Lower Soil PH Organically

You can lower soil pH organically using any number of acidifiers.

Soil is evaluated for acidity and alkalinity on a scale from 1 to 14. The lower end of the scale represents more acidic soil, and the higher end represents alkaline soil. A pH of 7.0 is neutral, neither acidic nor alkaline. Most garden soil falls near the neutral mark, which is a good thing because many garden plants require neutral or nearly neutral soil. There are exceptions, though. Some berries, like blueberries and strawberries, azaleas, rhododendrons and some hydrangea varieties require more acidic soil, and providing the right pH will be necessary to keep acid loving plants healthy. You can sometimes tell if a plant that needs a lower pH because it will start to turn yellow when it's getting plenty of light and water.

If you make large changes to the native soil in your garden, remember that you will have to check the pH periodically with a test kit you can buy from your garden supplier. Soils will revert to their original state over time without regular intervention, and you'll have to treat your soil with acidifiers periodically as long as you have acid loving plants in your yard.

One of the most common ingredients in preparations designed to acidify soil is elemental sulfur. It is considered an organic solution because it is naturally occurring, fast and very effective. It is not the most benign choice however, and there are other ways, like increasing organic matter in the soil, that are considered more natural if you have the time to use them properly.

Adding organic matter to the soil will lower pH too. It is a slower approach, though. In order to lower the soil pH using organic amendments, you'll need manure, compost and some peat. The amounts will depend on the current condition of the soil, and to determine that you'll need to test the soil pH.

A general rule of thumb is that it will take around twenty pounds of amendments to lower the soil pH of one square yard by 1.0. You will also have to wait for the amendments to become available to the soil through decomposition, which will be affected by things like temperature, moisture and microbial activity.

If you like the do it yourself approach to lower soil pH organically, there are some other ingredients that will act to lower soil pH, but they will also take some time to do the trick. You'll have to use the trial and error method to get to your target pH using any of the following ingredients:

• Tea
• Vinegar
• Coffee grounds (composted)
• Cottonseed meal
• Sawdust
• Wood chips
• Leaf mold

If you currently have a plant in your garden that needs a more acidic soil and you're not quite sure what to do as a quick fix, you might try adding sequestrene granules (or sequestrine of iron) to keep the plant alive until next season. This probably isn't the best solution if you have other plants nearby that won't appreciate the abrupt change in soil conditions.

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