Do pine needles make the soil more acidic?

[Russel Sprout]

Hi all

I am going through options for keeping the slugs off my young brassicas. I have some pine needles spare and was thinking of mulching with those. I've already done my strawberries with them, partly because I had read that they can increase the acidity of the soil, which is beneficial to strawberries.

However, from what I've read brassicas are not so keen on acidic soil, so would it be a bad idea to use the pine needles?

I did read somewhere that someone tested one of their beds where pine needles had been used, and another where they hadn't, and the pH was the same in both. But then I also know how unreliable these testers can be sometimes.

So I wondered what people here have experienced and/or what they think about the subject?

Many thanks

Max

[Thelma Sanders]

I wouldn't use them around your brassicas, they do seem to leach into the soil as they rot. Nothing much seems to grow in the soil where our conifers were - we left a lot a needles there to rot away after cutting them down.

[Jay-ell]

Have a watch of this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B8-1sVcfzE

[Penellype]

To borrow a word from the late and much lamented Mr Spock, fascinating. It just shows how complex ecosystems are and how easy it is to make assumptions that may be totally incorrect.

[More basil]

On a positive note, pine needles are also great for mulching around blueberries- they love the little acid boost.

[Mr Bones]

I read somewhere pine needles are supposed to be good when planting spuds. Taters like them but slugs don't.