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Soil PH Kits - When A PH Test For Soil Is Useful

Using soil pH kits to keep track of pH is definitely not necessary in most cases, but there are times when a regular pH test for soil on intensively managed farms and gardens can give you a hint as to whether your soil is becoming more acid or alkaline because of something you're doing.

For example, if you're adding organic matter every year, for some reason the pH will tend to move towards neutral. If you're removing grass clippings from the lawn, it may go the opposite direction.

As another example, if you're in an area with low rainfall and high pH and you've just installed an irrigation system, some of those minerals might slowly be leached out of the soil and soil pH kits may give you results that slowly move lower.

Mostly you might do this just for fun, but I don't waste my time. I have lots of other things to do when organic gardening.

We know that soil pH is determined by the amount of hydrogen and other elements in the soil, which is influenced by the kind of soil you have and how much rain you have. Adding mineral fertilizers to influence the pH does not have a big effect on this, and they can cause problems if you add the wrong thing or even too much of the right thing.

But soil pH kits will start to give results for you more towards neutral under organic practices when we add organic matter and small amounts of the right minerals.

Lawns and gardens don't need lime just as a matter of course. "Lime every year" is advice often given in rainy climates because the minerals are thought to leach out of the soil. They may be leaching out of the soil, but adding more of them is not the solution. The solution is to stop them from leaching (and grow things that are used to your climate).

Chemical fertilizers cause leaching, so if you're using those, that is part of the problem. Organic gardening is the answer. Removing grass clippings from the lawn and a general lack of organic matter in the soil causes leaching, as does imbalanced nutrient ratios leading to compaction.

We can and should find those things out, but the pH test for soil still stays largely irrelevant.

But wait, if you have a low pH and a sandier soil, should you add something to "sweeten" the soil (bring more nutrients in)? Yes, but pH doesn't tell you what to add at all. A soil test does that. Now that is a useful test and I will talk about that another time.

About the Author

In fact, I talk about that a lot on my organic home gardening website. If you would like free access to this popular new resource, "15 Vital Lessons For Becoming A Better Gardener", check it out here: http://www.smilinggardener.com/organic-home-gardening.

Phil Nauta is a SOUL Certified Organic Land Care Professional and holds a Certificate In Organic Landscape Management from Gaia College and a Certificate In Sustainable Building And Design From Yestermorrow in addition to a Permaculture Design Certificate. He has taught for Gaia College and been a director for The Society For Organic Urban Land Care. He had run both an organic landscaping business and an organic fertilizer business before starting Smiling Gardener to teach others what he has learned.