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Pine needle mulch

2

Posts

  • LG_LG_ Posts: 4,360
    In pH terms that's a huge difference!
    'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
    - Cicero
  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889
    aren't 5.75 and 7 both classed as "neutral" ?
    Devon.
  • OmoriOmori Posts: 1,674
    This is from the RHS:

    A pH 7.0 is considered neutral. An acid soil has a pH value below 7.0. Above pH 7.0 the soil is alkaline.

    pH 3.0 - 5.0

    • Very acid soil

     pH 5.1 - 6.0

    • Acid soil

    pH 6.1 - 7.0

    • Moderately acid soil

    pH 7.1 - 8.0

    • Alkaline soil

  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889
    I stand corrected. I'd always though below 5 = acid , 5-7 = neutral, and above that was alkaline
    Devon.
  • Allotment BoyAllotment Boy Posts: 6,774
    Remember the pH scale is logarithmic not linear, so the difference between 6& 7 is not 1 unit but 100.
    AB Still learning

  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889
    given the figures above, it's taken "a decade " of needles to shift from "moderately acid" to "acid"?? Am I correct? or have I got it wrong?
    Devon.
  • OmoriOmori Posts: 1,674
    We don’t know how long it took, as we’ve only been here a year and the trees have been here over a decade.  All I can say is the soil is definitely lower under the trees than it is elsewhere, but how long it takes is impossible to say as we weren’t here to take regular measurements over that time period. It could be as quick as a year, two years, five years, who knows. 
  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,039
    Allotment boy is right about pH scale being logarithmic, but a difference of 1 pH unit is equal to a ten fold difference in acidity.
    A change from pH 7 to pH 5.7 is a big increase in acidity.
    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889
    I've never tested the pH of any garden I've ever had. Is that odd?
    Devon.
  • NollieNollie Posts: 7,529
    I have collected pine needles from under leylandi and italian cyprus to mulch raspberries with. It probably doesn’t make much of a difference but its a good weed-suppressing mulch and better than adding an alkaline or neutral mulch. I have very alkaline soil (the rasbs are in a raised bed filled mostly with ericaceous compost, some oak leaf mould, some homemade compost). I’m intrigued now by Omori’s experience, so am going to test the soil under the conifers...
    Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
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