just tested my soil and it was acid/very acid on the test.
so is it too late to do anything about it this year or not.
in the half of the garden i tested it does look more acidic than the other half,i dont know for sure as i need another tester.
ill be putting potatoes,peas and brassicas in this part of the garden so will it be okay to lime all of these or just the brassicas.
any ideas anyone.
acid soil
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fen not fen
- KG Regular
- Posts: 126
- Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2005 7:54 am
- Location: north lincolnshire
Before you go mad with the lime test again just to make sure. Most veggies need a neutral to alkaline soil to grow well, brassicas certainly do. so you may have a lot of work to do to get results. It may be more practical to do raised beds and fill them with imported topsoil with a better pH. However don't do it to the whole garden as acid soil grows fantastic blueberries!
Hi Fen,
I feel that what you are forgetting is that although you pull things like Carrots and Parsnips and the fine hair roots are lost in the pulling but those roots will go right through a raised bed which by the way is a very expensive,labour intensive operation rather that a correction programme, and the roots will end up in acid soil so what will you actually achieve?
If Steve were to go to the website that Jerry posted
on CatBud's thread Newbie -- 3/4/06.
If you log on to that site you will find, in the menu
a section for Soil-- Testing giving good clear advice as to how to proceed.
I feel that what you are forgetting is that although you pull things like Carrots and Parsnips and the fine hair roots are lost in the pulling but those roots will go right through a raised bed which by the way is a very expensive,labour intensive operation rather that a correction programme, and the roots will end up in acid soil so what will you actually achieve?
If Steve were to go to the website that Jerry posted
on CatBud's thread Newbie -- 3/4/06.
If you log on to that site you will find, in the menu
a section for Soil-- Testing giving good clear advice as to how to proceed.
JB.
Hello Steve
I would proceed with caution on this one and be a bit wary of reading too much into test results. If your soil really is 'very acid' it would be difficult to grow anything very much on it. Where did you take your soil test sample from? There are few plant roots in the first few inches of soil, most of them go far deeper and wider than is often realised. This is where you need to take your test samples from.
What were your pH figures? Most plants do pretty well in soils which are a unit or two either side of neutral (pH7) and it is only light sandy soils that can cause difficulties when pH is high or low. What is the soil itself telling you? How are your crops growing? Are any showing poor growth or signs of nutrient deficiency? How are the weeds doing? If the weeds are doing well then the there's not much going wrong!
Think hard on this before scattering large amounts of lime around to try and raise the soil pH. Perhaps just use some extra lime where its needed eg around your brassicas for example.
John
I would proceed with caution on this one and be a bit wary of reading too much into test results. If your soil really is 'very acid' it would be difficult to grow anything very much on it. Where did you take your soil test sample from? There are few plant roots in the first few inches of soil, most of them go far deeper and wider than is often realised. This is where you need to take your test samples from.
What were your pH figures? Most plants do pretty well in soils which are a unit or two either side of neutral (pH7) and it is only light sandy soils that can cause difficulties when pH is high or low. What is the soil itself telling you? How are your crops growing? Are any showing poor growth or signs of nutrient deficiency? How are the weeds doing? If the weeds are doing well then the there's not much going wrong!
Think hard on this before scattering large amounts of lime around to try and raise the soil pH. Perhaps just use some extra lime where its needed eg around your brassicas for example.
John
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Guest
thanks for the replies,the thing is last year i had my best crops ever so dont want to go diving in and possibly making things worse.i grew peas,brassicas,runner beans,swede,onions,salads and carrots and all did well.
the weeds are growing well as always with a lot of docks and creeping buttercup but also a few mossy kind of weeds ,it always gets a good dose of manure dug in as well,when dug over it looked well broken down by worms but there wasnt a lot of worms in it.
the test kit i used was just one ot the T+Morgan cheapo testers so maybe i should do it again.
the weeds are growing well as always with a lot of docks and creeping buttercup but also a few mossy kind of weeds ,it always gets a good dose of manure dug in as well,when dug over it looked well broken down by worms but there wasnt a lot of worms in it.
the test kit i used was just one ot the T+Morgan cheapo testers so maybe i should do it again.
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steve
checked it again today it is acid not very acid.
im going to lime the brassicas and leave the rest till the back end.
im going to lime the brassicas and leave the rest till the back end.