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cabrita_gw

lowering my soil pH organically, will citrus work?

cabrita
15 years ago

This is my first question to this forum. I found out I am a little higher than ideal pH wise (about 7.4, it varies a little from area to area, but alkaline) to grow my beloved solenaceas (mostly tomatoes). Also, my soil is deficient in potassium. Nitrogen is really high and Phosphorus is adequate. My soil texture is great, got worms, and a lot of naturally occurring granite and other minerals.

I also have a lot of citrus peels that I try to compost (it is hard though, isn't it? they do take a very long time to compost) as well as citrus branches, and juice from immature fruit from pruning.

For adding potassium, I have a lot of hardwood branches that I was going to burn. I know the pH from the ashes will be high (like 8 maybe??) and not a good thing for me to try to lower my pH, but I need the potassium for my soil. What if I burn the wood, soak the ashes, measure the pH, and add enough citrus juice to render it neutral? or slightly acidic? I mean, lemon juice has a pH of 2, right? so this should work? Then add that to my soil. Anything wrong with this strategy?

Also, would there be any harm in introducing some of my excess citrus juice (the green ones mostly) diluted with water to lower my soil pH around the plants that need it? I know it would be temporary, but isn't any pH changing method temporary anyway?

I used a bag of sulfur but that went away really fast, it was expensive, and did not change the pH that much.

What about ground up citrus peels added to the soil? would that have better long term effects on pH? I know oak leaves and pine leaves are supposed to help, so i will try to get those into the compost bin when I can find some. The citrus is easy though, all around me, free, and more than we can eat/drink.

Thanks for any advice or information you folks might have on this.

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