Demystifying Soil Health - PH
Let’s start with the full disclosure that I am not a soil expert. I learn as I go and as the situation requires. So what I’ll share here will be my own personal experience and a few places where we can continue to find answers as we need them.
The components of soil health that will affect your garden or farm are pretty straightforward. pH and organic matter are the two that I pay closest attention to, and when I have the luxury of time, I dig a little deeper into mineral components.
pH
pH - which stands for potential hydrogen - is commonly understood as the level of acidity or alkalinity in your soil (technically the water molecules in your soil). Certain plants will thrive in an acidic soil - blueberries, rhododendrons, magnolia, dogwood, hydrangea. Are you noticing a trend here? If you’re in the Pacific Northwest or in most of New England, and you see these plants all over in your landscaping or your state identity, you can probably already extrapolate that your regional soil is acidic. On a scale of 0 to 14, 7 is a neutral. Anything lower is acidic, anything higher is basic (or alkaline).
I think the best question is always “why,” so let’s start there. Why does pH matter in growing? Very simply, the pH of the soil will affect the root’s ability to take up the nutrients available in the soil the will allow for growing. If your pH is imbalanced for your particular plant, it’s like putting a whole bunch of really good, nutritious food on a table behind a wall of glass. The plant can see it, but cannot enjoy the benefit of it. Most plants want to be in a neutral ph range. Even the acid-thriving plants listed above. They’ve just adapted over millennia to survive. And certain varieties of hydrangea will change their color based on soil acidity, for a little bit of fun.
When you test your soil, you’ll get a pH reading and recommendations for how to amend to get closer to neutral. The farm in Maine had an incredibly low pH at 5.4 (each tenth is exponential) so I spent a fair bit of time applying garden lime and compost to bring it up even just to 5.6 or 5.7. It makes a massive difference in the ability of the plants to take up nutrients and grow strong flowers.
next up? Organic Matter
I’ll keep writing about each of these components, but if you want to skip right to getting your soil tested, click the button below for the best one on the market at a reasonable price.
