Viewing post #680278 by dyzzypyxxy

You are viewing a single post made by dyzzypyxxy in the thread called How To Test Soil Acidity/Alkalinity without a Test Kit Do-It-Yourself Soil Test.
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Aug 14, 2014 12:09 PM CST
Name: Elaine
Sarasota, Fl
The one constant in life is change
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No turmoil, Ann, but I can see an inexperienced gardener doing this test, and getting into trouble. "Oh my gosh, my soil is acidic!" Then adding way too much lime and messing up the soil the other way, very easily when the acid soil may not have been the problem in the first place. I'd kill for a little more acidic soil, it's really hard to lower the pH of alkaline soil, long term without huge amounts of amendments, repeated regularly. This is the kind of info you get from your Extension service.

As Sue says, it's just not enough info to tell you what to do, and if you're testing your soil at all for gardening purposes, you must be looking for that much info. A much better option for someone inexperienced is to take a soil sample to the County Extension for testing, or for more experienced people like us, to buy a soil test kit and do it right.
Elaine

"Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm." –Winston Churchill

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