Nothing short of a perfect blend of nutrients will grow the best plants, no matter if it's in your garden, a container planting or even in your yard. Soil doesn't just hold the plants up, it also supplies the cocktail of nutrients that feed your plants. The minerals and nutrients may be present in the soil, but if it isn't chemically balanced then the plants can't absorb and use the good food that is “locked up”.
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What Is Soil pH?
In the gardeners world, pH is a gauge of the hydrogen-ion concentration (potential Hydrogen) in the soil. Soil pH is measured on a scale of 1-14, with 7 considered to be neutral. Anything below 7 is considered acidic and anything above 7 considered alkaline.
Certain nutrients in the soil can only be used by plants when the soil pH is right. For most garden plants this means somewhere between 6 and 7 on the pH scale. Unless the pH falls into an acceptable range, no amount of fertilizer is going to improve their health.
In order to adjust the pH of your soil you must first know what it is now. This is best done by a soil test, and just for the purposes of knowing the pH of your soil, you can use a meter. Once you have established whether your soil is acidic or alkaline, you can the amend it by adding certain additives.
Here in the Ozarks most soils go acidic if untended because of decaying leaves and grasses and the chemistry of the decomposition. That means “liming it up” to balance the soil pH by adding crushed lime. In many open areas you might notice a yellow natural grass growing called Broom Sedge. It's about 2 – 3 feet tall and looks like a prairie grass, but really yellow.
According to a local old time farmer, if you see Broom Sedge then your soil is a 5.5 pH or lower and you need to add 3 tons of lime per acre to get it back towards neutral. This has worked for me before, and you can break that down to your needs by using simple math.
For potting soils made up of your native garden soil you can get a bag of Ag lime at the farm store and add a little to soils you suspect of being acid. Be careful though, any imbalance of pH will keep your plants from taking up the nutrients they need to survive.
How To Read A Soil Test
For gardens of any size that aren't performing well, or for larger piles of natural soil that you want to use for container gardening it's best to take a soil test sample and send it to a lab. Your local farmers extension agency can guide you to a reputable lab. If you don't know how to find your local extension just visit your county courthouse and ask around.
In order to collect a good sample you'll need to take soil from several points in your garden and about 6 inches deep. Put several samples in one ziploc bag and mix it well to get a good average of your garden's soil chemistry. Then send it in to the lab for analysis.
All lab reports are not created equal, so if you decide to tackle the job of improving your soil, then think of it as a work in progress. You may want to use more than one lab at first to compare their reports and settle on one you like. Also, soil testing is best done annually so you can keep track of what is working for you and how your garden is reacting to the amendments you supply.
The next thing you will notice is that there is a lot more critical data in a soil report than merely the pH. You will see levels of many important nutrients and how they compare to ideal. Depending on what you like to grow your soil nutrient needs may differ from that of your neighbor's.
If you want to see what it's like to read a soil report I have one here for your to view. The important thing to understand is that just because key nutrients are found in your soil, that does not mean your plants can use them. Soil texture, pH and balances between chemicals in the soil dictate how well your plants can take them up.
Your Soil Is Alive
Much of our food grown by corporate farms today is grown by those believing that the soil is just there to hold up the plant, and that simply adding Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium (NPK) they can grow healthy food. Already from this article you can see there are many other nutrients that plants need to be healthy.
But it's been said that there are more living organisms in a teaspoon of healthy soil than there are people who live on the Earth. Every life form that's in your soil has a job to do, and depend on each other working together as a whole to make plant life work.
When pesticides and herbicides are used to control bugs or weeds many other microorganisms are also killed. This causes and imbalance in the soil, so you can see that simply adding a simple fertilizer does not compensate for all that is lost.
This is where compost comes in – properly made compost is alive with all the microorganisms that are needed to grow healthy plants. Compost can be made at home, or you can buy good compost mixes locally. That's why when you buy a bag of potting soil it pays to get the best you can find.
Top dress your garden with compost regularly, like several times through one growing season. Or if you use containers to grow your plants, dump out the potting soil into a compost pile between planting and let it revive. You can use good potting soil and compost over and over if you let it mix with live compost between plantings.
Keep Doing Soil Tests
If you want to keep your plants healthy from year to year it's best to learn how to soil test your garden and potting soil, understand the reports and work on it regularly. If you eat the fruits of your labors, you'll be investing in your own health.
