hello I'm Malcolm Campell I've been
working as a professional Gardener for
well over 40 years in that time I've
learned to Value the benefits of testing
soil PH it measures the degree of
acidity or alkalinity in soil and it's
critical for the nutrient uptake because
plants growing in an alkaline soil when
they actually need neutral acidic
conditions to thrive have to be
conditioned otherwise the fertilizers
you're putting on just gets locked up
and you're wasting money it's a very
simple test and I'll show you
how take a sample ideally about a
tablespoonful and from that remove all
of the organic materials because they
can skew your reading towards an acidic
reading that should be enough for the
test
to make it easier for gardeners menu
Tech have produced a soil pH test kit
and we use a small sample of soil that
we've just taken from the garden break
up any lumps using the supplied
stick that's looking
good and then add a few drops of the
indicator liquid
first and then mix it well to make a
thick sort of
paste yeah it's about
perfect yeah looking good then sprinkle
with the white barium powder from the
puffer
bottle that should be enough and then
leave it for about a minute to develop
the
color this color chart which has to be
kept in the dark by the way otherwise
the colors will fade it needs to be
compared to the color of the sample so
that you can see this one's in the
alkaline range very alkaline in fact
right there that's about 8 ph8 yeah
that's what you'd expect
in vegetable beds with a fairly High
nutrient load the pH readings you can
expect will be quite different we take a
sample near the root Zone just like that
and uh remove any organic materials cuz
they can skewer your
reading then with the sample on the
plate on goes the indicator dye first
just add enough to make a thick paste
with a stick supplied like that
yeah it looks as go and then a puff from
the barium
powder that should be enough leave it
for a minute and now you can see the
color coming up into the green zone I'd
say it's about ph6 and a half just
perfect for growing
vegetables a lawn best tested when the
lawn's in growth and dig the roots up
just like this and then if that's from
the root Zone where all the activity
takes place discard any organic
materials cuz they can once again skew
the reading that should be enough and
with the sample on goes the indicator D
liquid mix it with the stick
supplied it's a nice thick past that's
the go and then using the barri and
puffer I'll leave it for a minute that's
definitely in the alkaline range and
that's ph8
if you go onto the web and look up soil
PH testing.com you'll see this
particular chart on the importance of
soil PH in nutrient uptake it's quite
self-evident that in the neutral pH
range you can see most nutrients are
readily available to your plants in the
acidic range uh we got a few nutrients
that are not taken up here and over in
the alkaline area there's a few elements
also not available so it's really
important to know your soil pH is
optimal for the plants growing to be at
their
best particular lawn we tested the soil
and it's alkaline we can remedy that
towards neutral using sulfur products uh
a few different sizes in the range and
mostly applied when the lawn is in a
state of
growth if your soils are acidic you need
to remedy that with one of these two
forms of lime Dolomite lime is high in
magnesium which is normally deficient on
very acidic soils so that's a preferred
option there or use Garden lime as an
alternative on mildly acidic soil