Can anyone recommend a relatively inexpensive way to test for acid/alkaline soil?

Posts

• B3 Posts: 27,505

  May 2021

  You could look at what's growing in your area and if you're in England, there's a website that someone has posted a link to a couple of times that will give you a pretty accurate  description.
  Hydrangea are a good indicator. Blue acid  - pink alkaline or neutral.
  Rhododendrons - acid 

  In London. Keen but lazy.

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• Loxley Posts: 5,698

  May 2021 edited May 2021

  If the soil fizzes in the presence of vinegar, it is alkaline. If it fizzes in the presence of baking soda, it is acidic. A bit broad brush but a positive result will confirm one way or the other, if you don't have a conclusive result you could move on to a more accurate test kit.
  
  Agree on checking what grows locally, and you can also check the underlying bedrock, which usually influences the soil PH - sandstone being acidic, chalk being alkaline, clay *usually* slightly alkaline. 
  

  "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour". 

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• FlyDragon Posts: 834

  May 2021

  http://www.landis.org.uk/soilscapes/
  

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• Cambridgerose12 Posts: 1,134

  May 2021

  You can get a single test tube and colour chart for about £1.59 from most garden centres.

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• Nanny Beach Posts: 8,719

  May 2021

  Mysoil testing kit was only ,£,5 the hydrangea thing mine is pink and Rhodo happy living near it,I was given a beautiful mauve one which went blue

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• Posy Posts: 3,601

  May 2021

  It's much easier to tell if conditions are extreme and more difficult as you approach neutral. The cheap kits and a quick look round should do the trick unless you want to specialise with a particular group of plants that require very detailed knowledge. My heavy clay on chalk, much improved over the years, is slightly alkaline so no acid lovers or Mediterranean types.

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• UrbanNovice Posts: 29

  May 2021 edited May 2021

  FlyDragon said:

  http://www.landis.org.uk/soilscapes/
  

  
  What an incredibly useful tool!

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• Shoxt3r Posts: 196

  May 2021

  Wow thank you so much for the really helpful, detailed replies!
  
  I used the soilscape website and it came back with "Freely draining slightly acid loamy soils" so I presume I'm doing the right thing by feeding the skimmias and other acid-loving plants with this Miracle Gro plant feed?
  
  
  
  I will look into the testing kits all the same though; thanks for the recommendations!
  

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