Wednesday 30 September 2015

DIY Kit News

As per the information collected from the Officer, Horticulture Department TN Govt., there is no confirmed order from the government regarding issue of DIY Kit and the procedure. I will update on this issue next week I.e. 1st week of Oct. 2015


Date: 30-11-2015

DIY Kit is being issued at Gov horticulture department office, Madhavaram milk colony, Madhavaram

Contents of one kit worth Rs 500.

1.  GROW BAG WITH COCOPEAT 2 KG BLOCK -6 NOS. 
2. SEEDS BHENDIARAKEERAI.MULAIKEERAI. SEDI AVARAI. RADDISH. PALAK KEERAI. CORIANDER )
3. AZOSPIRILLUM 200GM. 
4. PHOSPHOBACTEREA 200 GM
5. PSEUDOMUNAS 100GM. 
6. TROCODERMAVIRIDI 100GM
7.  WATER SOLUBLEFERTILIZER 1 KG. 
8. NEEM OIL 100 ML. 
9. PAMPHLET 

Tuesday 29 September 2015

How to get rid of Ants


Even though ants play a critical role to the environment, ants can also become pests as well when they invade your garden in large numbers seeking shelter and food. An ant invasion is the last thing you might want in your garden as this can really have some very serious consequences. In most cases, gardeners will reach out for intense chemicals and pesticides to eradicate them. Pest control using chemicals is potentially harmful and it is essential that you think about alternative ways of getting rid of ants from your garden. Ants however do good things to the environment to some extent such as eating the larva of spiders, fleas, fleas, bed bugs, clothes months and silverfish. So, while you are planning to get rid of ants from your garden, it is essential that you consider controlling them rather than complete elimination. For the ants that you need to get rid off from your garden, there are some natural, effective and easy ways of warding them off from your garden. These offer you a more economical, environmentally friendly approach of getting rid of ants and ensuring that your garden stays ant free as described here below:

1. Use Vinegar

Ants use their antennae to perceive smells which helps them determine not only the direction of the scents but also its intensity as well. If forager ants find food in your garden, they will mark a trail which leads them to the colony and many other ants follow the trail to access the food. By making use of white vinegar on the paths that you know are followed by the ants, you will be able to disrupt their scent trains. This makes it quite hard for them to be able to travel back to the source of food they have been invading in your garden. To do so, just mix the vinegar with some water and spray around your garden everywhere you find the ant trails.



2. Use sidewalk chalks

If you are a keen observer, you might have seen that ants do not mix with sidewalk chalk. As such, this gives you a natural solution to keeping the ants at bay from your garden. When ants stumble on the chalk, the white stuff covers them on their body. It is also said that the minerals found in the sidewalk chalk like talc kills the ants and thus offering you an ideal way of eliminating the ants from your garden. However, this option is more effective when it is combined with another method.



3. Ant honey plates/pots

Getting rid of ants from your garden completely might not always be an easy thing as most of the methods you could be using to exterminate them might not just be working. In such a case, a better idea would be try diversion which might probably work to your favor. If the colony seems to have set up a camp at your home, diversion can help minimize their disastrous effects on your garden. By laying a honey plates/pots somewhere else, the ants will know that they have a much better source of food than struggling to get some from your garden. Once you clean up their scent trails and use some deterrent on the entrances, you can be sure that the ants will stay for a long time without creeping back to your garden.


4. Using essential oil entrance blockers

Ants are known to dislike strong smells very much because they greatly mess up their communication and scent trails. As if this is not enough, essential oils cover their bodies when they are crawling through it and you can take advantage of this to get rid of ants from your garden. It is even advisable that you try experimenting with different blends of oils to find out which ones works best in your garden. Focus more on spraying the essential oil on the entrance areas which ants use when finding their way into your garden. Keep repeating as the scent continues to fade and you will be able to keep them at bay from your garden.


5. Ant balls

When it comes to a point where spraying the essential oil solution doesn't seem to work, it is essential that you think about busting the ant balls out. Use of cotton balls as a barrier for keeping away ants from your home can be very effective. However, place the cotton balls in a place in your garden where your pets will not see them as a snack and feast on them.


