	930 ± 179	1138 ± 139	1041 ± 42
Total CEC (cmol+/kg)	23.9 ± 1.7	20.9 ± 0.7	25.9 ± 3.8	21.1 ± 3.6	22.5 ± 3.3	22.3 ± 1.5