What to do if your soils pH balance is wrong

If your carefully groomed garden isn’t rewarding you with the quality you deserve, it could be a problem with your soil that is preventing your plants growing healthily and vibrantly.

Before throwing different things at your soil, undertake a soil analysis which will tell you the soil pH and many key nutrient levels. This helps identify problems with your soil and suggest products to fix it.

If your soil is too acidic or alkaline, your garden plants and turf may struggle. pH neutral is ok for most situations; however some plants and vegetables may require a specific pH to grow healthily.

Acidic Soil

If your soil is too acidic, spread granulated lime, this will break down during the winter and colder weather and raise the pH balance when the temperature rises slightly.

- See our Calcifert Granulated Lime

Calcium lime granules provide an easy solution to fix your soil if it is too acidic. This product can be applied by anyone using conventional granule spreaders (rotary), drop spreaders or even by hand for small areas. However over-application can lead to equally severe problems – always apply amounts after advice from a qualified advisor. Calcifert can be applied to both bare ground and to growing crops, making it more versatile than conventional lime.

Alkaline Soil

If your soils pH balance is too high, you will need to lower the level. This can be done by adding sulphur granules – such as Brimstone Sulphur to your soil.

Excess alkalinity is an equally inefficient pH for most plants and turf to grow. In addition to reducing the nutrients available to growing plants it can increase the incidence of fungal disease and rogue grass species – such as “Poa annua”. Equally for small areas such as; rose beds, vegetable patches or flower beds sulphur is available in a small bag size as Amvista Modify.