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pH level in pots
oakridge
Posts: 83
My pH meter has been hiding for the last couple of years but it has come to light in the last week or so. Consequently I have checked pretty well everything. All is fine; soil, compost, etc but not everything. The tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes and chrysanthemums, all of which have had varying amounts of Tomrite register very low levels, even below 4 in some cases. I make my own potting compost and the original records about 7. I have grown spinach and beetroot in tubs this year as an experiment and they are fine.
Have you any ideas please?
0
Posts
Did you manage to calibrate your meter? I'd have thought after 2 years the bulb would have dried out which usually means it's dead.
Fertilzers are pretty acidic, but soil/compost is a powerful buffer and will resist change in pH. Measuring the pH of the runoff is not indicative of what's going on inside the pot. Noting to worry about.
Are your plants growing well?
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Thank you Pete8. I tested the meter on a number of things and it responded well so it seems to be OK. The Cucumbers and their cousins the courgettes are looking the most sickly but I have put some garden lime on the pots and watered it in and they are looking better and the pH has improved. I checked the pH of the Tomorite and that is 5.5 which certainly isn't helping. The land is very acid - it grows bracken really well - but my water supply is a surface water spring and that shows 6.5 pH which surprised me.
When the cucumber and courgette leaves started going yellow we applied some horticultural Epson Salts so that should help.
I shall be more vigilant next year.
I guess you're on an acid soil then. Do you see acers, rhododendrons, azaleas and the like growing well in your area?
The pH of rainwater in my water butts ranges from 6.5-6.8 over the years and I use tomorite alongside seaweed extract for my toms/cues etc. The soil in my part of essex is slightly acidic clay.
Mushroom compost is alkaline, so you could try incorporating a good load of that if you can get some.
There's a map here http://www.landis.org.uk/soilscapes which will tell you the general soil conditions for your postcode
Assuming you have a glass bulb pH meter, if you've not calibrated it in 2 years it will not be giving an accurate reading though
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Thank you again for your replies. When we took the tenancy on the land in the 80s ADAS came and tested it for us. I forget the NPK and trace element levels but the pH was 4.5 which impressed the chap greatly. We had 3 tons/acre of lime put on the two fields but not on the 'yard' which we retained after we retired from livestock. Grazing animals and cultivation do tend to increase the pH and now the soil level averages 6 which isn't bad. It just makes it all the more surprising that the levels incompost in the courgettes, cucumbers and tomatoes are so low.
We get bracken 6' high at this time of year as well as all the other indicators. It keeps my strimmer busy, but I will have to stop towards the end of the month when the bracken start to spore.