Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Chatting => Equipment Shed => Topic started by: Flying Cyril on January 20, 2007, 20:46

Title: Soil PH test.
Post by: Flying Cyril on January 20, 2007, 20:46

G'day,
I'm doing some soil tests with one of them garden centre test kits. When I did the test for PH I followed the instructions which said to wait for 10 minutes before checking the colour against the chart. T'was a bit cloudy so I followed the insructions and added some more white powder (to aid clearing?) and waited a further 10 minutes. T'was the same. The colour (through the cloudiness) indicated a PH of about 6. Next morning the cloudiness had gone and the liquid was green (PH7). Several days later it's the same shade of green. Now then, is it important to check it after the 10 minutes or am I right in thinking that it needs to clear properly to reveal the colour and it doesn't matter how long you leave it after that the final colour is the correct one ??
"Flying" Cyril.

Title: Soil PH test.
Post by: muntjac on January 20, 2007, 20:58

ok cyril take this advice first my friend . throw the kit in the bin .. now take some chicken poop and dig it in that wil bring it down to a natural level of about 5 .. what is 5 well its neutral . add lime to the ground every other year where you are not gowing spuds . if you grow spuds on end of ya plot add lime next year after ya dug em up about 1/2 ounce to square yard / ph tets for alottmenst are a complete waste of time and money as the ground changes its chemical make up from 1 foot to another .. garden as you are advised not just from me but the other allotment holders . adding anything to the plot changes it ....... even peas grown this year wil change the results the day after you dig them up as they are nitrogen fixing plants ........ so . make sure the rubbish  goes in the black bin .the plastic in the blue and the soil residues in the green mate . now if you star to grow orchids then worry about ph' ing it

Title: Soil PH test.
Post by: Zak the Rabbit on January 20, 2007, 21:16

i agree with karl, the kits are a rip off and a waste of money. Get a bottle of distilled water and ask you local college science dept if they will let you scrounge a book of universal indicator papers (litmus papers), mix a bit of yer soil in distilled water and dab yer paper in.

You can buy the papers from people on ebay as well, cheep as chips

if you have money to spare buy a pH meter, but remember they need very moist soil, so soak a bit with distilled water first (distilled cos tap water is alkaline and rainwater is acidic)

Title: Soil PH test.
Post by: muntjac on January 20, 2007, 21:18

i wouldnt spend tyhe money on it ,,, buy the manure n lime instead pal

Title: Soil PH test.
Post by: shaun on January 21, 2007, 07:46

ive never used one,ive got one in my shed its been there for a few years i might take karls advice and slat it,

Title: Soil PH test.
Post by: Gurder on January 21, 2007, 12:34

I used the pH meter I've got for my fish tanks, put some mud in RO water and stuck the meter in and bingo

Title: Soil PH test.
Post by: philmay on February 11, 2007, 09:41

I tried a PH kit on mine took 5 readings all different! have decided to do whats best for each type of veg eg. lime for brassicas and peas, horse muck everything else. Ph testing seems a waste of time and money.

Title: Soil PH test.
Post by: denbo73 on February 11, 2007, 13:02

You can get a ph metre from wilkos and its about £5, I got one cos me plot aint been grown on for years and got the same reading every time.

Some areas needed lime so i limed it and re tested, The result were pretty good, So go for one of them :wink:  

It also dose the light thingy and how wet your soil is . 8)

Title: Soil PH test.
Post by: John on February 11, 2007, 17:11

I did a bit of an article about liming and pH etc

Garden Lime (http://www.allotment-garden.org/articles/Garden_Lime.php)

Title: Soil PH test.
Post by: Aunt Sally on February 11, 2007, 18:09

Thanks John, very useful.  I was not aware that you should not lime and fertilise in the same year - You've saved me from that mistake  :!:

OH says lime only the brassica patch and rotate it on a 3 years cycle.

Would you agree  :?:

Title: Soil PH test.
Post by: John on February 11, 2007, 18:49

Quote from: "Aunt Sally"

Thanks John, very useful.  I was not aware that you should not lime and fertilise in the same year - You've saved me from that mistake  :!:

OH says lime only the brassica patch and rotate it on a 3 years cycle.

Would you agree  :?:

Basically yes - brassicas need a  a high pH whereas potatoes do best around 5.5. I'd rather see a 4 or even 5 year rotation but  3 is much better than none.

So, spuds + muck, other crops, brassicas + lime on 3 years

Or spuds+muck, roots, legumes, brassicas + lime.

Ideal would be to run a pH test to decide how much lime was needed before you do it.

Title: Soil PH test.
Post by: shaun on February 11, 2007, 19:40

it is hard to judge how much lime to put on though i just put some in a big pot with holes in the bottom and give the area a dusting a bit safer to put less than more

Title: Soil PH test.
Post by: muntjac on February 11, 2007, 20:49

1 oz to the square yard every year before growing the spuds on that soil ,,, dont sow spuds on limed ground folks :wink: