SOIL PH

[Muhammad Arif Khan]

Sir, what kind of wood we should use for these wood chips and from where we can get these(wood chips) in Lahore.

Regards
Nasir

The above post was part reproduction of an article in my collection. The wood chips are extensively used in USA and are freely available there. I have used the shavings from carpenter shop but do so no more.
Arif

[Syed Adnan]

I dont think adding wood is a good idea as it will take up Nitrogen from soil to get itself decomposed, it will starved the soil from nutrients, iam using vinegar for my pots just one tea spoon in a liter of water works fine for container gardening.

[Muhammad Arif Khan]

I dont think adding wood is a good idea as it will take up Nitrogen from soil to get itself decomposed, it will starved the soil from nutrients, iam using vinegar for my pots just one tea spoon in a liter of water works fine for container gardening.

One of the reasons I am not using it any more,
One tea spoon of vinegar in a liter of water to a 14 inch pot will lower the PH by how much?

[Munir]

LOWERING PH OF SOIL
Two materials commonly used for lowering the soil pH are aluminium sulphate and sulphur. These can be found at a garden supply centre.

I have had problem finding various chemicals/fertilizer formulations/nutrients often mentioned in our discussions, in the garden supply stores in Rawalpindi/Islamabad ( main & oldest being Awan Seeds Store),other than common ones,ie. Urea, DAP, NPK(only 1-3 ratios)& Potash-that too in their own unlabeled packets. May be those used for agriculture( crops/orchards)also are sold at Agriculture Stores, but I am not sure about what all they sell. Therefore, these questions:
. Where to find these,including Ammonium (?) Sulphate & Sulphur,mentioned above ? At some chemicals/scientific stores?
. What are the various common fertilizers,besides Urea,DAP & NAP(20-20-20) sold in other main markets,eg Lahore; any off hand listing?
. Is it possible to prepare some of the formulations as DIY, eg various NPK ratios etc ?
. You had probably mentioned in the past about preparing own fertilizer formulations.Kindly mention its link,if you can remember.

You can use the following tables to calculate the application rates for both the aluminium/Iron sulphate and the sulphur. The rates are in pounds per 10 square feet for a loamy soil. Reduce the rate by one-third for sandy soils and increase by one-half for clays.

Pounds of Aluminium/Iron Sulphate to Lower the pH
Present pH Desired pH
XXX6.5 6.0 5.5 5.0 4.5
8.0 1.8 2.4 3.3 4.2 4.8 Pounds/10 square feet
7.5 1.2 2.1 2.7 3.6 4.2
7.0 0.6 1.2 2.1 3.0 3.6
6.5 - 0.6 1.5 2.4 2.7
6.0 - - 0.6 1.5 2.1

6.5 - 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4
6.0 - - 0.1 0.2 0.3
...................................................................................

Difficult to understand so many figures in one line; could they be labelled/explained please?

[Muhammad Arif Khan]

Sorry sir this forum site changes the pattern of my presentation squeezing them in one line. I have wasted a lot of time to re-do it but have failed the result is always the same.
The first horizontal line is the Desired PH 6.5, 6.0, 5.5, 5.0, and 4.5, below it the vertical line on extreme left is your present PH, in front of that is the pounds of iron sulphate required under each desired PH.
If your soil PH is 8.0 and you want to change it to 6.5 then you must add 1.8 pounds of Iron Sulphate per 10 square feet but if you want to change it to 5.5 then you should add 3.3 pouds. Same is for the Sulphur.

[Izhar]

[Munir]

Thank you Izhar for coming to our rescue.

[Muhammad Arif Khan]

Thank you for coming to my rescue once again.
How is it done?
Arif

[Syed Adnan]

I dont think adding wood is a good idea as it will take up Nitrogen from soil to get itself decomposed, it will starved the soil from nutrients, iam using vinegar for my pots just one tea spoon in a liter of water works fine for container gardening.

One of the reasons I am not using it any more,
One tea spoon of vinegar in a liter of water to a 14 inch pot will lower the PH by how much?

Normally after 2 Vinegar waterings the PH reduced to 1, like I have Callas and in a month I gave them 2 waterings, after measuring the PH reduced from 7.5 to 6.5, Callas do love acidic soils. But a regular Vinegar watering is to be maintained to keep ph at this level.

[Izhar]

Thank you for coming to my rescue once again.
How is it done?
Arif

I just copied it in MS-Word, did some arrangement, took the screenshot, uploaded the screenshot in my photobucket and posted it here..