Written and edited by Tammy Johnson 18th December 2022.
Following on from my first blog post about soil nutrition, I want to briefly touch on the other vital key component which is soil pH, and what the relevance of it is to your garden.
What is soil pH? pH stands for 'potential of Hydrogen ions.' the H is always uppercase as hydrogen is a chemical element. Put simply, pH is a measure of the acidity or alkalinity of soil. I won't get any more scientific than that, I'd rather keep this simple.
Most plants are happy in a relatively neutral soil pH of between 6.6 and 7.3 (7 is neutral). Anything above 7.5 is considered Alkaline and will need Sulphur to bring it down - Sulphur is an acidifier.
Anything below 6 is considered Acidic and Lime will be required to raise the pH - Lime has the ability to neutralise acidity.
The problem is that when soil becomes too alkaline plants can't derive nutrients from the soil regardless of whether they are there or not. Any nutrients present will be 'locked up', bound to the soil particles essentially starving your plants. And when our soil is too acidic the Aluminium and Manganese in the soil become soluble allowing for too much uptake by your plants causing toxicity, essentially poisoning your plants.
Both lime and sulphur are products you'll find readily available online and through most leading outlets, just use them at the recommended rates on the product labels.
To test your soil pH is really very easy to do yourself. All you'll need is a 'soil testing kit'.
A Manutec soil testing kit will be available through most leading outlets.
I don't expect you to remember the 'nitty gritty' parts of this, even I have trouble remembering it, but I DO want you to take away this, the pH of your soil IS really important and needs to be right.
I hope I haven't bamboozled you too much! Remember I'm always up for a chat so don't hesitate to message me.
Happy Gardening 😘🪴
Good job Tammy