Organic Vegetable Gardening
- What is Soil pH and How Does it Affect My
Garden?
Try to imagine spending the next 30 days in your garden,
clearing the soil, planting your seeds, pulling weeds and
watering on a daily basis, just to have a horrible crop
grow or nothing at all grow. How would you feel?
I know first hand that the feeling is
not at all a good one.
A lot of people feel that when they plant organic vegetable
gardens they need to get their seeds in the ground as soon
as warmer weather starts to come around.
I know I did when I first started organic vegetable
gardening, but what I found was that there are numerous
things you can do prior to warmer weather that can make
your garden grow even better if you just spend a little bit
of time testing your soil.
As you read this article you will start to understand what
pH is and how it can affect your vegetable garden.
By testing your soil I mean by checking the garden soils pH
levels.
What are garden soil pH levels you might ask?
Vegetable garden soil pH is the measure of the acidity or
alkalinity of the soil, which is the amount of concentrated
charged hydrogen particles in your soil water.
Sounds complicated doesn't it?
It isn't really, and it is pretty easy
to test.
You can easily check the pH of your soil with a pH tester
that you can pick up at your local gardening store.
Although they are not the best way to check your soil, they
can give you a pretty good idea of the pH levels of the
soil in your organic vegetable garden.
Another way is to send a soil sample to a local state
environment regulatory agency and have them test it for
you. There is a fee when sending a soil sample but the
information that you will learn about your soil is well
worth the money.
Your soil needs to be as close to a neutral pH as possible.
Neutral soil will have a pH level of 7.0 and give your
vegetables the ability to absorb the nutrients they need to
grow extremely well.
Most vegetables will grow fairly well in a neutral soil to
a more acidic soil.
Acidic soil will have a pH from
6.2 to 6.8. Anything below 6.0 your soil maybe to acidic
for some plants.
Alkaline soil will have a pH above
7.5 and for most vegetables this is not a good range to be
in.
A lot of flowers do like a higher alkaline soil, so if you
are planting a flower garden make sure you pay close
attention to the pH requirements.