Items Needed

1/2 cup of sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons Borax(Borax, also known as sodium borate, sodium tetraborate, or disodium tetraborate, is an important boron compound, a mineral, and a salt of boric acid. Powdered borax is white, consisting of soft colorless crystals that dissolve easily in water)

1 1/2 cups warm water

Cotton balls or paper towel

Instructions

1. Mix the Borax and sugar together until well combined.

2. Add the mixture to your warm water and mix constantly until the powder has been completely dissolved.

3. Seal the mixture in a jar or container for future use, and use only what you need in the next steps (and save the rest).  It is important that you clearly label the jar, as it will just look like water.  Do not leave this where children can get to it.  (Because this is such an easy solution to make, however, I only kept what I made until after the ants had been gone for a week or more.)

4. Fill some jar lids, milk caps, or other shallow containers with cotton balls or a wad of paper towel.

5. Add the sugar-Borax solution to the prepared lids making sure to soak the cotton balls (or paper towel).


6. Use boiling water and soap

Sometimes, the only way to keep your garden free of ants is by   killing them. If you realize that there is a big nest of ants at your garden, killing them instantly might be the most ideal way. In this regard, use of hot water is the most effective way to eradicate such ants in a non toxic way.



7. Avoid storing unused red soil




Final tip is not to store unused red soil in your garden area.  Ants like red soil very much to make their homes.






8. Other googled recipes

In  a blender add 4-5 hot peppers along with vinegar and dish soap.  Then strain the ingredients. Now add vegetable oil to the mix and shake well to emulsify it. Add required amount of water and spray on the ants. That's it.  But see that you should not spray on plants.

Please leave your comments which recipe has worked you well to benefit other user.




Source: Various internet sites. books & personal experience

Thursday 24 September 2015

Importance of Nitrogen and fixation

Your garden is not growing as well as it use to and some of the plants in the garden are starting to look a little yellow. You suspect a nitrogen deficiency in the soil, but you are unsure how to correct it. "Why do plants need nitrogen anyway?" you may be wondering.

Nitrogen as a plant fertilizer is essential to proper plant growth. Without nitrogen, a plant cannot makes the proteins, amino acids and even its very DNA. This is why when there is a nitrogen deficiency in the soil, plants are stunted. They simply cannot make their own cells. In order for plants to use the nitrogen in the air, it must be converted in some way to nitrogen in the soil. This can happen through nitrogen fixation, or nitrogen can be "recycled" by composting plants and manure.

Organically Fixing a Nitrogen Deficiency in the Soil:

To correct a nitrogen deficiency using organic methods requires time, but will result in a more even distribution of the added nitrogen over time. Some organic methods of adding nitrogen to the soil include:

Adding composted manure to the soil

Planting a green manure crop

Green manure is a term used to describe specific plant or crop varieties that are grown and turned into the soil to improve its overall quality. A green manure crop can be cut and then plowed into the soil or simply left in the ground for an extended period prior to tilling garden areas. Examples of green manure crops include grass mixtures and legume plants. Some of the most commonly used are:

⁃ Annual ryegrass
⁃ Vetch
⁃ Clover
⁃ Peas
⁃ Beans
⁃ Borage
⁃ Mulch with leaves

Adding coffee grounds to the soil - Coffee grounds are about 2 percent nitrogen by volume, making them an excellent addition togarden soil.

Grass clippings are a free and easy way to add nitrogen and potassium to the soil.


Source : Various internet sites & books

Wednesday 23 September 2015

Tomato Growing

Tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum) are the most popular home garden crop in the country. Highly adaptable and easy to grow, tomatoes can thrive in a wide range of climates and conditions. Of course, like any garden vegetable, tomatoes need the right type of soil to produce the best crop.

Types and Textures

Loam and sandy loam soils are best for tomato production, but these plants will grow in almost all soil types except heavy clay. If your soil has lots of clay, you can improve the texture by tilling the soil and incorporating sand, sawdust, peat moss or other amendments before planting. The soil should be fairly loose and well-drained. Tomatoes don't do well in dry soil, but avoid planting them in excessively wet, waterlogged soil, or anywhere standing water gathers after a rain.

Soil pH

The pH scale is used to characterize the acidity or alkalinity of your soil. When starting a new garden, it's best to start with a soil test. You can purchase home pH testers from the market that are adequate for determining your soil's pH level, if you don't want to send it out for testing. Most soils are slightly acidic, that is, slightly less than pH 7, which is neutral.



Tomatoes grow best in soils that are just slightly acidic, from a pH of 5.5 to 6.8

It's not difficult to modify your soil's pH level. To know more about how to alter your soil pH click here.

Germination

First select the tomato seeds which suits to your locality. Place the seeds in a paper cups and cover them with a loose layer of dry soil. You can also use seedling trays.



Alternatively you can cut the ripe tomatoes in slices and place it in a grow bag/pots and cover them with lose layer of dry soil.



Sprinkle water on it for a few days and you will see the seedlings sprouting. Once they are over an inch tall, cut the paper cup away and replant the seedlings in the pots you have prepared. Plant only one seedling per pot.

Sun Light and Watering

Keep your tomato plant to a place where the sunlight is available in plenty. The fruit formation equires at least 5-6 hours of direct sunlight.

Tomato plant requires plenty of water specially during summers. Do not wet the leaves or the stem of the plant. Always put water directly into the soil near the roots. Tomatoes are particularly susceptible to many pests and diseases. Horn-worms, Aphids, white-flies are few of the pests which can reduce the production of tomatoes. Late blight(specially during monsoon) and distorted leaves are the common diseases to the plant. It is always wise to plant basil, marigold, lettuce, onion, garlic etc. along with your tomato plant. It will help in distracting little pests from your tomato plant. This type of planting is called companion planting.

Support

Tomato plants need support for growth. You need to build cage or stakes at the time of planting. Staking keeps fruits off the ground whereas cage help the plant to hold its upright.

Improving Fruit Growth

Take out any shoot that grows between the stem and main branches, these shoots always hinder the fruit growth. With the same logic cut off the top of the plant if it grows vertically. It will help the plant to become more bushy with much more fruits. It is not necessary to do this. It depends upon the type of plants you grow.



Mulching

Mulching is simply spreading a protective layer of a material on top of the soil. Mulches can either be organic -- such as leaves, grass clippings, straw, bark, and similar materials -- or inorganic -- such as stones, brick chips, and plastic. For long term soil improvement use organic mulches, which have numerous benefits. It retards weeds, helps retain moisture, and most importantly improves the soil condition as it slowly breaks down, loosening the soil and adding nutrients.



Tomato Blossom Drop



Blossom drop is the loss of flowers. This is usually preceded by the yellowing of the pedicel. A tomato flower has both male (stamens) and female (pistil) parts within the same flower. The yellow stamens wrap around the greenish pistil in the center of the flower. Under proper conditions, pollen from the stamens transfers to the sticky stigma or tip of the pistil. This transfer requires a jarring wind or a flick of the finger or insects such as bumble bees and other native bees.

Tomato blossoms are self fertile, and a certain amount of self pollination of tomato flowers does occur. But pollen does not move well by itself from anther to stigma, as evidenced by the really poor pollination seen in greenhouses when no pollination aid is given. But shaking by wind or mechanical means can cause the release of the pollen, which drops down (the blossoms normally hanging downward) through the stamen tube to the stigma. The best possible motion to release this pollen is from a bee that "sonicates" Sonication is the vibration of the wing muscles without flight, causing the whole flower to vibrate, and a cloud of pollen to be released onto the bee's body and at the same time, onto the stigma.



Without pollination, which stimulates fruit set, the flower withers and dies.



Tomato plants lose their blossoms for several different reasons:
Environmental causes:
1. Temperature: Extreme temperature such as high daytime temperatures (above 85 o F/29 o C), or high nighttime temperatures (above 70 o F/21 C), or low nighttime temperatures (Below 55 o F/13 o C) tomato plants will drop the flowers. Tomatoes grow best if daytime temperatures range between 70 o F/21 o C and 85 o F/29 o C. 

2. Humidity: The ideal humidity range is between 40 70%. If humidity is either too high or too low, it interferes with the release of pollen and with pollen’s ability to stick to the stigma. So pollination will not occur. If humidity is too low, hose the foliage during the day. This will both cool the plant and raise the humidity. This is not recommended in areas with high humidity or when fungus diseases are present.

Other potential sources of blossom drop:

1. Lack of pollination
2. Nitrogen: High or low application rates of N fertilizer can cause blossom drop.
3. Lack of water: Tomatoes have very deep roots, and can sometimes reach down up to 5 feet. Shallow watering will stress and weaken the plants.
4. Insect damage or disease
5. Heavy fruit set: When a tomato plant has too many blossoms, the resulting fruits are all competing for the limited food supplied by the crop. The plant will automatically abort some flowers. Once the initial crop is harvested, the problem should subside.


Source : Compiled from various gardening sites, books & learned from personal experience.



Saturday 19 September 2015

Raising or Lowering the pH in the Soil Mix

Growing in soil and adjusting pH levels

A lot of gardeners have trouble with the pH of their soil. A high pH can lock out needed nutrients and mimic other problems like Fe and Mg deficiencies. The biggest mistake new growers make is to try and correct pH problems too quickly. The first step in determining if high pH is the real problem, is to pick up a good pH tester. Don't be afraid to shell out the cash for a good one, it's well worth it!

What is pH, and what do the terms acidic and alkaline mean?

The acidity or alkalinity of the soil is measured by pH (potential Hydrogen ions). Basically it's a measure of the amount of lime (calcium) contained in your soil, and the type of soil that you have. A soil with a pH lower than 7.0 is an acidic soil and one with a pH higher than 7.0 is considered to be alkaline. A pH of 7.0 is neutral.

Adjusting your soil pH :

Once you have determined the pH of your soil with a good tester, you can amend the soil if needed to accommodate the plants in your garden using inexpensive materials commonly available at your local garden center.

Adjust soil pH slowly over several days time, and check pH often as you go. Radical changes in pH may cause osmotic shock damage to the roots.

Raising soil pH : (to make it more alkaline)

It is generally easier to make soil mixes more alkaline than it is to make them more acidic. The addition of dolomite lime, hardwood ash, bone meal, crushed marble, or crushed oyster shells will help to raise the soil pH.

In soil: add dolomite limestone to the soil; use small amounts of hydrated lime.

Raising hydroponic pH : (to make it more alkaline)

In hydroponics: use potassium silicate, provides silicon at an effective dosage. In bioponics/hydro-organics: add small amounts of sodium bicarbonate or lime.

Lowering soil pH : (to make it more acidic)

If your soil needs to be more acidic, sawdust, composted leaves, wood chips, cottonseed meal, leaf mold and especially peat moss, will lower the soil pH.

bloodmeal/cottonseed meal during vegetative; bonemeal during flowering.

Lowering hydroponic pH : (to make it more acidic)

In hydroponics: use nitric acid during vegetative; phosphoric acid during flowering.

Stabilizing pH with Dolomite lime:

The best way to stable pH is by adding 30 gms of Dolomite Lime to around 5 kg of planting soil. Buy the fine Dolomite powder (There may be several kinds of Dolomite like Rough, Medium, Fine) Dolomite Lime has been a useful pH stabilizer for years, since it has a neutral pH of 7 when added to your soil it stabilizes your soil at pH 7.Mix the dry soil medium and dolomite together really well, give the mix a good watering then after the water has had chance to settle and leech into the soil a bit give the mix a really good stir. Then water the soil/lime mix and give it another stir. Best plan is to mix fine dolomite lime into your mix before planting. Fine Dolomite will help stabilize your pH; however, if the ph becomes unstable or changes, you can then use Hydrated Dolomite Lime. Add some of the hydrated lime to luke warm water and give it a good stir then water your plants with it. Give the plants a good watering with this hydrated lime added and your pH should fall or rise back to 7.

Dolomite lime is also high in two secondary nutes that can often be overlooked by fertilizers; dolomite is high in both (Mg) Magnesium and (Ca) Calcium.


Friday 18 September 2015

My Garden Sep 2015







First Ridge Gourd & Pomegranate of the season






First Cucumber of the season in my TG


This photos I posted in Chennai Terrace Gardeners' Forum in Facebook, showing how the Hibiscus was on 3.8.2015, when it was fully affected with Mealy Bugs and on 3.9.2015, it fully recovered after giving kerosene treatment.





Vallarai, Mudakkathan, Pasalai Keerai, Palak & Brinjal



Palasalai Keerai, cucumber & brinjal



Ridge Gourd, Brinjal & cucumber 



Agathi Keerai, Brinjal, Kaaramani & Palak





Pests & Control Methods


Now there is growing demand for non-chemical means for controlling diseases, insects, and other pests. Allergic reactions to chemicals, a desire to grow purely organic vegetables, or protection for young children are all reasons to use non-chemical controls for pests. If used correctly, non-chemical pest controls can be very effective in keeping your garden healthy.
VFNT Seeds: The easiest way to avoid disease problems is to choose varieties of vegetables that are resistant to disease. Over the years, many disease-resistant vegetable varieties have been developed. You'll notice that seed packages and catalog descriptions of some vegetable varieties include V, F, N, and T in the name. These abbreviations indicate disease resistance that has been bred into the variety. V and F stand for verticillium and fusarium wilts, which are fungi that cause tomato plants to turn yellow, wilt, and die. N indicates nematode tolerance. Nematodes are tiny parasitic worms that cause knots on stems and roots of vegetables. Tobacco mosaic virus, indicated by a T, affects foliage by yellowing and curling; it also causes severe root damage.
Water Early: If you water your plants with a from overhead, it's best to water early in the day so plants can dry off before night falls. Foliage that stays wet for long periods of time is susceptible to leaf diseases, fungi that grow on leaves, tender stems, and flower buds. This tends to be a problem when plants stay wet throughout the night: Fungi spread quickly during the cool, moist evening hours. The fungi will cause the plant to be weakened, flowers will fall off, and fruit will begin to spot and become soft.

Crop Rotation: Do not grow the same plant family in the same spot year after year. Repetition of the same crop gives diseases a chance to build up strength. Design your plan so that each family of vegetables --cabbage family, cucumber family, and tomato/pepper family -- can be moved to another block of your garden on a three-year rotation.

Paper Collar

You may notice one morning that a couple of healthy young plants have keeled over and died. This is a pretty sure indication that cutworms are present. Feeding at night and hiding during the day, cutworms are most destructive early in the season, cutting off transplants at ground level. To prevent the cutworm from finding your cabbages, peppers, and tomatoes, wrap each stem with a paper or thin cardboard collar as you transplant it into the garden. The collar should reach at least one inch below and one inch above the soil level. In time, the collar will disintegrate; by then the danger of cutworm damage will have passed.

Beer: A Handy Bait

Snails and slugs pose a problem for many garden plants, especially during seasons with plenty of rain and rich, succulent growth. Lettuce and potatoes are especially susceptible to slug damage: Irregular holes will be found in the leaves. Snails and slugs feed mostly at night, hiding from the hot sun.
One way to control these pests is to remove the places where they hide; but if you're using mulch in the garden and supplying plants with the moisture they need, you're still likely to find snails and slugs. Although commercial baits are available, shallow pans of beer placed throughout the garden will attract and drown the pests.

Beneficial Insects

Not all insects in the garden are pests. Most are benign residents, and some are actually beneficial, providing a means to control insect pests. Insects such as ladybugs, lacewing flies, and praying mantises feed on bugs that are destructive to your crops. You should protect them when you find them in your garden. Harmless to your garden plants, these useful insects gorge on aphids, beetles, caterpillars, grasshoppers and other bothersome insects.


Sources : http://home.howstuffworks.com/organic-pest-control-for-a-vegetable-garden.htm

Changing Soil pH

Changing Soil pH to Match Plant Needs 

If your spinach is spindly and your tomatoes are troubled, changing soil pH may help. “pH” refers to potential hydrogen, or the hydrogen ion concentration of soil. pH is a measure of soil acidity.  

