How to make my soil more acid?

[TheBeeKeeper]

Hi folks,

I have had a couple of bad years with my potato crop. Tasted great, but every single one had scab. I believe this can be party down to an alkaline soil. If I do my pH test and prove that it is alkaline, is there a top dressing I can apply to address the balance slightly?

Maybe a sparing application of the slow release Miracid pellets? Would that work, or send the soil too far the wrong way!?

Thanks in advance!

Andy

[Pies]

Mow the lawn and add the cuttings to your spuds

Actually making soil acid is difficult, its easier to change the variety of spud to one more resistant to scab

[zazen999]

I think first find out the pH and then take it from there.

[TheBeeKeeper]

Going to head out to the patch with a torch and pH meter as soon as I have put mini-me to bed!

Andy

[northepaul]

Doesnt manure make soil more acidic?

[rustylady]

Actually, any manure or compost will help. The only exception is mushroom compost, which I believe is quite alkaline.

[Snadger]

Whatever you do, you will have to do it each year if you want to keep it that way. Far better to work with your soil as it is and possibly grow tatties in containers.
If everything else flourishes in the garden apart from tatties, why bother?

You could try pocket planting potatoes in peaty soil also!

You could try this:-

Murphy Sequestrene Granules: Provides iron in a form which can be taken up in any soil | Gardening Tips | LoveTheGarden.com

Or watering with neat Sulphuric acid would certainly do it (Only joking btw)

[BUFFS]

i use citrus peel added to the compost to make it more acidic,we eat oranges virtually each day,so they mount up,put a tattie on such compost and it would b off to a good start.

[Alison]

I wouldn't worry too much, scab is only cosmetic and doesn't really matter too much.

[Bigmallly]

Used coffee grounds & T-Bags are said to be acidic.

[Two_Sheds]

Actually, any manure or compost will help. The only exception is mushroom compost, which I believe is quite alkaline.

Chicken pellets are also alkaline

Far better to ... grow tatties in containers.

That's what I'm doing this year: leafmould and MPC into buckets, sunk in the soil (so they don't dry out too fast). Idea stolen from Tattieman

Adding citrus peel, teabags or anything else really isn't going to make much of a difference to your whole garden, although they could the base of your own homemade compost

[Snadger]

..............That's what I'm doing this year: leafmould and MPC into buckets, sunk in the soil (so they don't dry out too fast). Idea stolen from Tattieman

Likewise............... but using used 20Kg fertiliser bags turned inside out with slits in the bottom filled with a 'fluffy' JI type compost!