Agricultural sulfur is used to lower soil pH, and it is available in 50 lb bags, where farmers buy fertilizer supplies. They use it on fields where soybeans and alfalfa are grown. However, it helps to know the starting conditions, the initial soil pH, before making any amendments. You might want to get the pH checked at a local soil testing lab, or, you can use dye indicator solutions to check soil pH yourself. I am using bromocresol green, bromocresol purple, and bromothymol blue, to check soil pH over the range 3.8 to 7.6. We have alkaline clay soil here in Madison, and I have to get the pH down to around 4.5 to keep the blueberry shrubs green and healthy.

hi Slav, do some triage work by way of spraying micronutrients on the leaves to see if this helps. make sure you use a spreader/sticker (like dish soap to make the water slick.) I usually use water from my reverse osmosis machine (takes all the minerals out of the water.)

If the plants improve w/ the micronutrient sprays, try to acidify the soil by adding soil sulfur (a slow process) or by adding sulfuric acid to your irrigation water.

Sulfur is what is used to correct a too high soil pH long term, but you need to know how much to add and that requires a good, reliable soil test. AgCanada does not do that but they should be able to provide a list of labs that will.
Acetic Acid, Vinegar, can be used to lower a soils pH fairly quickly but for a short time, but again you need to know how much to add and how often.
A good example of why wood ash should not be added to any soil without a good, reliable soil test.

If you are unable to check soil pH, there is a way get around this, if you have the time. You could select and label a row of strawberries, and put one tablespoon of agricultural sulfur around each plant. In a month, the health of the plants in that row can be compared to the health of the plants in other rows. If high pH is an issue, the treated row should look greener than the rest of the bed, and you will have some idea of how much sulfur to apply to the remaining plants. The downside of this approach, using trial and error, is the amount of time required to see a result. With pH testing, you can find out if you have a problem immediately, and then come up with a solution to be implemented immediately.

If your soil is alkaline, GSR Calcium is the WRONG way to go. It is limestone, used to raise soil pH.

Get a good soil test, and adjust as the results indicate.

The "simple vinegar test" is inaccurate. The home-made testing solutions are cute science fair projects, but inaccurate.

You need to know what you have an excess of, as well as what the pH is, in order to fix the problem. Get a real soil test done by a real testing lab.

Duplicate post

This post was edited by lazygardens on Mon, Jun 17, 13 at 14:25