The pH scale ranges from 1 to 14. It’s a logarithmic scale, like the Richter scale to measure earthquakes. A soil with a pH of 6 is ten times more acidic than a soil with a pH of 7.  Neutral pH is 7.0. A soil with a pH lower than 7 is an acidic soil. A soil with pH higher than 7 is an alkaline soil. Soil acidity determines the availability of mineral nutrients for your vegetables. In alkaline soils, phosphorous, iron, and zinc are limited. In acidic soil, calcium and magnesium are less available to plants. 

  
Lowering Soil pH  |  Buffering Soil pH  |  Raising Soil pH 
  
Soil pH varies by up to half a point over the year. Soil pH tends to be higher (more alkaline) when the soil is cool, and lower (more acidic) in summer, when increased bacterial activity in warmer weather has an acidifying effect on soil. Factor this in when changing soil pH. Garden soil pH is usually neutral to slightly acidic, pH 6.5-7.0. This also happens to be the ideal soil pH for vegetables. 

However, if you want to really tweak performance: 

Green, leafy vegetables (like spinach and lettuce), cruciferous vegetables (like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and kale), and other Winter Vegetables prefer a more alkaline soil, pH 7.0-7.2. 

Fruiting plants, like nightshades (tomatoes, peppers, eggplants) and cucurbits (cucumbers, melons, squash) prefer a more acidic soil, pH 6.0-6.8. See  Summer Vegetables for more information on the preferences of these summer favorites 

Adding organic matter is an indirect method of soil pH adjustment. Organic matter “buffers” soil, especially sandy soil.  The higher the organic matter content of a soil, the more lime it takes to raise the soil pH 1 point, and the more sulfur it takes to lower the soil pH 1 point. 

Plants grown in soil with a lot of organic matter have healthier roots. They’re able to extract enough nutrients from the soil even when the pH isn’t optimal.  In a healthy soil with adequate organic matter, changing soil pH may not be necessary, because plants continue to grow at pH levels that would stunt growth in leaner soils.  

When you increase soil organic matter, you’re not really changing soil pH, you’re increasing your plants’ tolerance for acidic or alkaline conditions. For information on increasing soil organic matter, see how to improving Garden Soil. 

Lowering Soil pH 

Why would you want to lower soil pH?  

If soil pH testing indicates your soil is greater than 7.0, you have an alkaline soil, and changing soil pH may be called for, depending on what you’re growing.  As soil acidity increases, minerals like phosphorous, iron, and zinc become more available. 

In alkaline soils, these minerals—especially iron and zinc—are bound up and less available. Fruiting plants like tomatoes, peppers, squash, and melons need these minerals to flower and set fruit. Soil acidification also makes life more difficult for many weeds. Weeds are early successional plants that evolved in thin, alkaline soils. In acidic soils, many weeds are weaker competitors.  

Ways to Lower Soil pH (Make Soil Acidic) 

Soil pH can be lowered by half a point—from 7.0 to 6.5, for example—by increasing soil nitrogen. Adding compost, manure, or organic soil amendments like alfalfa meal to the soil can help drop pH over time by increasing bacterial populations.  

There's a myth that coffee grounds (2-0-0) are a quick fix for lowering soil pH. Most of the organic acids in coffee are water-soluble, and flush out into the brew. Coffee grounds have a pH around 6.8, close to neutral, so they won't do much to lower pH. They do add a little nitrogen, so they can help reduce pH over time, just like manure or compost.  

If you need to drop soil pH more quickly, try watering your plants with leftover (cold) coffee, diluted 50-50 with water. This works especially well for houseplants and container vegetables. To lower soil pH by larger amounts (more than half a point), use Elemental Sulfur, sometimes called “Flowers of Sulfur”.   

When using sulfur for changing soil pH, be aware that the acidifying effect depends on soil bacteria (thiobacillius), which oxidize the sulfur and release dilute sulfuric acid into the soil over a period of weeks to months.   

Because the acidifying effect of sulfur depends on soil bacteria: 

The sulfur must be dispersed through the soil to be in contact with these bacteria. Make sure you mix the sulfur thoroughly into the soil. Otherwise, there will be strongly acidic areas around blobs of sulfur, and no effect elsewhere in the soil.  

Sulfur only works during the summer, when the soil is warm and bacterial activity is at its highest. 

Sulfur is not a quick-fix for changing soil pH. After application there is a delay of several weeks to several months before soil bacteria break down the sulfur to acidify the soil. 

Elemental sulfur is acceptable as an organic soil amendment for changing soil pH under National Organic Program (NOP) guidelines. 

When using elemental sulphur for changing soil pH, it's best to divide the amount to be applied to achieve the desired drop into 2 or 3 applications over the entire season, instead of a single application. Applications should be 6-8 weeks apart. 

NOTE: Application amounts in the table below apply to loam soil. 2.4 lbs of elemental sulphur (per 100 square feet) will drop loam soil pH by 1 point. 

  • For Clay Soil, INCREASE amounts by half (50%). 
  • For Sandy Soil DECREASE amounts by one-third (33%). 

 Present Soil pH 
 To pH 6.5 
 To pH 6.0 
 To pH 5.5 
 To pH 5.0 
 To pH 4.5 
8.0 
3.6 lbs 
4.8 lbs 
6.0 lbs 
7.2 lbs 
8.4 lbs 
7.5 
2.4 lbs 
3.6 lbs 
4.8 lbs 
6.0 lbs 
7.2 lbs 
7.0 
1.2 lbs 
2.4 lbs 
3.6 lbs 
4.8 lbs 
6.0 lbs 
6.5 
--- 
1.2 lbs 
2.4 lbs 
3.6 lbs 
4.8 lbs 
6.0 
--- 
--- 
1.2 lbs 
2.4 lbs 
3.6 lbs 
Pounds of Elemental Sulfur Needed for Reducing Soil pH  
(100 square feet of Soil 6” Deep, LOAM soil) 

NOTE : 1.2 lbs is around 543 gms. 

Raising Soil pH 

Why would you want to raise soil pH? 

If you’re growing fall or cool-season vegetables, these green, leafy vegetables perform better in soils with a slightly higher pH, between 6.8 and 7.5. 

Ways to Make Soil More Alkaline (Reduce Acidity) 

Dolomite Lime, (calcium magnesium carbonate), is the most common soil amendment for raising soil pH (reducing acidity). It’s used by both organic and conventional farmers, but should Not be used in soils with adequate or excess magnesium.  

Plants need magnesium in small amounts, and excess magnesium stunts and kills vegetables. Where a soil test indicates adequate or high magnesium levels, use an alternate calcium source for changing soil pH.  

The following table provides application rates according to soil textural type:  

 Soil Texture Type 
 Raise pH 1 pt (4.5 to 5.5) 
 Raise pH 2 pts (5.5 to 6.5) 
Sandy & Loamy Sand 
2.3 lbs 
2.75 lbs 
Sandy Loam 
3.6 lbs 
5.9 lbs 
Loam 
5.5 lbs 
7.8 lbs 
Silt Loam 
6.9 lbs 
9.1 lbs 
Clay Loam 
8.7 lbs 
10.5 lbs 
Muck 
17.4 lbs 
19.7 lbs 
Pounds of LIME Needed for Changing soil pH  
(100 square feet of Soil 7” Deep) 

NOTE : 1.2 lbs is around 543 gms. 

You can see the buffering effect of soil organic matter in the table above. As organic matter increases with each soil textural class, the amount of lime needed for changing soil pH increases significantly.  

The same thing happens when you’re lowering soil pH with sulfur. The heavier your soil, the more sulfur it takes to drop the pH 1 point.  

Clay and loam soils give you more wiggle room when changing soil pH. Sandy soils, not so much.  

Where dolomite lime may create magnesium toxicity, use any of the following alternative calcium sources instead:  

Ground Oyster Shell (1-2 lbs/ 100 sq ft) 
Dried, Crushed Eggshells (1-0.4-0), a kitchen byproduct, are a great source of calcium and a good method of changing soil pH to reduce acidity. (1-2 lbs/ 100 sq ft) 
Hardwood Ashes Short-term soil pH adjustment. (Use up to 1.5 lbs/ 100 sq ft.) 
Calcite (high-calcium lime). Use up to 1.5 lbs/ 100 sq ft. 




source : www.grow-it-organically.com