Is Soil Ph In Hardwoods Acidic Or Alkaline

Garden plants typically grow best in neutral or slightly acid soil ph 7 or slightly below.

Is soil ph in hardwoods acidic or alkaline.

Because it s a logarithmic scale each jump is a ten fold increase so a soil with a ph of 5 is 10 times more acidic than. See illustration at left. While a soil ph around 6 5 is often considered ideal for plants many trees can grow well at soil ph values above 7. The ph scale indicates acidity or alkalinity.

Hundred times as acidic as a ph of 7. A soil with a ph number below 7 is acid while one with a ph above 7 is alkaline. The university of california advises that the accuracy of soil ph readings is plus or minus 0 5 ph units. In other words your 7 5 soil may be anywhere between 7 0 and 8 0.

Before delving into what causes soils to become acid or alkaline and the steps to take to treat and correct soil ph we must first establish what is considered an optimal ph for crop production. For plants that are especially sensitive to ph such as red maples an increase in ph from 6 0 to 6 5 can be enough to induce nutrient problems. Soil ph is a key factor in farmland as it controls availability of nutrients microbial activity and crop productivity. For us lay people it s enough to know that soil ph is a measure of how acidic or alkaline our soil is.

What happens when soil ph is too high.