Owens Corning

National Gardening Association About pH and Soil Tests

It's good for every gardener to take a soil test to see what nutrients are needed. The soil test results - from your Local Cooperative Extension Service or a soil testing laboratory - will tell you what nutrients may be low, how acid or alkaline your soil is, and what type of soil you have.

Instructions and a soil container normally are provided. To take a sample for testing, dig several trowels full of soil from the top 6 inches in many different areas of your garden, combine them in a pail and take a composite sample from there. Send it for testing or use a kit and test it yourself.

An important element to consider about your garden soil is its pH and where it falls on the acid-alkaline scale. On the pH scale, which ranges from 0-14, the most acid substances are near 0, and the most alkaline near 14. Seven is neutral.

Garden soils fall into the 4.5 to 8.5 range on the pH scale and need to be checked periodically. Different vegetables prefer different pH levels, but most do well in the 6.0 to 6.8 range.

If you discover your soil's pH is too low (too acid), you can raise it one pH point (such as from 5.0 to 6.0) by adding about 40-50 pounds (about a 12-quart pail) of lime and working it into a 1,000 square feet area. (For smaller gardens, this is about 4-5 pounds per 100 square feet.) In some areas of the country, you may want to lower your soil's pH.

To lower it one point (make it more acid), add sulfur - about 30 pounds for every 1,000 square feet of garden area, or about 3 pounds per 100 square feet.

Generally, lime, sulfur and manures are best added in the fall or early spring. Chemical fertilizers, however, should be added at planting time to avoid the nutrients leaching out over the winter.

Copyright NGA

Reprinted with permission HouseNet, Inc.

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