Using Sulfur to Amend Soil Creates Very Non-Uniform pH
westes Zone 9b California SF Bay
11 months ago
last modified: 11 months ago
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westes Zone 9b California SF Bay
11 months agoRelated Discussions
How can I lower soil pH from 6.5 to 4.5 by Spring?
Comments (47)If drainage is a problem, you can use sand if you create mounds for the plants using a great deal of sand. A little sand can actually make things worse from research I've seen, but if you use something like a third sand by volume, mixed with a third peat and a third soil and create the mounds with this it should work fine. If you make such a mix without building mounds you may create bath tubs that fill with water and drown roots. You can also grow them in pots mixing 50/50- sand to peat and put them half way into existing soil- or make a mix with ground pine bark that is aged for the purpose (this is harder to find but more often used in blueberry production). If you set up a drip system or water them consistently, blueberries grow very well this way, if you put them in big enough pots. 5 gallon pots would support mature plants pretty well. Is your soil clay? Do you know the texture of your soil? This is something that is not at all obvious and people often are confused about the texture of their soil. This is also where your county cooperative extension can provide better advice than you can get on-line- although there are simple tests using dishwater detergent to get a general reading on your soils composition. Drainage is easier, because you can figure out how long it takes to drain after heavy rains or dig a hole and fill it with water several times. Not sure of the exact procedure but it is an easy search for details....See MoreAcid pH soil for Azeales necessary?
Comments (10)Kris, thanks for the insight. Actually East Texas is quite different (including Houston) from the rest of Texas. (I'm not sure about South Texas; never lived that far south) I've seen Azeleas thrive including at my parents house in houston where I grew up and the rest of neighborhood. They were at least 6 feet tall. There are tall pines trees everywhere in that area so that tells you that the soil is different. You don't see that much in Dallas and further west. When I went to Nacodoches (deep east texas) for college, it was basically in the middle of the forest. I loved it there. The pine trees and oak trees were huge. Again, it's rare where I currently live. I only see them like that along the banks of river or creeks around here but not as tall. I built raised bed for azeleas on the east side by the house where they recieve morning sun only. The house shades them from afternoon sun so they seem to be doing fine for now. I have encore embers and they're blooming quite often right now. I knew better than plant directly into akaline native soil so I built raised bed. I can always redo it if it didnt work out. At least, I'd learn something out of it! They don't grow deep roots right? I'll be on the lookout for bags of oak leaves (pine leaves if im that lucky) to steal off the curbs. I will throw in pine barks but they tend to float off during heavy rains. Perhaps burlap will hold them down? (Interbay Mulch, heh?) The tap water is also akaline so I use apple cider vinegar (1 TBS per gallon) to help with that. I figured it couldnt hurt. About peat moss, they're something of anti microbial stuff. They were actually used to preserve meat many years ago. They take a very long time to break down so I don't know if it's really good for the plants (soil biological activity). We all depends on microbes to break down organic matter into usable nutrients for the plants to take in via roots (and leaves). With peat moss, how do you feed them? I've seen Azeales fertlizers at home depot, lowes, etc so it made me wonder if that's the reason for that. I guess that's why I didn't want to use peat moss. I have a picture of my azeleas but I'm not sure how to post it here....See MoreCorrecting soil with pH 7.15 for acid loving perennials?
Comments (13)I'd use iron sulfate before I'd use aluminum sulfate, but neither will have as much effect as sulfur. I may be wrong, but I think the main reason that iron sulfate is faster acting than sulfur is because one of the effects of high pH is iron deficiency. The iron sulfate doesn't bring the pH down nearly as much, but unless you've got pH like David52 and I have, the iron sulfate will provide some readily available iron right away (around here, the pH is high enough that the iron in iron sulfate is not available). Something that can very quickly (and very temporarily) lower the pH are to add a quart or twoo of vinegar to a 5 gallon bucket of water and use that to water. If there are pool supply places nearby, you can probably buy some granules that can be added to the water to drop the pH in pools. I think most of these have sulfur in them and turn the water into either sulfurous or sulfuric acid. If you get really desperate, you can use muriatic acid (I think it's something like 15-20% HCL). If you use muriatic acid, make sure to add the acid to the water and not the other way around. These approaches are fast, but very temporary. With your weather and native soil, a temporary fix may be enough, since that'll give time for the soil to move toward the norm for your area. Karen--A number of things contribute to making soils either acidic or alkaline. Weather is actually a big factor. Areas that get a lot of rainfall tend to have more acidic soil and areas that are arid tend to have alkaline soil. This is mostly due to the minerals and elements that get washed away with the water (somewhat related to this, arid areas often suffer from problems with salt buildup). In recent years, the acidifying effect of rain has become even more pronounced where acid rain is an issue. There are other factors, as well. For example, there are areas in Colorado and Utah that have acidic soil despite being arid. The reason is that the soil content is mostly crushed granite. I would assume that southern Ohio gets enough water, so your alkalinity must be due to the makeup of the soil itself....See MoreSoil pH and fixing
Comments (5)well you approached the problem right by checking the ph first. as stated above, 6.0 - 8.0 will support almost anything. 8-10inches dries fast in az, maybe try raising the beds another 8 inches? sounds like you need to rotate your crops. your soil is probably totally depleted from the first year- especially in 8-10 inches of soil. ive never been able to grow anything in the same spot 2 years in a row except lettuce. corn, tomatoes- forget it. actually most of my tomatoes got blossom end rot from calcium deficiancy before the first season was even done so this will be a seasonal fight. if ph is close to neutral, then i would try to bust some of that caliche and add as much organic matter as possible and you should be ok. i make my own compost in a rubbermaid container from walmart w/ a lid. fill with anything that is natural and can rot. i.e. banana peels, apple peels, any fruit period, crushed egg shells, spent coffee grounds are great, leaves, last seasons dead crop, try to avoid sticks unless they're mulched. no meat, no wrappers, no metal, no animal poo, etc, you will need to stir once a month and keep moist. container will get warm during decomposition, be sure to decomp first. this saved my garden last year. look for worms- thats a sign things are getting better. for now you can buy it at H.D. mycorrhizal fungi is my new kick, check it out. http://gardening.about.com/od/gardenprimer/a/Amending_Soil.htm http://www.bghydro.com/BGH/itemdesc.asp?ic=NEGRM16 best deal ive seen so far for mycorrhizae...See Morewestes Zone 9b California SF Bay
11 months agolast modified: 11 months agowestes Zone 9b California SF Bay
11 months agowestes Zone 9b California SF Bay
11 months agowestes Zone 9b California SF Bay
11 months agolast modified: 11 months agorhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
11 months agowestes Zone 9b California SF Bay thanked rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7westes Zone 9b California SF Bay
11 months agowestes Zone 9b California SF Bay
10 months agofloral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
10 months agolast modified: 10 months agowestes Zone 9b California SF Bay thanked floral_uk z.8/9 SW UKwestes Zone 9b California SF Bay
10 months agodavidrt28 (zone 7)
10 months agolast modified: 10 months agowestes Zone 9b California SF Bay thanked davidrt28 (zone 7)westes Zone 9b California SF Bay
10 months agolast modified: 10 months agodavidrt28 (zone 7)
10 months agolast modified: 10 months agowestes Zone 9b California SF Bay thanked davidrt28 (zone 7)davidrt28 (zone 7)
10 months agolast modified: 10 months agowestes Zone 9b California SF Bay thanked davidrt28 (zone 7)
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