Ph level

[Tim Hunt]

I have about six pole of veg garden in my back garden. It was dug out of the lawn 9 years ago. My soil is loam with limestone below.

I have two 3ft sq compost heaps and I dig in about twenty wheelbarrow loads a year and still my Ph is 7.5

I cannot grow brussell, cabbages or cauliflowers, I grow reasonable purple sproutin and super leeks.

This year I am digging in 6inches of well rotted horse manure.

Can anyone help in getting my Ph down to 6 please

[Nicos]

Hello Tim and welcome to the Vine!
I have very acidic peat soil, and don't know much about alkaline soil.
However there are certain things I need to avoid, and therefore should be beneficial to your soil!
Oak leaf mulch, pine needles,coffegrains (starbucks)...and of course peat will help make the soil more acidic.
If you add too much suddenly, you will shock the microbes in the soil and do more harm than good.
Avoid mushroom compost,charcoal and poultry manure and instead of liming,use gypsum as a soil improver.
I'm sure others on the vine will advise further!
Raised beds have helped me alter the pH to small areas for specific crops.
You might be couterproductive with your brassicas and end up with clubroot!
Sometimes it's a lot easier to go with nature rather than fight it over a large area.

[nick the grief]

Normal recommended dose of muck is a builders barrow to the sq Metre so I wouldn't put six inches all over it.

Cabbages like it limey so I would have thought that 7.5 was fine for them. What it may be is that you aren't preparing the ground correctly for them.

Cabbages & brussels I don't grow them on freshly manured soil they usually follow the onions so it's 3 years since it was mucked. Also I dig it over rough & lime it around now & then leav it till planting time & then tread it down firm as I've had better results than growing them in light fluffy soil.

Hope this helsp & welcome to the vine by the way

[Snadger]

Hello Tim Hunt and welcome to the vine btw!

I agree totally with what the other grapes have advised and gardening on acid soil with clubroot myself I am probably not the best person to comment!

You could pour pure Sulphuric acid on the soil and that would certainly acidify it i(Only joking btw!)

Using Sulphate of Ammonia on the compost heap as an accelerator would make it more acid. Loads of peat and composted bark would help.
If you are not an organic gardener, using Sulphate of Ammonia as the only source of applied Nitrogen on your plot will acidify it over time. Don't use spent mushroom compost which has lime added. Digging over the ground to allow the winter frosts to penetrate will also allow the 'acid rain' to flush the soil a bit!
As has already been mentioned, the high ph should suit brassica's admirably so something else is amiss there! They don't like newly worked soil and strangely a bit of compaction actually helps them!
Don't know why you would like to get the soil acidity down to ph 6.0 when your other crops are doing well? And doubt that without totally changing your soil, it would be possible in a single season.

Lastly, and this is the biggie, check the ph of the water coming out of the tap as if you are watering with alkaline rich water you will never get the soil to acidify. Using rain water should be ok though!

[JennieAtkinson]

Hi Tim - like you I have a alkaline soil, but a ph of 7. I do manage to grow brussels and cabbages. Not had much luck with cauliflowers, but think that is to do with the type I have been growing and the wet. My broccoli, calabrese and leeks are always good too.

I decided to stick with the soil I've got and not try and reduce the ph. It does mean I can't grow a number of flowers I would like to and its hit and miss with some veg, but its such alot of work trying to change the soil type. Hope this helps.

[dexterdoglancashire]

Hi Tim and welcome to the Vine! Another question to add to yours is: when should you test the pH of your soil? is there a certain time of the year/best time to do this? Dexterdog

[Alison]

Wouldn't have though it would matter when you tested it although if you're having problems with certain crops it could be worth checking before you plant more and then find out that it's nothing you're doing wrong, just the wrong type of soil. I've never tested mine but know it's a bit on the acidic side from the number of azeleas etc in everybody's garden. I've always worked around it and used raised beds / pots when it's not suitable. Have enough to worry about making sure there's enough nutrition etc!