SOIL PREPARATION UNDERWAY

[Syed Adnan]

With the reduction in outdoor temp, gardening activities have started again, Soil Preparation for next spring is inprogress, Adding peatmoss to soil to enhance acidity is not much successful, need to add more peatmoss,despite of adding NPK Potassuim levels are low, some further tests have been done to verify this.

[Farhan Ahmed]

Wow......very scientific and west like ......i wish we could do that here in PK......either kits not available or of at all very expensive

[Izhar]

Farhan, dont worry there are pH meters available.. and are rather inexpensive as they can be used multiple times..

Adnan, which brand of peat are you using?? many brands contain lime to adjust pH of very acidic peat which may alter the results, further more the peat is an organic substance and will take many days to reduce the pH.. for quick reduction of pH you can use ferrous sulfate..

[Syed Adnan]

The brand is AGROPLANT it is local i believe but PH less than 4.5 is written on it. 99 % orgaic written on it , how much NPK i should expect from PEAT ?

[Izhar]

The pH of pure peat should be less than/equals to 4.. peat on its own has no significant nutrition value for plants, it is used for holding up moisture and fertilizers when moist and reduce the pH.. pH values are log with base 10 so a 'pH 4.5' is five times more alkaline than 'pH 4.0'

[Syed Adnan]

very technical

but if the current soil PH is 7 , adding Peat PH=4.5 will reduce the total PH . am i right ?

[M Farooq]

The pH of pure peat should be less than/equals to 4.. peat on its own has no significant nutrition value for plants, it is used for holding up moisture and fertilizers when moist and reduce the pH.. pH values are log with base 10 so a 'pH 4.5' is five times more alkaline than 'pH 4.0'

very technical :D

but if the current soil PH is 7 , adding Peat PH=4.5 will reduce the total PH . am i right ?

Izhar sahab, little bit of "garbar" in your log scales :-) for the sake of science. A change of pH = 4.5 from 4.0 is not a five times change in H+ conc. because log scales are not linearly spaced.

Fun aside, adding something acidic to soil will reduce the intial pH. But why worry about those minor changes in pH as long as the plants are healthy. There is a nice shair which I can say on behalf of plants:

"Azeez itna hee rakho ke jee bay-hel jaye
Abb itna bhee na chaa-ho kay dam nikal jaye"

Regards,
Farooq

[Izhar]

Farooq, thank you for correcting me, may be i misinterpreted the information which i read here http://www.nda.ox.ac.uk/wfsa/html/u13/u1312_01.htm
and you have rightly used that shair here.. we dont have to be so peculiar about the pH, this chart will help understanding that under a certain range of pH most of the nutrients are available to the roots:

[M Farooq]

Farooq, thank you for correcting me, may be i misinterpreted the information which i read here http://www.nda.ox.ac.uk/wfsa/html/u13/u1312_01.htm
and you have rightly used that shair here.. :mrgreen: we dont have to be so peculiar about the pH, this chart will help understanding that under a certain range of pH most of the nutrients are available to the roots:

You are right, the examples described in that link can easily lead to misinterpretation (although they are correct). Very nice chart which makes good sense. They show most metals are available between pH 6 to 7, which is perfect. I think this chart must be publicized in a different post because I see many gardeners are concerned about soil pH.

However it seems there is a mistake when they say ammonium ion is available at a higher pH 7.5 to 10. Most of the ammonium ions will vanish as ammonia gas in air at higher pH. And if you recall ammonium fertilizers are acidifying. I am not sure why they state it.

[Syed Adnan]

Thankyou Izhar and farooq, nice knowledge sharing,being an Enginner i always think technical never started anything without having prepared , actually my plants have shown sign of lack of nutrients because the leaf growth is good bbut flowering is less, this has been proven by the tests that Potassium is low in soil as well as PH is higher which is not supporting the addedd Ptassium to be absorbed .thanks .