Soil PH

[Nikki]

Hi all,

What's the easiest, or most innovative, or most accurate, method for testing the ph of soil?

[possum]

Grow hydrangeas?

[Cornelian]

What's the easiest, or most innovative, or most accurate, method for testing the ph of soil?

Just don't bother. In my years and years of gardening I have only tested once and that was just because someone badgered me into thinking I had to do it. I just ignore the Ph issue completely.

[autumnleaf]

I agree ph is not worth worrying about - whether your soil is too acidic or too alkaline the remedy is still to add plenty of humus/compost to your garden.

[Jack]

Gidday

And I third that.

Actually, that acidity is used by the plants to disolve tiny rock particles and release important minerals.

[mybarnconversion]

Got to agree -- better to see what already grows well and experiment.

I tested the heavy clay soil in my garden, found out very little and still can't grow much

[Millymollymandy]

Hydrangeas don't work - there are some that are bred to be pink even if you have acid soil - and you can make them blue in alkaline soil by adding sequestered iron!

You can find out if your soil is acid just by looking in people's gardens in your neighbourhood - if there are lots of rhodos, azaleas and camelias it is a good indication.

Other than that, I second what everyone else says. All my fruit and veg seem to grow pretty well despite some (technically) preferring low pH and others higher pH.

[Nikki]

Thanks guys. So many books mention it and a few plants I wanted to grow were very specific about the soil ph. One person I spoke to said that checking the ph of the soil made all the difference to them between a good harvest and a great one.

I like the idea of starting out knowing what will work really well rather than trial and error.

The flowers mentioned have no relevance where I'm going, but that's given me the right idea - check the plants and trees already growing on the land and look up what soil they thrive in. If there's a pattern, that should give me a good indication.

[Cornelian]

the remedy is still to add plenty of humus/compost to your garden.

That's my remedy, too - I just keep on improving the soil as much as I can, taking every opportunity I can to add a bit more compost, mulch, chook poo, yesterday's newspaper ...

[Wombat]

I dunno, organic matter can acidify the soil over time and I throw in the odd bit of dolomite or wood ash too, just to keep things homest!

Nev

[ohareward]

Top five vegetables for acid soil:

Potato, pumpkin, cucumber, beans and sweetcorn.

On very acid soils, all the important plant nutrients - nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium and sulphur - are usually in short supply. A common disorder in tomatoes is blossom-end rot in which the fruit becomes sunken and blackened. This condition is caused by lack of calcium in the developing fruit. Blossom-end rot is aggravated by moisture stress in very hot weather, so regular watering and mulching will help control the problem. Overwatering should be avoided, because root absorption may be less efficient. An application of lime or gypsum (calcium sulphate) to the bed before planting will lessen the incidence of this disorder.
A deficiency of magnesium shows symptoms of yellowing between the leaf veins, especially on the older leaves. It is not uncommon on acid soils. Susceptible plants are citrus, apples, grape vines, beetroots, tomatoes and members of the cabbage faily.
The trace element molybdenum is also deficient in acid soils and causes a disorder called whiptail in broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbages and cauliflowers. The leaf blades become narrow and margins of the leaves thickened and distorted. The application of water-soluble fertilisers - all of which contain molybdenum - will usually ovecome this problem. Molybdenum deficiencies have also been recorded in lettuces, tomatoes and vine crops when these are grown on acid soil.
While trace elements are an interesting facet of plant nutrition, deficiencies of these are not common in a home garden where organic matter and mixed fertilisers are used.

Robin

[Jack]

Gidday

Yeah, but Robin, that's the scientific ways. Therefore if you want to follow that line you gotta go chemical farming. Just leave it to nature and put on as much un-decomposed green vegetable matter as you can onto the surface or top layer of the soil and nature will do all the hard expensive work for you and in doing it will release all those trace elements from the mineral content of your soil for free.

[possum]

Hydrangeas don't work - there are some that are bred to be pink even if you have acid soil - and you can make them blue in alkaline soil by adding sequestered iron!

true but surely if you are choosing to grow them as an indication for you soil ph
1. You would choose and old fashioned variety that flowers according to the soil pH
2. You wouldn't intentionally make them blue in alkaline soil just to confuse yourself!

[Millymollymandy]

Hydrangeas don't work - there are some that are bred to be pink even if you have acid soil - and you can make them blue in alkaline soil by adding sequestered iron!

true but surely if you are choosing to grow them as an indication for you soil ph
1. You would choose and old fashioned variety that flowers according to the soil pH
2. You wouldn't intentionally make them blue in alkaline soil just to confuse yourself!

I think I meant by looking at existing ones i.e. in the neighbourhood!

[autumnleaf]

Gidday

Yeah, but Robin, that's the scientific ways. Therefore if you want to follow that line you gotta go chemical farming. Just leave it to nature and put on as much un-decomposed green vegetable matter as you can onto the surface or top layer of the soil and nature will do all the hard expensive work for you and in doing it will release all those trace elements from the mineral content of your soil for free.

Many soils don't have the full complement of minerals - there is often a lack in some parts. Trees are useful for bringing up minerals from below the soil but that takes time. My mention of humus/compost includes animal/bird manure as well. For the self-sufficientish principle to work then the animals need to be given minerals in the form of salt blocks at my place to take account of quite a lot of deficiencies where I am.

Science and chemicals are useful and sometimes necessary. Its just that chemical are very specific and highly concentrated and if not used sparingly can create more problems than solutions.