Don't discount the pHriggin' pH and the soil temp!

While I wait for everything to get growing, I'd like to share something that recently occurred to me.  Talk about the light coming on!

Last year, as I discussed last posting, was a rush job.  I returned from New Zealand at the end of May, visited family in Arizona and Colorado, and finally planted up seeds, most of which were cheap, end-of-the-season giveaways with what I considered a modicum of success.  Most my seedlings grew quickly and happily, much to my pleasure and bit of surprise.  But the soil temps are much warmer given that extra month.  That being said, the tomatoes never quite got there as the season was too short.  And even though we live inland, the temps weren't all that warm.

Enter soil acidity and alkalinity...after more research, a bit of thought, but especially lots more observation, I believe that  I did indeed have a lot of wimpy plants more on account of too low a pH (scientific abbreviation for parts of Hydrogen).  Instead of TRYING to go into the science of it all, I'll just direct you to Wikipedia...what happens is that the chemistry of the soil is changed in such a way as to make it difficult for plants to take up or find available nutrients.

Anyhow, having soils with a pH of 5--which IS quite acidic--definitely affected the growth of the plants (although berries love it, and my strawberries do look quite happy!).  A lot of the brassicas I planted at the end of the summer, which should have done quite well, looked very wimpy.  The kale and especially the broccoli were quite a disappointment, and other plants like snap peas, carrots and beets grew quite slowly--or not at all. 

SO, I limed like hell!  Well, at least many who observed the whitish soil thought so.  And, what is crazy is that I did it twice--in the autumn and in the spring.  The goal is to bring the pH up to a point where I'll be able to successfully grow these veggies. 

So, even though I have this great sandy loam, if the chemistry of the soil isn't right, I will end up still having problems.  I do have one advantage having a soil high in organics, however.  The decaying matter serves as a 'buffer', which helps in retaining the calcium in the lime and keeping it from washing away, which will hopefully mean that the pH will change more quickly and the less acidic conditions should persist longer.  

One last thing, but VERY important, is when I began looking at what the pH ranges were for various veggies, I did find that most of what didn't do so great was, in fact, looking for more alkaline conditions.  That is probably why some of my plants, especially the potatoes and pumpkins did so well.  They were much more appreciative of lower pH than their fellow veggies.