Will yew needles make soil acid/alkaline?
jlc102482
12 years ago
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duluthinbloomz4
12 years agoRelated Discussions
Making an Acidic soil ammendment or Fertilizer
Comments (2)I use white vinegar all the time and have been using it since reading the original tip I think in Organic Gardening magazine decades ago. I use about two tablespoons per gallon, and it works really well with gardenias used with fish emulsion. (However, the one I currently am growing is not as acid sensitive as the ones I had at my other house. Its grafted on a species rootstock.) It also works great with my citrus and keeps them green (I have a potted lemon and a potted kumquat.) I would try this route. All you're doing is gently changing the pH of the solution to encourage the plant's roots to take up the nutrition. If its a potted plant, its good to gently give it some fresh acidic soil (premade or make your own from good potting soil and leaf mold with a touch of peat moss,) at least every other year. If its in the ground, mulch with something like leaf mold. Leaf mold is hard to find, its partially decayed oak leaves mostly, look for an ethical source/company when purchasing and ask your local store about it. Use sparingly and do not waste. Its not extremely expensive, but it is a little expensive at about $7-10 bucks a 2 cu bag. I also like worm compost. I use the compost I make myself from starbucks coffee grounds. My acidic plants love it and in pots I encourage redworms to live and stay. Acidic plants in general (the ones I grow,) seem to love nice humus conditions and lots of microbial activity and redworms promote this. Mine live happily in the pots and if they become unhappy they will leave, but create delicious soil in the pots if given a little compost, leaf mold, coffee grounds or organic fertilizers to work on. (They actually eat the microbes digesting all those products.) If you have plants of special concern, maybe we can try and address them specifically, some can be picky (gardenias! I especially recommend mulching with leaf mold, some coffee grounds or rich compost, and worm castings/with some worm eggs/worms in it to work the soil.) If you're lucky enough to live someplace with lots of deciduous trees, you can create your own leafmold and collect the neighbor's leaves, bag it, and let it rot over winter in plastic bags. This creates a delicious acidic leaf mold... I've done that before, but my favorite source cut down all their trees recently. :( ) If you can create it yourself, its absolutely the way to go....See Morecreating acidic soil with pine needles?
Comments (9)No, contrary to folklore, pine needles have little power to acidify soil- their virtue is relatively low calcium compared to some other materials so they won't drive up the pH either. Use granular sulfor and don't waste a year. If you don't believe me, test the pH of some water and then run some needles in that water through a blender and test again. Pine needles make a fine mulch, but I doubt they are best for blueberries when establishing the plants. You may be better off with woodchips or something that breaks down quickly. As the mulch decomposes, I theorize that the thin layer of soil beneath the mulch is acidified by the decomposing mulch which releases enough available iron to feeder roots near surface. Peat moss is good because it is capable of helping in the acidifying process, but it is much more affective to use forest compost (such as the black spongey layer under decomposing pine needles) to increase the organic matter of the soil, because the peat breaks down quite quickly once mixed. Humus is much more stable. I have often observed healthy blueberries of many varieties in near neutral soil with ample organic matter and mulch. Maybe the literature is based on commercial production where generous mulching is not feasable economically. If the plants don't stay green and healthy looking (and I think they will) use a water soluble iron source you can spray the leaves with until soil acidifying efforts click in....See MoreMaking soil acidic for miracle fruit seeds.
Comments (4)Regular potting soil is a nono with Miracle fruit. Peat moss and perlite 50/50 is what I've seen. If you don't want to buy sulfur granules, coffee grounds can be a short term solution to acidify soil. Adding a tbsp of vinegar to 1 gal of water can be used for watering....See MoreDo eastern redcedars really make the soil alkaline?
Comments (25)I am getting a soil test kit. I’m just saying that I hope I have acidic soil. Hydrangeas here start off almost all blue except that they turn pink after about a month or 2. Don’t know why it does that. Azaleas are very prevalent in my neighborhood. But then again I see a lot of azaleas doing well planted right next to foundations which is weird because I thought building, foundations, or concrete emit a higher ph in adjacent soils. Maybe it’s that azaleas aren’t as fussy as we think when it comes to soil ph. There are also tons of pieris japonica here. Blueberries not so much....See Moreken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
12 years agogardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
12 years agoNHBabs z4b-5a NH
12 years agobillums_ms_7b
12 years ago
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