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| I recently removed some giant yew bushes and would like to start a garden bed where they used to be. These bushes had been in this spot since the 1960s. The soil underneath them looks and feels pretty good, but I do wonder if the many year's worth of falling/decaying yew needles and clippings have affected the soil one way or another. Are yew needles known to be particularly acid or alkaline?
I was going to just amend the soil with old manure and compost, but if yew needles (or evergreen needles in general) have made things acid/alkaline, I assume I'll need to amend it further before I start a perennial garden there. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by buyorsell888 Zone 8 Portland OR (My Page) on Mon, Jul 4, 11 at 12:17
| Acid but I'm not sure it will be any kind of problem for you. |
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- Posted by duluthinbloomz4 (My Page) on Mon, Jul 4, 11 at 14:29
| Yew needles wouldn't do any altering of your soil's pH unless they were properly composted and used in large quantities. I have my hosta bed under old (with some limbing) spruce trees. And the many years of needle drop has made the ground extremely easy to work in. Definitely supports plant life besides hosta - minor spring bulbs like scilla, puschkinia, muscari; bleeding heart, trollius, dianthus and low growing nepeta on the edges, a daylily or two, Northern Lights azalea, and two Ninebarks. I don't do supplemental watering, but this has been a spring and early summer with regular rainfall. Things are huge. |
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- Posted by ken_adrian z5 (My Page) on Tue, Jul 5, 11 at 9:07
| i think of it this way ... changing pH is an exponential function ... meaning.. in laymans terms.. for every movement of one on the pH scale.. you need to add 1000 of something ... so unless you add about 50 feet of needles.. or 50 years worth.. there will be no significant change in pH ... if you dont believe .. then have a soil test done.. in 2 places in the yard.. and i will bet a nickle.. there is no appreciable difference under the old trees ... that is related to the trees ... ken |
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- Posted by gardengal48 PNW zone 8 (My Page) on Tue, Jul 5, 11 at 20:35
| pH is a function of the mineral content of the soil - the base rock it is formed from - and to a lesser degree, the amount of rainfall. Areas with normal to high rainfall tend to have soils on the acidic range; those more arid areas tend to be alkalline. Plants and/or plant parts have little to no bearing on soil pH. It is a garden myth that the soil under conifers is acidic (it may be, but not because of the conifers!) or that pine straw or conifer needles or even used coffee grounds will make soil acidic. There may be a very slight elevation of acidity at the soil surface due to leaching but it is minimal and of no significance. To alter soil pH you need to alter soil chemistry and plants can't do that :-) |
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| If I remember my chemistry correctly: for each movement of one on the pH scale, multiply or divide by 10. |
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- Posted by billums_ms_7b Delta MS 8A (My Page) on Thu, Jul 14, 11 at 14:04
| I have a large 25 year old hydrangea that has always bloomed pink until I started really mulching the heck out of the large bed I created around it with pine needles and chopped oak leaves. Hydrangea bloom color shifts towards blue when the soil becomes more acidic and this hydrangea has been shifting over to blooming in violet and heading for blue the last two years. |
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