I have re-read this string of comments, and I also checked out the LaMotte soil test kit, by visiting their website. If you used tap water to prepare your soil sample, it is quite possible that your tap water has pH between 7 and 8. In other words, the pH of the water used changed the pH of the soil, so the resulting reading was close to that of the water used. In the past I have used commercial steam distilled water for soil pH tests, but I found that this source actually had pH = 7.1, so I began using reverse-osmosis water from a vending machine in our local food co-op, here in Madison. If your well water has some dissolved limestone, then it is providing you with both calcium and magnesium, and therefore it is likely good for your health. So I am not saying that you have bad water, however, it may be throwing off your soil pH test results.

If you want to do your own soil pH you need to first have a good pH meter and be able to use it properly (I.E. calibration). you will also need a balance capable of measuring accurately down to tenths of a gram. If you have that do the following for what in a lab is refered a "1:1 pH test": 1) measure 40 g of dried, sieved soil into a glass (preferably 100ml capacity) 2) add 40 ml of distilled water to the glass and stir for 30 seconds 3) wait for 3 minutes 4) repeat steps 2 and 3 4 more times 5) wait appx. 5 minutes until a clearer liquid forms above the soil 6) take pH measurement The 1:1 test is quick, easy and accurate enough in most cases. Keep in mind that a test is no better than the sample you have taken. For example, if you have a 1000 sq ft garden and went to a corner, took a cupful of soil off the top 2" it wouldn't represent your garden very well. Locate your state land grant college soil lab on the web to find out how to take a proper sample. Good luck, Michael

An overall composting plan can use coffee grounds to speed up the process, but it won't be a quick fix. It takes years to improve the soil. Sulfur is a quick fix, but you have to keep up with in, it is never finished. If you add vinegar to the water you water with, it will bring down the ph. I wish I could rig up a system to add vinegar to the water I use with the hose, as my water is very alkaline. But, if you use too much of these things you can damage plants. I am not sure of the correct amounts, but I am always very sparing. But, using straight coffee grounds on the soil is not a great. It will attract flies and form a hard crust, grow mold, lot of drawback to this. But, if you use them in your overall program they will work great. There is a lot of information on coffee grounds if you search this forum.

Yeah ... lots of critical things to consider such as initial and changing pH effects*, buffering, multivalent cations, anionic and cationic micronutrients, and zeolite like ion exchange surfaces on soil particles, which make it a play day for chemistry discussions. Then the attack and breakdown of plant and animal litter to slow release nutrients brings up neat microbiology and biochemistry aspects. Material science then decides to manipulate the situation with osmotic release and diffusion of encapsulated nutrients. And hydroponic principles try to partially play nature taking over the hydrology and lighting it up. Physics kicks ideas in there on this last aspect. For instance did you know that fluorescent light indeed glow when struck by energy (as you know), but much of the light intensity flashes through a series of distinct colors at 60 times a second? * Plants cheat neatly by manipulating ion exchange release of cationic nutrients. They knock off ammonium, potassium, magnesium, calcium and other positively charged ions by producing acid(s) to knock it off. H+ alone can cause the exchange but if the acid is on a small organic base (anion) like oxalate this organic can diffuse around and pull at the cations on soil that the plant wants and help knock it off, helping in the "weathering" breakdown of soil too. Chelators made by plants and microbes make it really interesting too. They diffuse around and hold certain critical nutrients so tightly that the plant has the choice of finding more, having a deficiency (specific nutrient starving), making a stronger chelator to take it back, and/or breaking the chelator down to free the nutrient. Now the fun parts ... the plant one might be considering is not be alone. A group of similar or different roots might be working together AND competing in that patch of soil, with different players at different depths Trees cheat and certain non woody plants cheat and go low. Moles, gophers and field mice run through this soil zone toox playing their games. No soil contact then no nutrient uptake, no root then no nutrient collection there for the plant, loss of stored nutrients and need to spend energy replacing the root. And there are smaller life forms co-inhabating the soil with the roots that are also directly or indirectly effected by soil pH. Let's put them into three classes as those that (1) don't generally effect a plant much, (2) can hurt the plant, or (3) can help the plant. Let's see ... hurting a plant is bad, unless it hurts a seriously competitive plant more. Helping a plant is good, unless it's again that serious competitor. Plants are not stand alone organisms in naturem. They live in community with microorganisms. So what if the soil pH helps support the growth of a microbe that can grow all over your plants roots? Sounds bad I know, but there are those three classes mentioned above. If your microbe is a pathogen that is bad. If it doesn't attack the plant but runs out and breaks down nearby leaf litter, great free food. It it doesn't hurt your plant but by being on root surfaces can compete with and stop pathogenic microbes from getting a foothold, great a free natural inoculation for immunity. There was a company called Eden Bioscience a couple decades ago here in the PNW that made an interesting observation. In large scale evergreen seedling production for forestry sometimes there were large scale fungal blights. Sadly alot of the seedlings all died at once in mass. However, sometimes there were a few seedlings near each other that did not succumb! In fact they looked totally healthy! When isolating bacteria, yeast and filamentous fungi from the surfaces of these plants they found that certain kinds could be grown in the lab that protected seedlings from attack, when sprayed onto them. These microbes grew best in their optimal pH range. They indeed colonized the plants, in this case leaf surfaces. And their presence did protect the leaves from pathogen attack. Obviously similar things must be happening in nature in the leaf canopy and also soil root zone of plants. So when a plant likes acidic pH 5 - 6 soil, is this just because nutrients are more available it? When I went to school, in what now seems like the dark ages, most plant physiology books focused almost solely on this. Or is it because beneficial microbes helping feed or protect the plant need that pH? My firm assumption is that both chemical and microbial pH dependent effects interact to make an optimum environment for that plant. And that some plants in the natural environment survive best, rather than grow best, at their optimal pH range. Why do many fungi sour (strongly acidify) what they are busy rotting? Niether competive microbes nor does the dieing plant tissue like it. The fungus gets more. This is exactly why you want to check the pH in the soil that you might be soon preparing for your new vegetable or herb garden this spring. Too basic, your plants starve. Too acidic, the pathogenic fungi don't starve. Then like the heirloom story of The Three Bears ... there's one pH that's just right.