Re: How to acidify soil

-----Original Message-----
From: mark <markmos@banet.net>
To: perennials@mallorn.com <perennials@mallorn.com>
Date: Friday, February 06, 1998 12:41 AM
Subject: Re: How to acidify soil


>Harold Lanktree wrote:
>>
>> My soil in Michigan is quite alkaline too.  What I am doing is building
>> mounded beds using bulk "50-50" mix from a local nursery.  It is 50%
topsoil
>> and 50% peat.  You can use soil sulphur and acidifying fertilizer, but
soil
>> any organic mater in the soil will buffer, or restrict changes in pH, so
I
>> don't think they are terribly effective.  In effect, I am changing the
soil
>> to get around that.  Since most of the plants I am concerned with have
>> shallow root systems (rhodo's, etc) the mounds don't need to be very
high.
>> Secondary benefits are much improved drainage in the root zone, and a
high
>> level of organic matter, which these plants love.  Over a long period of
>> time I expect my new soil will loose acidity too, but I think it will
take
>> many years.
>>
>
>Hi Harold,,
>
>Why not mix into the soils decomposed manure? I mix it into all my beds
>and here we do not have a problem with alkilinity. The uric acid lowers
>the PH.
>
>Mark Mos
>NY


I'm in an area that is pretty urban, and manure of any kind isn't so easily
come by.  But it would be a great idea if it were handy.  Another
consideration is that the soil is maybe too alkaline for half measures.  I
do see that I left out something along that line, though.  I am mixing about
30-40% compost into the 50-50 mix.

That was also interesting.  Since I am trying to build a lower pH soil, it
occurred to me to measure the pH of the compost.  WOW, but it was off the
high end of the scale!  I have done some consulting with my favorite
Advanced Master Garden guru about that, and she tells me that compost is
often alkaline (and very hard to get a good pH measurement for, with all the
organic material).  But that it seems to increase in pH after it is applied.

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