[CH] Soil PH and Lime
Dave Anderson (chilehead@tough-love.com)
Wed, 16 Jul 2003 11:45:47 -0700
Mea culpa!
I was obviously having a senior moment even though I'm a lot younger than some
members of the list:-)
Lime will raise the PH, not lower it. Sulphur will lower it. We have very alkaline soil
(high PH) in my part of the west and I see articles, written by easterners which seem
to advocate adding lime for every problem. The nurseries around here sell a lot of
lime. The customer is always right eh?
A soil test kit will cost less than 20 bucks at a nursery. Probably less at Wally World
or Home Depot. It should tell you the PH, and NPK levels of your chile patch and
you don't have to wait for results from a lab.
Soil amendments are kind of like insecticides or herbicides. It's best not to apply
anything until you know what the target is. Read the paragraph below. I could
probably respond to 99% of the growing problems on this list by saying "You need
more calcium", but I would be wrong most of the time.
According to one of my nursery manuals, calcium deficiency symptoms can show
up as weak stems, poor root development, premature shedding of blossoms, poor
bud development and blossom end rot. It also says that calcium is heavily involved
in soil PH. It doesn't say how it's involved. In most cases, your veggie plants will be
very happy if the soil PH is around 5.0 to 6.0.
Dave
TLCC
http://www.tough-love.com