Tips for Adding Sulfur to Acidify Soil
westes Zone 9b California SF Bay
7 months ago
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westes Zone 9b California SF Bay
7 months agoRelated Discussions
pH soil acidifying with battery acid?
Comments (21)After reading all the comments, it’s funny that some of you act like, as if, sulfuric acid (battery acid) is a radioactive chemical, such as Plutonium. I've worked with battery acid and have gotten in my eyes at one time. It didn't feel good, but I ran to the next room and flushed them with sink water for 15 minutes. My eyes are just fine and that happened 30 years ago. If you get it on your skin, then rise immediately or it will start to burn your skin. Other than that, it’s more dangerous when charging the fluid that release toxic fumes and flammable H+ gases. I don't think you'll be doing that when using battery acid for watering your plants. I don't know if you can use literally battery acid, it may have other stuff in it, such as lead and etc. also, if you do use it, make sure the battery is charged at its full complicity before using it. You don't want to use a dead battery's electrolytes fluids. I'm not a wizard on this stuff, but I would recommend buying 100% or 98% sulfuric acid or h2s04 (brand new) in a bottle and not from a battery. To further explain my accident of how the battery acid got into my eyes, (not sure how or why), the container that I opened was under pressure when I opened it, it splashed into my eyes from the 'vent tube'. I think I may have opened it the other day, which allowed air to get inside the container, which reacted to the battery acid overnight and built up pressure within the container. I think that is what happened, but I'm not sure. Maybe I was squeezing the container to remove the cap or lid or held the container wrong, which allowed fluid to flow into the vent tube. My point here is that battery acid is not as dangerous, as one makes it out to be. Just don't drink it. Now, if you get it into your eye (out in the middle of nowhere), and you have no water to flush your eyes, then you can kiss your eyeballs goodbye. Skin will heal, but not eyeballs. Just make sure you have access to plenty of water, before playing around with acid. Make sure, the water is only no more that a room away from you. When I got acid in my eyes, it was not easy to see where I was going. I wanted to keep them closed shut, but I had to open them for a billionth of a second to see where I was going without running into walls. Note: The battery acid that got in to my eyes was brand new and may have been diluted with water. I'm 46 years old now, and I have no eye problem nor do I wear glasses. If you do the math, I was about 15 years old when this happened to me. Cooking foods in hot grease is just as dangerous as a bottle of sulfuric acid....See MoreNeed organic soil acidifier for blueberry
Comments (26)I just planted some blueberry plants. Ive never tested my soil, but every single house in the entire area have hydrengea, and none of them are blue... Either way, just to be sure, I planted them in a 2:1 ration of peat to soil. I then took a liter of coffee grounds, ans dpread them around the plant about a foot away. I then Put 2 inches of pine needles my neighbor gave me ( they dont use anything nasty at all, we call them the "hippies".)and worked them both into the soil lightly. I then covered the area with a thin layer of news paper, and then multched with leaves/pine needles. My logic was that the peat will only make the ph acidic, where I placed it, and isnt really long term. So by the time its effects are gone, the layers of compost/leaves/pine needles will already be acidifying the soil. Since ive read blueberries like really acid soil, I wasnt too paranoid about over acidifying the soil. THey seem to love it. ITs almsot time for more coffee grounds, seeing as we are getting tons of rain. If you have the room, you might want to plant some pine trees near or around your blue berries, and dont bother raking up the needles. If anything spread them around. How can you get more organic then pine needles from trees that are already there?...See Moresulfur vs ammonium sulfate for acidifying
Comments (20)Drew51, I believe you're mistaken in your comment above regarding the interchangeability of "proton" and "hydrogen". I didn't mean to imply that at all. I agree, A proton and hydrogen are very different. Actually I was ribbing the other guys for just what you said. Sulfuric acid is the long term solution It takes calcium out of the equation making it unavailable for the most part in the form of gypsum. Gypsum as far as I know doesn't really break down and is certainly neutral. I agree I use rain water only for my blueberries, but because of the environmentalists craze, the rainwater is now neutral. I have to acidify rain water! My rainwater is 7.0. So I try not to add any calcium at all. Currently I collect enough rain water for my blueberries. Other plants get city water when I'm low. I always keep enough for the blueberries. It's going to rain tomorrow so everything gets' rain water today. My rain water probably doesn't have any carbonates, so I really don't need to acidify. But the ground has too high a PH. And even though my plants are in raised beds the surrounding ground pulls hydrogen ions out, and the decomposing compost uses them too, so the soil needs a constant supply of hydrogen ions, i.e. sulfuric acid. Last year I put enough sulfur in to get my raised bed to 4.5. I added no more acid, used rain water with no acid. This spring when i tested the beds they were 6.5!! So now I add hydrogen ions constantly. I want to be around 4.0 when winter hits as over the winter the ph will again slowly go up. All gardening is local, in my area, with my clay loam, and local PH of rain water, this is what I have to do to maintain a proper PH, your mileage may vary....See MoreAcidify soil - Irrigate with lemon juice?
Comments (14)insipid, you don't really need to worry about a long term solution for a container plant. You can easily add a bit of vinegar to your watering bucket and get the job done, which is what many container citrus growers do. Ask about this over in the Citrus Forum....See Moretoxcrusadr
7 months agolast modified: 7 months agowestes Zone 9b California SF Bay thanked toxcrusadrwestes Zone 9b California SF Bay
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7 months agolast modified: 7 months agowestes Zone 9b California SF Bay thanked davidrt28 (zone 7)westes Zone 9b California SF Bay
7 months agolast modified: 7 months agowestes Zone 9b California SF Bay
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