Where are you located?

Karen,

Lime will raise the pH, so that's not what you want. You want some sort of sulfur, more likely, though people who live in areas that need that sort of thing will be better able to help you.

'The test with 4 little bottles'.

These results may or may not be indicative of your soil mineral content. Search this forum for 'home test kit'.

Your package will have directions - read them, as they will tell you what to add to lower pH according to your soil type (you must do an additional test to find your sand/silt/clay % to know how much to add).

Dan

That's an awfully high pH. I'm not sure I trust that, unless you've got limestone quarries around there. I see on your member page that you live in MN. I would think that MN gets enough rain that high pH soil would be rare. Do you have a problem with leaves turning yellow? Especially yellow with green veins? That's a sign of iron chlorosis and is often one of the earliest indicators of high pH soil.

If you do have high pH soil, you can use sulfur to lower it. In order for it to be effective, it needs to be incorporated into the soil. Putting it on top is pretty ineffective as it mostly gases off instead of joining with water to make sulfuric acid.

Most soil tests don't test for N because it isn't persistent in the soil so it needs to be added on a regular basis.

Where did you get the soil test done? Was it a home kit? If it was, I'd check with your extension office to see if they do soil testing. I'm suspicious of the pH and the 0 Phosphorous.

Hi, thanks for the responces! I know to take these results with a grain of salt, but the high ph and potash concern me.

I live in south central Minn, Mankato if your familure with the area.

There is a lot of lime around here, just hadn't put the 2 together before. I've always fertilized heavily, and just getting into more organic style.

I had a Goats Beard a few years ago, the greenhouse told me it needed iron when the leaves were turning yellow, sold me a bottle of some kind of iron, and it brought it back. I thought it needed it again a couple years later, gave it some, and it died anyway.

I'm told my house is on top of what used to be an old quary, not sure what kind of rocks, but there is a huge limestone quary about 20 or so miles away, so the possibility of lots of lime is a strong possibility. My garden is also next to the house, terra cotta brick foundation, would that make any difference?

What will wood ashes do? I have a friend saving me some from his wood furnace.

What kind of sulfer do I get? I don't know anything about that. Maybe I should take a sample to the extension office to have it checked, make sure my results are accurate.

Karen

It makes more sense now. If there's that much limestone in the area, you could well have high pH. Sometimes adding iron won't help an iron deficiency in high pH soils. Around here, there's plenty of iron, but the plants can't make sue of it unless the pH is lowered.

The pioneers ran water through wood ashes to make lye for soap. If your soil pH is already high, adding wood ashes can make it worse.

You want to look for soil sulfur. It will probably take quite a while for it to work, but the effects are relativel long lived.

Over the long haul, adding as much organic matter as you can will likely help. Organic matter helps move the pH toward neutral and also acts as a buffer so the high pH isn't as much of a factor.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I've heard that watering with diluted vinegar will lower pH rather quickly

It will lower the PH but but does not last very long. It can be used to lower it quickly if you use longer term methods to stabilize the acidity. I have used vinegar and soda on different bunches of woodland asters to show the color differences. Most people are not aware that some types of asters coloring is effected by soil conditions. Rather spending time trying to convence people it sometimes is easier to show them.

Blueberries is another plant that I use vinegar on when I plant. I then allow the break down of oak leaves to provide the acidity needed.

I should have made it plain that I was speaking of household vinegar rather than industrial strength. The industrial strength would just kill things.

As Maifleur said, the effects from vinegar will be very quick and very short lived. It'll lower the pH, but the effects will be very temporary.

Actually, using vinegar can tell you a little more about the soil, as well. If you add the vinegar and it bubbles, you may want to skip the sulfur. If you've got that much lime in your soil, you'll be better off just adding organic matter to it and treating the iron chlorosis as it shows up.

I've heard that watering with diluted vinegar will lower pH rather quickly

For a very short time. It'll also make some roots unhappy as well, stressing the plant. IOW: no.

Sulfur, iron sulfate, OM for a little bit. As for the other results, take them with a grain of salt. And you need to know your sand/silt/clay fractions before you go correcting.

Dan

Instead of trying to amend this soil, why not start over with a more neutral soil? Dig out the garden bed and replace the soil, or make raised beds. Either way, you might want to till in a bunch of sulfur to try to amend the subsoil underneath your new garden soil.

Hi, I don't think I want to start over with a more neutral soil, I doubt if there is much more neutral soil to be had around here, I had this brought in a couple years ago, and it would mean wheelbarrowing a LOT of dirt to and from a truck which I don't have. I have leaves to dig in, compost is cooking in the tumbler, and find out where I can get sulphur. I have a jar of dirt/water settling.

Do I need to be overly concerned about the high potash?

Thanks
Karen

How much organic matter is in your soil? What is the humus level?
How workable is your soil? Does it ball up well when squeezed but fall apart easily when poked?
What does that soil smell like?
How much animal (earthworms and such) life is in that soil?
How well does that soil drain?
What you do not need according to that soil test, if it can be believed, is lime or wood ash. The soil pH needs to be lowered into the more optimal 6.2 to 6.8 range where most all plants grow most bestest. The test for N can be disregarded since that is highly dependant on soil temperature which influences bacterial activity which makes N available.
Contact your local office of your University of Minnesota USDA Cooperative Extension Service about having a good, reliable soil test done and while waiting for those ressults do these simple soil tests, providing your soil is even workable now, mine isn't yet.
1) Structure. From that soil sample put enough of the rest to make a 4 inch level in a clear 1 quart jar, with a tight fitting lid. Fill that jar with water and replace the lid, tightly. Shake the jar vigorously and then let it stand for 24 hours. Your soil will settle out according to soil particle size and weight. A good loam will have about 1-3/4 inch (about 45%) of sand on the bottom. about 1 inch (about 25%) of silt next, about 1 inch (25%) of clay above that, and about 1/4 inch (about 5%) of organic matter on the top.

2) Drainage. Dig a hole 1 foot square and 1 foot deep and fill that with water. After that water drains away refill the hole with more water and time how long it takes that to drain away. Anything less than 2 hours and your soil drains too quickly and needs more organic matter to slow that drainage down. Anything over 6 hours and the soil drains too slowly and needs lots of organic matter to speed it up.

3) Tilth. Take a handful of your slightly damp soil and squeeze it tightly. When the pressure is released the soil should hold together in that clump, but when poked with a finger that clump should fall apart.

4) Smell. What does your soil smell like? A pleasant, rich earthy odor? Putrid, offensive, repugnant odor? The more organic matter in your soil the more active the soil bacteria will be and the nicer you soil will smell.

5) Life. How many earthworms per shovel full were there? 5 or more indicates a pretty healthy soil. Fewer than 5, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, indicates a soil that is not healthy.

Here is a link that might be useful: UMN CES

Do I need to be overly concerned about the high potash?

You don't know that the potash is high. You only have the results of a cheap home test.

If you brought in manufactured soil, you are likely fine. If you brought in fill dirt from a construction site, you might be high. High potash is not the end of the world.

Dan