Soil pH testing kits

**Jeanied** · 01-01-2010, 03:05 PM

People test their soil for a balance of nutrients to see if things will grow well, or to explain why some crops are not doing so well. Also to work out how much of what fertiliser to use.
If you have reason to doubt that your soil will grow what you want, then it may be better to test it. I never have - I took the fact that the nettles were doing so well (they say a sign of fertile soil) to be an indicator. I must admit a good few years down the line it may be worthwhile for me to start to be a bit more scientific!

**sarraceniac** · 01-01-2010, 03:13 PM

Hi Ian. I'll just repeat the answer I keep giving every few months. pH testing kits are very useful - if you need to know your soils pH. There is a simpler and cruder (and cheaper) way of finding out the basics for somebody who is not growing show plants.

1. Buy a red cabbage. A small one will do.

2. Chop it in half.

3. Slice that half up as you would normal shredded cabbage.

4. Boil the slices up with a couple of cups of water for about 15 minutes.

5. Drain the water off retaining it, it is what you want.

6. Go round the garden collecting a teaspoonful of soil from various critical places and marking where they are from.

7. Put the first soil sample in a sealable container (jam jar type with a drop of the cabbage liquid. Add water if necessary to make it shakeable.

8. Shake it up and examine it. If the water colour is red you have acid soil. If it is purple you have neutral soil. Between the two you have fairly acidic soil. If it is blue or green you have alkaline soil. If it is turquoise you have fairly alkaline soil.

9. Repeat for all samples so you have a general view of your garden.

10. Continue boiling the rest of the cabbage until tender. Then eat it.

When buying plants, try to match what they like to your soil type.

Oh, and there is no such thing as a silly question. Especially about rather geeky things like this.

**iscribe** · 01-01-2010, 06:00 PM

Wow, wonderful reply. I remember doing PH tests with red cabbage as a kid, never though to apply it to PH testing my lotty. I was going to try a PH testing kit, now cannot wait for the shops to open tomorrow.

Now have the problem of what to cook with my red cabbage

**Bigmallly** · 01-01-2010, 06:04 PM

This may help you decide the soil type for certain veg. Ignore the highlighted cells, they are for my info.

Many thanks to Snadger for this link.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?k...BObHc&hl=en_GB

**runnerbean** · 18-01-2010, 03:08 PM

Hi

Just tested my soil on my allotment and found it's acid how much lime do you add to the soil to bring it back to normal

**sarraceniac** · 18-01-2010, 03:26 PM

Originally posted by runnerbean View Post

Hi

Just tested my soil on my allotment and found it's acid how much lime do you add to the soil to bring it back to normal

I'm afraid that is a difficult question RB. There is no such thing as 'normal' soil. There is neutral soil and various degrees of acid and alkaline (or base) but not normal.

Firstly. You can add lime by the ton and next year it will all have leached out and you will once again have acid soil, it is because of the things that your soil is made up of and there is little you can do long term, even if you wanted to.

Secondly. Acid soil is no bad thing. There are more things you can grow on acid soil than you can on alkaline soil. And even then if your soil is not very acid then you can actually grow brassicas etc. that tend to prefer an alkaline soil. It's just that you will not get show stoppers. Some things, blueberries spring immediately to mind, will really only grow on an acid soil. I have a soil that is just to the acidic side of neutral and to make sure they are happy I dig in some peat (from a renewable resource I might add) every year just to give the soil where they are a bit more acidity.

But really I wouldn't worry too much. If your reading is very acid it doesn't mean that all your plants are going to get burned. It just means that when choosing what you are going to grow you should check to make sure it is happy in an acid soil.

**runnerbean** · 18-01-2010, 03:50 PM

Cheers sarraceniac,

I will grow my brassicas there on the allotment where it,s slightly acid

**Snadger** · 18-01-2010, 07:02 PM

I find that a Ph of 6.5 is just about right for everything, including tatties which won't suffer from scab. As Ph 7.0 is neutral, a Ph 6.5 is ever so slightly acid.

You can add lime, woodash,chicken muck or superphosphate to the brassica area to boost it into the Alkali range if you so wish but your brassicas will still perform admirably, even at Ph 6.5!

**runnerbean** · 18-01-2010, 10:19 PM

Cheers Snadger

Just been to wilko and the potato are in so my soil will be ideal for my early potato

cheera mate

**Snadger** · 18-01-2010, 10:25 PM

Originally posted by runnerbean View Post

Cheers Snadger

Just been to wilko and the potato are in so my soil will be ideal for my early potato

cheera mate

I was also at Wilco's on Saturday and spotted them........not much of a selection though?

**runnerbean** · 19-01-2010, 04:13 PM

Been to Shields today went into Wilko check out the potato's.

Horrified

no Arran Pilot left had great crop last year.

Will go back tomorrow hope to find sum.

**WrexTheDragon** · 19-01-2010, 04:32 PM

I have one of those probes that you stick in the ground. Works vey well and accurate. Use it on my Blueberries in containers as a check to make sure the soil is still acidic.

**sarraceniac** · 07-02-2010, 02:47 PM

Originally posted by WrexTheDragon View Post

I have one of those probes that you stick in the ground. Works vey well and accurate. Use it on my Blueberries in containers as a check to make sure the soil is still acidic.

Just putting this back to the top of the heap to tell anyone who hasn't noticed that the lovely (sometimes) Wilko's have those in at about �3+. So forget the red cabbage. They used to be �15+.

**jeanniez** · 09-05-2010, 11:02 AM

I'm new to here and i used the search becuase i've acid soil, i was sure the questins must have been asked before... -I have fabulous rhodedendrons and camellias but wondered of it affected the veg adversly. I've grown peas beans salads etc for a few years but each year keep adding more and more and am trying to get year round veg so want some Kale and sprouting broc (and sprouts for OH- i hate them he loves them) for winter veg. i've read they don't like acid and wondered about liming but we do have a woodburner - we burn only wood from the garden so i put the ash on my compst heap so maybe if i make sure plenty of the compost is where the brassicas go it'll be ok? and that red cabbage testing sounds like fun and i'm going to do some of that with soil from various parts of garden sothanks for that. I reckon the grandkids would like to do that too.

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