Kitchen Garden Forum

As I have written before the soil around my house is on the acid side and knowing that helps in that I can "adjust" it by adding lime,compost,etc to grow whatever I decide in a certain area.
My problem is at the allotment which I am taking on.The soil is,reputedly,on the acid side and again can be "adjusted"but do I adjust in the first year of planting and wait and see what happens or do I do as the books say and "adjust"?The other four alloments on the site are mostly coverted to raised beds "because we prefer that method".I don't see the point because the soil is light and sandy throughout the site and not a heavy clay soil where I might consider raised beds as opposed to my prefered method of "open site".
I am also considering testing the the soil with a Ph test but the more I read about testing this way,the more I'm put off as both using a probe or using chemical test kits aren't that reliable,and can't afford a lab test on a soil sample!!

Hi Snooky

You say your soil at home is acidic and knowing that you can adjust it, may I ask a couple of 'hows'.

If you don't use a pH tester of some type
how do you know how acidic it is, if at all.
how do you define how much to adjust it by.

Many people, including me, rarely use a PH tester. Some don't use them at all and have no idea what their soil really is. The approach often is If the plant grows then all well and good if it doesn't it was the weather / lack of water / too much water / lack of feed etc. etc.

Adjusting PH is not a 'one off' job, it takes time to actually work. Whilst simple kits or probes are not perfect by any means they at least give some guidance.

Forgive me if I am saying something you already know, but most people know a 'neutral' pH reading is 7
What many don't realise is that it is a logarithmic scale, it is not just a simple case of an increase of 1.
5 means the soil is 10 times more acidic than 6,
4 is 100 times more acidic than 6
and the same scale calculation applies on the alkaline side

As I say, many just don't go there until they have a problem that needs solving or a particular plant, tree, bush that will definitely only tolerate a particular type of soil. It might seem to some to be a head in the sand approach but for many it never seems to be a problem overall.

I wonder if the other 4 plots on the site use raised beds because they were able then to fill them with less acidic soil and that may be why it is their 'preferred method'

I use two different probes to test various parts of our plot, not expensive ones, and they both tend to give me readings between 7 and 7.5
Being cheap they may not be 100% accurate but they are close enough to give me guidance and as my plot has expanded I have tended to test each part just to establish what the previous incumbents might have done to it.

As time goes by I fully expect to use them a lot lot less, except perhaps in the areas where I intend putting brassicas each year, but I value their initial overall use on land I am not familiar with the history of.

Hope this epistle has been of some help

Good luck

Pa Snip wrote:Hi Snooky


Hope this epistle has been of some help

Good luck

I like something I can get my teeth into rather than short and to the point agreement or disagreement, even though I have raised beds the soil comes from the surrounding area and I hammer it with cow poo and composted material which pushes it towards acidic. The farmers round here often put lime down though the last few years they haven't. Possibly to do with a change in crops.

When I test for acidity I also test for moisture content, the probes encounter different stuff when you push them in and what I found was that if I had a negative or changing reading for moisture this disturbed the reading for PH.

I go round the whole bed poking my thingy into the soil, some is acidic and most isn't so I figure it's OK. Last year most readings were acidic so I raked some lime in. I also regularly rake in wood ash though I'm embarrassed to say I'm not sure what it does. I'm going to take a shot at guessing that my changing PH and moisture reading have something to do with clumps of cow poo or rich composted material, then groups of small stones and even mole workings might change the PH.

Taking a sample and using a chemical kit only tests in the area you took the sample from so if you don't a way of mixing your soil in the same way I mix dough for my bread then you're stuffed for an accurate reading with that test.

Bat it back Pa Snip.

The water used may give varying pH results as well, as I said these diy tests are not 100% accurate, too many variables, but they give a guide.

Type of animal feed, level of digestion, and bedding that end up in manure may also have effect as will that which has not fully rotted down enough

It is possibly only the commercial growers who may be able to afford the expensive equipment or scientific services that would give definitive scale results
At our level I suggest we don't need them to be 100% 'on the nose'

Deuce