pH- Part 2

This is the part where most people decide they really don't want to be Master Gardeners after all. What's all this stuff about particulates in soil and electric charges? "Nobody really needs to know this stuff," you say, "and it's boring."

Well, yes - YOU do, and no, it's not. One more short set about positive and negative charges in soil, and the pH.

The pH is a measurement of soil's acidity or alkalinity, and this one state will have the biggest impact on the plant's ability to take up nutrients from the soil - (quick review: nutrients are elemental minerals and compounds that help plants turn SUNLIGHT into sugars, which they use for growth and reproduction). On a scale of 1-10, acid is a 1, and alkaline is a 10. In reality, I've never seen a soil test register lower than a 4 - and that was in one spot in a yard in Alabama that WOULD NOT GROW ANYTHING - especially grass. Normal pH is about 7 - and if you don't know a particular plant's requirements, 7 is always a good guess.

In truth, there are plants that thrive in acidic soil (I'm talking about 6, here, not 2 or 3) and plants that won't tolerate it at all. Well known acid-lovers are camellias and azaleas, and pine trees, of course, which help maintain the acidity of the soil they grow in. This is why the clay-rich soils north of the coastal zones are prime real estate for these plants. Most vegetables do well at 7 to 7.5, and if you are growing tomatoes in acid soil, you are letting yourself in for the heart break of blossom end rot - a condition caused by the plant's inability to uptake calcium (and manage magnesium, contrarily) due to the fact that the soil is so acid. (Amend your soil with calcium and gypsum - about three years ago.) More about that later.....

WHEN you send in your soil test (please note that I didn't say "if"...) you will be asked to list the "crop to be grown." This lends itself to many interpretations, especially for the home gardener. In the front yard, you grow grass, in the back yard, you grow roses...what do you put on the form? If you are a specialty gardener, and you grow something with very specific requirements, then you need to take separate soil samples, and submit them independently. You will mark them "Front Lawn" or "Backyard Rose Garden" and you will pay for each one to be tested.

When the test comes back, they will give you the same categories of information, but in the "comments" section, the Ag Agent will tell you how you need to amend your soil - specifically for the horticultural requirements of your "crop." The recommendations for your lawn will be quite different than those for your rose garden, even if the soil samples test out to be identical (which they won't- even if your yard is very small). The test will tell you specifics about your soil: they will type your soil (i.e., sandy loam), tell you the pH and rate the amount of essential nutrients phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, and calcium, make recommendations for amendments, and give you specific comments about the fertilizer needs. Unfortunately, all of this will be unintelligible to the average human being. Don't be shy! Pick up the phone all call your county (parish) Ag Agent and ask for clarification. All this is for naught, if you can't understand the results.

This seems like SO MUCH WORK....OK - go back to the beginning of the last blog. Read again the part about "If you are serious about gardening, then you need to get serious about soil." The soil test is the most important thing you will do as a gardener. Without this knowledge, you're just tossing the seeds out there and hoping for the best. At least, when you know the condition of your soil, you can take steps to insure that the things you want to grow will thrive in your coastal garden. But in the meantime, while you are waiting for your test results to come back from the AgCenter, there are some steps to take.

Compost (isn't God cleaver?) just happens to be about a 7 on the pH scale. You can alter this by adding lime - or maybe lemon peels, I guess. But on average, composted anything seems to wind up at about 7 on the acidity scale. This makes it the perfect amendment for both acid and alkaline soils. Gee, isn't life good? Where else can you encounter the "perfect" anything?

I will get into starting a compost pile soon, but in the mean time, you can buy composted cow manure (green grass run through the insides of a cow - YUM) and you can begin adding organics to your soil right away! "Soil Conditioner" is ground pine bark, and tends to be acidic, so hold off on that until you know the pH of your soil. If you have an alkaline soil that you want to neutralize, soil conditioner is a grand thing to add. If you tend toward the acidic, but want to grow camellias and azaleas, then it's grand for your garden, too.

Next time, we'll talk about fertilizers, and understanding application rates. Now, wasn't that FUN? What are you doing inside - get out there, and get dirty!