Many people are familiar with the term soil pH but when was the last time you actually checked the pH levels of your soil?

Why worry about soil pH?

The pH of soil is crucial to plant nutrition! It affects a plants ability to take up nutrients. Different nutrients become more and less available to the plant at different pH levels. It doesn’t matter how many nutrients are in the soil if it is not accessible by the plant . The absolute acidic limit for plants is 4 and alkaline limit is 9.
Traditional gardening books may quote 6.5 as the ideal pH, however like most things with plants it’s not simple – not all plants require the same pH. Plants that come from acidic soil (such as blueberries and azaleas) will enjoy 4.5 and will not tolerate over 6. Plant that have come from alkaline soils may start to have problems at 5.5. The good news is a quick internet search and you will be able to find most plants desired pH.
Non specific potting mixes generally have a slightly acidic pH of 5 – 6.5.

How to test soil pH

Anyone can easily check pH at home using a pH meter or soil pH test kit. Soil kits, as pictured above come complete with simple to follow instructions, which include doing the following:.
* Collect a soil sample.
* Add some of the supplied indicator liquid,
* Add some powder,
* Compare you results to the enclosed chart to find your soil pH.

How to change soil pH

Soil additives can help to change the pH of a soil
Soil pH can be increased (made more alkaline) by adding garden lime and dolomite lime.
Sulphur can be used to lower pH (making it more acidic).
It can be a slow process to change the pH and will often need to be done incrementally over a number of months (the time-frame will vary depending on how great a change is desired, whether you are adding bulk to the soil and whether you are making it more alkaline or acidic).