I thought about one of the ph "meters", but so far I just use the test strips. My son uses a meter type tester, and says the same thing you do....everyplace seems to test the same! I should do a test between the 2 methods, and see just how accurate the meter really is. I use distilled water for my tests, as our "city water" seems to skew the ph test. Our soil is very sandy, and water, and therefore the nutrients, pass through it pretty fast, and soon is below the root zone. I tend to use alfalfa pellets, bone meal, etc. as much for the humus they add ,as for the fertilizer value. Our soil, un-amended, will grow pretty good iris. But with amendments (peat, composted manure, and fertilizer, it grows BETTER iris! Where is Enterprise? I think you must be near Dothan ? We are "wintering" at Dauphin Island, and this year "Wintering" is the right word !!
Freezing rain has the tree, etc. covered in a good 1/8"-1/4" of ice. Still, it's better than Illinois right now! Lucy, I suppose the dwarfs would need less "food" ,as the bio-mass of the plant is so much less than it would be for a TB, but I'm sure the "mix" would be the same. And I imagine the root zone is somewhat shallower, too....Arlyn
