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Lowering ph of flower beds
Posted on 3/31/20 at 10:16 am
Posted on 3/31/20 at 10:16 am
My ph of my flower bed soil is right at 7. There seems to be about a million products for lowering the ph of soil. I’d like to drop it to 6 to help my plants, almost all of them are acid loving. Does the board have any recommendations for a product to use?
4
Posted on 3/31/20 at 10:32 am to windshieldman
quote:
Miracle Grow for acid loving plants
I actually have some of that miracle grow but I read somewhere to not use fertilizer the first year on transplants. Mine have been in the ground about a month. Any thoughts?
The plants I’m trying to help are shishi camellias and frostproof gardenias. I have some Japanese boxwoods in the area I don’t want to kill with too much acid.
Posted on 3/31/20 at 10:34 am to bigbuckdj
quote:
I actually have some of that miracle grow but I read somewhere to not use fertilizer the first year on transplants. Mine have been in the ground about a month. Any thoughts?
I only use it for my blueberries but usually don’t fertilizer the first year myself
Posted on 3/31/20 at 10:35 am to bigbuckdj
Bloodmeal is good for acidic loving plants
Posted on 3/31/20 at 11:40 am to bigbuckdj
The best long-term solution is elemental sulfur - but it takes several months. Very slow, biological process where sulfur oxidizing bacterial convert sulfur to sulfate producing sulfuric acid in the process. Without a soil test to provide you the specific application rate you need to guesstimate using a table in this publication for the particular characteristic of the soil in your planting bed. LINK. One of the posters recently said he bought a 50 lb bag of LESCO elemental sulfur at Tractor Supply for slightly over $20. I paid $36 for the same product at Site One.
Certainly iron sulfate and aluminum sulfate (alum) will lower the pH more quickly, but they are not “permanent” solutions.
Be careful, err on the side of applying too little than too much. Easy to add more if needed later. Can’t remove what you add, if you apply too much, then you may need to come back and lime to neutralize excess acidity.
Certainly iron sulfate and aluminum sulfate (alum) will lower the pH more quickly, but they are not “permanent” solutions.
Be careful, err on the side of applying too little than too much. Easy to add more if needed later. Can’t remove what you add, if you apply too much, then you may need to come back and lime to neutralize excess acidity.
This post was edited on 3/31/20 at 12:04 pm
Posted on 3/31/20 at 12:20 pm to bigbuckdj
I had the exact same issue with frostproof gardenias. They were really mature 7gal plants when I transplanted them last year. They really struggled throughout the year and I couldn’t figure out what the deal was. The leaves were yellow, looked like iron chlorosis, and the plants were shedding a ton of leaves. Ultimately, I got a soil test and found that the soil itself was super high in nutrients and iron, but my pH was 7.3. I put down elemental sulfur throughout the gardenia area of the beds about 4 months ago. I followed that up 2 months ago with aluminum sulfate and liquid iron chelate. I got my soil tested again after all of that, and I had dropped the pH to 5.8. The gardenias look excellent now and are growing like weeds, though they’re still kinda leggy because of how many interior leaves they lost over the past year. I plan to prune them after they bloom to help them fill out.
I’m not an expert, but I wouldn’t fertilize until you get the pH right. I tried that last year (with the acid loving miracle gro) and it did a lot more harm than good because the plants were already stressed out and my soil was already high in nutrients. The plants got burned bad. If the pH is out of whack, the plants can’t uptake the nutrients from the soil.
I’m not an expert, but I wouldn’t fertilize until you get the pH right. I tried that last year (with the acid loving miracle gro) and it did a lot more harm than good because the plants were already stressed out and my soil was already high in nutrients. The plants got burned bad. If the pH is out of whack, the plants can’t uptake the nutrients from the soil.
This post was edited on 3/31/20 at 12:23 pm
Posted on 3/31/20 at 12:28 pm to bluemoons
quote:
bluemoons
Good post for a real world application, for doing it the correct way, with positive results to show for it.
Posted on 3/31/20 at 12:46 pm to bluemoons
quote:
bluemoons
Man that’s exactly what I was looking for. Mine is just a hair under 7 from my home testing. They aren’t yellowing much but there’s probably 2-4 leaves on each plant. I’ll get to correcting it. Thanks.
Posted on 3/31/20 at 12:54 pm to bigbuckdj
good luck. I added the aluminum sulfate because I was getting impatient and spring was coming quickly so I wanted the plants to be able to grow while the weather is good. I used Hi Yield brand for both aluminum sulfate and elemental sulfur, and applied per the label instructions. Don't quote me on it, but I think the aluminum sulfate was 1lb per 3' of shrub height, and mine are a little over 3' so I used 1lb per plant. Sulfur was much less and calculated based on square footage of the bed area.Posted on 3/31/20 at 2:32 pm to bigbuckdj
I use it to lower the pH to my blueberries. This will do the job.
Posted on 3/31/20 at 8:11 pm to boudinman
I went to get some aluminum sulfate and the lady at old time farm supply recommended the fertilome soil acidifier with iron liquid. So I raked back the mulch, dumped the mix, sprinkled some elemental sulfur pellets, raked the mulch back, and watered it all in. I’ll report back with results. Thanks for the help.
Posted on 3/31/20 at 8:54 pm to bigbuckdj
Definitely keep this thread updated. I almost bought that stuff at my co op but bought regular iron chelate + aluminum sulfate instead. Fertilome makes good products regardless so that may work.
I would still add elemental sulfur to the soil as it’s a more permanent solution, even though it takes time.
ETA: I’ll see if I can find a photo of mine in my phone to post a before/after.
I would still add elemental sulfur to the soil as it’s a more permanent solution, even though it takes time.
ETA: I’ll see if I can find a photo of mine in my phone to post a before/after.
This post was edited on 3/31/20 at 8:56 pm
Posted on 4/1/20 at 10:46 am to bluemoons
quote:
The gardenias look excellent now and are growing like weeds, though they’re still kinda leggy because of how many interior leaves they lost over the past year. I plan to prune them after they bloom to help them fill out.
Frost Proof tend to do that healthy or not. They grow upright vs the regular Dwarf Gardenia.
Posted on 4/7/20 at 12:59 pm to Cdawg
It’s been a week since i put down the acidifier, 3 of the 4 gardenias are doing ok and my camellias took off. . The fourth looks rough, I’m not really sure what to do with it.
Here’s what the 3 good ones look like.
Here’s the rough one
Here’s what the 3 good ones look like.
Here’s the rough one
Posted on 4/7/20 at 2:14 pm to bigbuckdj
What kind of gardenias are those?
eta: nevermind. Saw in your post. I'm also look at frostproof.
eta: nevermind. Saw in your post. I'm also look at frostproof.
This post was edited on 4/7/20 at 2:15 pm
Posted on 4/7/20 at 2:19 pm to bigbuckdj
quote:
bigbuckdj
I wouldn't worry about that one too much. Your new growth looks good. It may have just gotten shocked by nutrient uptake when the pH dropped or something.
Posted on 4/7/20 at 4:17 pm to bluemoons
Thanks, I’ll report back if it gets better or worse
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