most things tolerate a range of pH that's near neutral, including potatoes, and it's easiest to maintain pH close to neutral w/ constant additions of good aged compost - lime materials like dolomite lime and eggshell take time to have an effect and persist quite awhile if your soil isn't too way out - wood ash is somewhat faster, but not particularly useful except for adding potash - sulpher is also fairly slow acting, prolly not as persistant against leaching bottom line is it takes 3 months + for pH changes to really take hold, and the rate of material application depends on the natural pH tendencies in your area - like I said, a soil test helps sort things out, and compost helps maintain a good pH for nearly everything over time - randomly adding amendments because you think a particular crop will "like it" is not helpful in maintaining a healthy soil, which is dependent on the microbial population feeding on the organic material and converting that to nutrients useful to plants Bill

Thanks to everyone for the interesting responses. dirtydan, have you had a soil test done to determine why your pH is so high? Unfortunately there is no one in this area that will do a soil test for less than $70 per sample. I recently found a link to University of Mass Amherst that offers soil tests for $13 so I am planning to send them some samples. http://www.umass.edu/plsoils/soiltest/soilbrochure2009.pdf I use home test kits for nutrient and pH. I also have a Hanna pH meter that comes in handy for quick tests. I don't know my native soil composition. Its pretty bad though. It could be described as dense gray clay with some occasional small pockets of white material. When dry, its is normally cracked and coated with a layer of frosty looking crystals that taste like salt. The salty crystals grow up the side of masonry, concrete and stucco walls. When wet, it turns to a slippery slime that will coat the bottom of your boots with a couple pounds of thick clay. It has no vegetative matter whatsoever. I have been prepping my raised beds with compost, sand, clay, fertilizer and various sulfur products to lower pH. Where are you in the Mojave? I am located in the city of Lancaster, CA. This is the high desert north of Los Angeles at about 2,400 ft elevation. We only get about 5 inches of rain per year, most of it is in February. In fact we will probably not see any significant rain here until next fall or winter. The arid conditions are one of the reasons for the high soil pH and lack of organic mater, also the fact that we are almost entirely dependent on alkaline municipal water for irrigation. What are you trying to grow that is having trouble? When I first moved here I put tomatoes, squash, cucumber, melon, and several others in the unamended native soil. They were all killed or stunted from the salt or nutrient deficiencies. Iron chlorosis and micronutrient deficiencies were evident in the plants that didn't die immediately. The only exception were some tomatoes that I managed to save by side dressing with aluminum sulfate and a highly acidified nutrient solution, they remained quite stunted however and suffered from BER. Since I have built raised beds and worked the soil, I have a productive garden and only seem to have problems with cucurbits in beds that have been freshly sulfured, and typical aphid and leaf miner infestations. There are two main reasons as to why sulfur is the preferred material for acidifying soil. 1. Economics Sulfur is one of the most plentiful and inexpensive elements on earth, said to comprise 2% of the mass of the earth. Sulfur is a byproduct of oil and gas refining and there is a massive oversupply of the material, especially in Canada where its is extracted from oil sands during refining. High concentrations are not toxic to vegetables. Cucurbits being the exception. Avoid sulfur contact with the leaf surface of cucurbits. Other possible acidifying agents (some impractical): ammonium nitrate liquid nitrogen urea diammonium phosphate acetic acid hydrochloric acid HCl (also called muriatic acid) phosphoric acid Elemental sulfur has been used for centuries as a fungicide and miticide. I don't know if, or to what extent, it affects beneficial soil fungi. I suppose that a reduction in soil fungi is OK as long as our vegetables are not negatively impacted, and there is no damage to the environment. Once the sulfur it oxidized by soil bacteria I would speculate that soil fungi will return to pre-application population size.

