Many people don’t realize how important it is for your soil to have the right PH level. When the PH levels are excessive or too low, it can be hard for your plants to get the nutrients they need, which can cause them to get sick and die. By testing and changing the PH level of your soil, you can keep it from drying out and help your garden grow to its fullest potential.
Why Should You Change The PH Levels Of Your Soil?
If you are starting a new garden bed right in the ground, you will want to know how good the soil is. If your plants are struggling to develop or showing signs of disease, you may want to consider amending your soil to keep your plants healthy and strong or fix problems they already have. You should also test the soil after planting a crop that eats a lot of nutrients, like potatoes, which can leave the soil empty, so you can find out what it needs before you add something new.
Inspect The PH Level Of Your Soil
It’s easy to test your soil at home. You probably used litmus paper or even red cabbage juice in school to test how acidic different liquids were. The basic idea behind testing your soil is the same. If your soil needs to be fixed, doing so will help your garden grow better.
Using Testing Strips
Test strips make it easy to check the soil’s acidity by hand. If you take a teaspoon of soil from more than one garden bed to test simultaneously, label the container with the name of the bed from which the soil came.
Please take all of their soil samples and tie them to a piece of string. Add 1/4 cup of water to each sample until the soil settles again. Dip your test strips into the soil and compare the color they turn to the key on the package to see if you need to change the soil to help your plants grow.
Testing The Soil Using A Digital Tool
Technology has made it easier to test the soil, so even people who have trouble keeping plants alive can have a beautiful garden that grows well. Stick the tool into the soil you want to test, then do what the manufacturer says. The PH meter will tell you how acidic or basic your soil is and if your plants need more water or sun. This is a great tool if you have trouble keeping indoor plants alive all year.
How To Lower Your Soil’s PH
If the soil’s PH is high, your plants need more acid to enhance and grow. People often get this wrong and think that a high PH means too much acid, so keep this in mind when deciding how to change your garden soil.
Plants can’t take in nutrients if the soil is not acidic enough. Plants that aren’t strong are more likely to get daisies or mold and even die. All plants need some acid, yet tomatoes and blueberries do the finest in soil with many acids. You can make your soil extra acidic by doing a few things.
Add Some Fresh Compost.
Fresh compost has a lot of nutrients and a lot of nitrogen in it. Increase the pH level of soil that needs a little help, like when you till it into their soil at the start of the season.
Use Pine Needles To Mulch.
Planting pine needles around acid-loving plants such as blueberries will help them grow well. The pine nozzles will break down over time, which will help keep the soil’s acidity level stable. One of the effective methods to get more from your blueberry plants is to do this.
Sulfur To Your Soil.
You can quickly make your soil more acidic if you sprinkle sulfur on top of it and then water it. If you find the problem before planting, you can mix it at the start of the season.
Add Coffee Grinds.
Put your utilized coffee grounds in your garden to make your soil more acidic and reduce waste. This will make your soil more acidic and feed your plants. If you don’t drink enough coffee, ask those around you to save your grounds. Some coffee shops even let you use them for free.
PH Of Your Soil: How To Lower And Raised
If your soil’s pH is low, you should work to make it less acidic and add calcium to it. Plants can die quickly if the soil is too acidic. Even though your plants need acid to get the nutrients they need, if there is too much acid without any other nutrients, they could get sick, grow slowly, or even die. Doing a few things can make your soil less acidic and help your plants grow tall and strong.
Add Lime.
Adding lime to your soil is the fastest way to make it less acidic and give your plants the necessary calcium. You can mix the finely ground particles into your soil before planting or sprinkle them on top and let the water take them into your plants.
Wood Ash.
If you only burn real wood in a wood-burning stove or fire pit, you can use the wood ash to raise the PH of your soil. This is why we save the wood ash from being used in our garden when we clean out the fire pit. Putting things in your garden that you normally throw away is a great long-term way to reduce waste.
Crushed Eggshells.
You can use eggshells in your garden. You can put eggshells in your compost pile, break them up to eliminate snails and slugs in your garden or grind them into a powder to add calcium to your soil. These take time to break down, but you can speed up the process by roasting them in the oven and grinding them in a coffee grinder.
Milk Powder.
You can make your soil less acidic by sprinkling powdered milk in your garden. The mix will go into the soil quickly, so your plants can start working when their garden is ready. Avoid consuming spoiled milk from their refrigerator. The problem is that it tends to be more acidic than calcium, which makes your garden soil more acidic.
