How can I measure the pH of soil/soilless runoff?
Contributed by: bald1
How to test the pH of your soil mix
Measuring the pH of soil is just as important as with hydroapplications, but few people know how to test soil pH to see if it iswithin the optimum range for growing robust healthy plants. Here I willtry to explain my method of testing any soil / soilless mix, enablingme to spot any problems and correct them if necessary.
Firstly, wait till your soil has dried out and is due for its nextwatering schedule. Then take some plain water that you usually wateryour garden with, and adjust the pH to 7.0. You must make sure that youknow the exact pH of the water going into your soil, and the neutral7.0 is best, but anywhere from 6.5 – 7.0 will suffice.
Then place your pot into a bowl of some sort to catch the runoffwater, and then start to water your soil slowly (with your pH-corrected plain water) till the water starts to drip from the bottom.
It’s the first drops of water that will give you the best readingof your soil, so make sure to water slowly till you see the firstdroplets. Then remove the pot from the bowl to eliminate excess waterentering the bowl. Then perform the pH test on the runoff and compareit too your initial test.
The results of the runoff test will likely be lower than yourstarting value of 7.0. If this is the case, a small drop of 0.5 pH to6.5 pH (example) would be ok and your soil needs no further alterationsat the moment. But that’s not to say that it won’t need any futuretests at all, just not at this time.
[Editor’s note: It may be beneficial to obtain an initial sample,as well as a ‘full flush’ sample in seperate bowls. In addition, testseveral plants in the garden just to verify your results]
What if the pH is off?
If your results prove to have dropped considerably, say to around5.5 (which can happen in late stages of flowering), you will need toadd some lime into your soil to help buffer the pH back up again.
Remove the first inch or so of soil, taking care not to damage anyroots whilst performing this task. Then sprinkle the lime into the pot,nice and evenly at a rate of 1 teaspoon (5 ml) of lime per gallon ofsoil. Then replace the soil you removed earlier, and saturate the soilgood to wash in the lime.
Do the same test next time your plants need watering just to checkthat everything is fine, if more lime needs to be added then justrepeat the process again till you reach close to 6.5 – 7.0 with therunoff.
Ensuring that your pH is correct should be done throughout the lifecycle; this will help eliminate any nutrient lockout that may occur. Irecommend doing this once a month just to keep the PH in check, and youshould never have a problem with deficiencies caused by pH lockout.
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