Quick PH Soil Test

[vfem]

In a rush to get your garden started, and don't want to buy a fancy kit to test your Ph? I found this little tip online:

"When youre itching to start your garden right away, heres the quick and easy way:

* For acidic soil: Baking soda mixed with wet soil sample will froth.
* For alkaline soil: A few drops of cider vinegar on a soil sample will fizz."

 

[thistlebloom]

Hmmm...handy! Thanks Vfem!

 

[journey11]

Cool, I'm gonna go check my blueberry patch!

 

[thistlebloom]

I just went out and got two soil samples. I took them from the edge of my new potato patch, soil that until this season only grew weeds. I have not amended it, except to apply fishbone meal and a small amount of kelp down the furrow at planting. I have fertilized once with an organic 5-5-5 that was soaked overnight in a 5 gallon bucket of water that I applied at about 1 cup per plant. Anyway, the samples I took probably contained little to none of this since it was taken from the edge.
So the baking soda one fizzed a very little (may not have added enough- only a pinch) and the vinegar one didn't foam, but when I held it to my ear I could hear a little bubbly sound.
My guess is that my soil is probably in the upper 6ish range, close to neutral. I need to get a sample to the extension one of these years here so I know just what I'm dealing with.
It would be an interesting comparison to my main gardens soil that has been amended for several years.
That was fun!