They are if your cations are balanced. The major benefit of decreasing pest and disease actually come from the micronutrients Cu & Mn. These micros however only become mostly available with a truly balanced soil. In other words, yes, crops under this program are less susceptible to pest and disease, but make sure your Mg is between that 10-12 range and your Ca is in that 68-70% range. Unless you are in sandy soils, then a whole different set of parameters will have to be considered.

@@BaxtorBurgandy what about clay soils with low pH like 5.5 but having high Ca levels in soil.

If i understood him correctly, and if you dont mind ur pH lowering a bit and losing Mg in the process, then yes you can. But i also think couldnt we just waterwith pH adjusted water also do the same as adding sulfur, as it will restrict the plant the uptake of the base sat.

If your Ca is 90%, then all you would have to do is bring your Mg up to 10% and make sure and keep it there. You can use S to back it off and if you want to do that, remember that for every 1lb of Ca or Mg, then 2lbs of S will take it out. This is looking at ACTUAL lbs of Ca/ac that is present in the soil. But I’ll be honest, depending on where you are from, it’s likely that that there are cations displaced in your soil that is affecting the true availability. It’s unlikely that your Ca is actually that high unless you have constantly been lining for years and years without hesitation. But in short, yes, S will help drive out the cations and will attack whatever is in most excess.

There is no universally accepted definition of "heavy metal". The original definition was any metal with a density greater than 5g/cm^3. Iron fits, magnesium does not.