Howdy Neighbor! The short answer is no for a mixture for a specific pH. The longer answer is that the more organic matter the more lower and more stable the pH is. Organic amendments will help prevent the pH of the soil from fluctuating, just as it helps keep soil moisture and temperatures stable. If you want to grow blueberries, don't get lime anywhere near where you want to plant blueberries. Don't even get the bag of lime near the blueberries. Blueberries need soil that with lots of organic matter and a low pH. They have very shallow root systems, so you don't have to amend the soil very deeply to give them the organic matter they need. You don't need to add any additional top soil, just lots of organic matter to your existing soil. Where you are going to plant the blueberries, remove a few inches of existing sod and soil if you can. If not, you can add a few inches of peat moss and pine mulch and/or compost to the top of the existing soil, and plant the blueberries on a slightly raised berm. Blueberries need consistent moisture, but not wet soggy soil, so a slightly raised planting area can work well with heavy soils. If you have any experience growing azaleas, other Rhododendrons, or mountain laurel, then blueberries are in the same plant family, Ericace. Blueberries have much the same soil and fertilizer requirements, except more so. One of the cheap soil pH meters that costs less than $10 will help you get the soil pH right, which is essential to growing blueberries. As chemicals in the soil react, its pH will change over time. For example, watering with hard tap water that contains calcium will raise the pH. Acidifying soil amendments and sulfur will take some time to lower the soil's pH. If you are planning to plant only a few blueberry bushes, a gallon jug of cider vinegar is a cheap, easy, and fast way to lower the soil pH. First, mix a cup of vinegar with a gallon of water. Then as you water the blueberry plants, add a cup of the dilute vinegar mixture, wash the vinegar into the soil well, and then wait a few days to retest the soil's pH before adding any more. A pH of 4.5 to 5.5 is okay, and 5 if better. Once you get it right, test again every few months until you have a feel for how stable the pH is. The soil here is East Tennessee is slightly acid that will need to be lowered a bit usually, but will be fairly stable once you add plenty of organic matter. If your blueberries are already planted and you are adding amendments, be careful when trying to incorporate the amendments, because the roots are very shallow. The easiest way is to put the organic amendments on top as a mulch and let nature incorporate it, and it is fairly effective as well. For adding organic matter to your soil, you can pile up any of the following and allow them to rot to prepare an area for planting blueberries: grass clippings, tree leaves, hay, straw, peat moss, wood chips. Small amounts of manure are great, but don't use too much. I've got three blueberries growing in containers I planted this spring. You must plant more than one variety for pollination. I planted Chippewa because it is a compact medium size bush that is a good size for containers that produces in mid-season. I planted a Brigitta because it is a very late season producer. I planted a Chandler, because it is supposed to have larger berries that any other kind. They all three have survived our hot summer in 18 gallon containers without any problems this year. They were about 2 inches tall when I planted them in late March. The Chandler and Chippewa have grown several branches about 18 inches long this summer. My Brigitta has grown almost twice as fast to nearly 3 feet, even though they've all had the same soil, water, sun, fertilizer, etc. The link below from the UT Extension Office has some general info on growing blueberries here in East Tenn, including some recommended varieties. Good Luck, Greg - West Knoxville Here is a link that might be useful: UT Extension Office - Blueberries in Home Gardens

seysonn, that's a good point you make. If neutral distilled water won't make a noticeable difference compared with tap water, then the only problem I have is finding a reliable way to test for pH. I thought my cheapo test strips might be off by a little bit, but the vinegar test does show them to be worthless. So what is the liquid test kit you're referring to. What brand is it?. I've been looking at better quality test strips, ColorpHast is a good brand (used by my scientist friend) , and also Phinex (4.5-9 pH range). I'd like to find some with a range of 2-9 pH so I can use vinegar as a low end standard. ColorpHast makes that range, but seems to be out of it every time I check. And does it matter if a test kit is labelled for saliva and urine...is that just because of the range, and can any pH test kit/method be used to test a soil sample? Any opinions on favorite pH testing methods? I think I'll start a new thread to ask that questions, or has this been done many times already?