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Raising Ph levels organically
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Posted by takadi (My Page) on Sat, Sep 20, 08 at 16:05
| Besides wood ash or lime, are there other ways to raise soil Ph? My soil is slightly acidic. Will plant certain plants keep the soil levels neutral? Will adding a layer of compost work? |
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RE: Raising Ph levels organically
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- Posted by jean001 z8aPortland, OR (My Page) on
Sat, Sep 20, 08 at 21:21
RE: Raising Ph levels organically
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| Slightly acidic is ideal for most plants. Is there a specific reason you need to raise the pH? Or, I guess an even better questions is, what do you mean by "slightly acidic"? I would guess that you're talking somewhere between 6.1 and 6.9. |
RE: Raising Ph levels organically
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| It's actually in the 5.8 5.9 levels, which is probably by more acidic than I need it to be |
RE: Raising Ph levels organically
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| Adding organic matter of any kind will tend to bring your soil pH closer to neutral, and will also help buffer the acidity (or alkalinity where I am) when the pH is out of the neutral range. So compost will raise your soil's pH (and lower mine) but not by much. Wood ashes will affect the pH pretty quickly (and will affect it more), but I think the effects are pretty short lived. |
RE: Raising Ph levels organically
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| Lime (powdered limestone/dolomite) is organic and cheap so what is the problem with using it? |
RE: Raising Ph levels organically
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| 35 years ago the soil pH test here said my soil pH was 5.7 and today, after only adding organic matter, the same planting beds have a soil pH of 7.2. If organic matter did not raise that soil pH then the people at Michigan State University do not know what they are doing. If is common knowledge, among many soil scientists, that organic matter can buffer soil pH but can also raise that pH. |
RE: Raising Ph levels organically
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Tilling about 25 to 50 lbs. of lime per 1000 sq. ft. down to 6 or 8 inches should put you into the 6-something range over time.
bpgreen and spiced ham both make good points. |
RE: Raising Ph levels organically
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| I already heard lime and wood ash and I guess I wanted to know of all other alternatives |
RE: Raising Ph levels organically
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"35 years ago the soil pH test here said my soil pH was 5.7 and today, after only adding organic matter, the same planting beds have a soil pH of 7.2. If organic matter did not raise that soil pH then the people at Michigan State University do not know what they are doing. If is common knowledge, among many soil scientists, that organic matter can buffer soil pH but can also raise that pH.
" Kimmsr, Something to keep in mind is that 35 years ago you were receiving a great deal of acidity from rain caused by the burning of high sulfur coal in power plants. Now you are not. Organic decomposition including composting is an acidify process. Whether a compost is going to raise or lower pH depends on whether the composted materials contained more or less base than was required to neutralize the acid produced by the decomposition. Put another way; composts are not all created equally, and unless you know that a particular compost is going to raise pH, I would not count on it to do so. |
RE: Raising Ph levels organically
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| So are you saying that there is no way composting can somehow bind or utilize cations by chemical reaction via the microflora or other means of decomposition? |
RE: Raising Ph levels organically
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| The soils in this area of the world are normally in the 5.2 to 5.7 pH range, one of the reasons that Blueberries grow so well around here. I know of others in this area of the world that have done the same thing as I did, change the soil pH by adding lots of organic matter. |
RE: Raising Ph levels organically
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| Again, if you are adding compost that contains enough bases so that the pH of the compost is greater than the soil, it will raise the pH. I see this commonly is fields that receive a lot of manure (which tend to be pretty salty), the pH of the soils can be as high as 8.1. Conversely if the compost has a lower pH than the soil it will lower the pH of the soil. It would follow then that your compost Kimmsr is slightly alkaline like manure and has pushed your pH up to 7.2. As far as the buffering goes there are two things to consider, if you are adding something to the soil that is roughly neutral it will tend to push the soil pH toward neutral as I have said. Also, organic matter has exchange sites (like clay) and will increase the soils cation exchange capacity. Greater cation exchange capacity means greater buffering capacity which means it takes more acid or base to change pH. |
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