Container soil, ph question.

17 years ago

Happy Spring Everybody!

I've tried a variety of different store bought container soils and most of them cause my pepper leaves to yellow. Last year we used the cheapo Agway brand soil which claims to have limestone in it to balance the ph. The cheapo stuff worked very well. No yellowing at all, and we had our best harvest out of the three years we've been tortured by our plants.

Later in the season we needed to repot some slower growing peppers, we were out of the Agway stuff and decided to try some Moo Mix instead. Those plants went yellowish within a week.

All our bought mixes contain peat in some form or another. The only big difference between the Agway brand and the others is the addition of limestone.

So, I guess my question is, is the addition of limestone to the soil really enough to make the difference between yellow and green leaves?

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Comments (3)

willardb3
17 years ago
Yes......

Also, peat becomes quite acid (low Ph) as it rots.
smokemaster_2007
17 years ago
You might have drainage or water problems with some soil mixes too.
Some of the finer ingrediants settle in the bottom of the pot (especialy ones with sand) and pack down,staying wet and useless to the plant.The top several inches looks dry but the roots are drownding in bottom sludge.
Most problems I've seen with soil mixes are from water retension mostly.
The peat breaks down making the bottom soil into sludge that stays wet forever while the top is bone dry.
Get a paint stirrer stick and put it in the pot as deep as you can.Leave it there.Before watering pull it out.If the stick is wet don't water.If it's only damp at the very bottom,water.after watering replace the stick.Any stick without a coating will work-raw wood.

Might try adding some perlite to lighten up the mix and add airspace for the roots.

For acid soil.
If you think it's a ph problem add a touch of Dolomite lime mixed in the soil before potting up plants.The lime is supposed to add some calcium to the soil which will be good for fruiting latter on too.

For alkaline soil.
For a quick,temporary fix to see if it's an acid-not acid enough problem - add some vinegar to your water and water a plant for a week with it to add acid.If your plant turns green then repot with soil sulphur added to the soil to solve your ph problem.A couple tbsp. to a gal. of water.

Time to play with a pot or two...
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goatlike
Original Author
17 years ago
Thanks for the input. I'm pretty sure my problem is ph related. All of our plants were in the same type of pots, in the same location, and had the same mix of roughly 50% continer soil and 50% perlite. That light mix worked wonders for us.

The only variable last year was the brand of soil we used. I routinely used a moisture meter on the plants before watering, and I would watch the needle as I stuck the meter as far into the soil as possible. I only watered when the meter read 2-3 at the bottom of the pot. I even built a canopy to keep the crazy rains we had last year mostly off the plants. Mostly.

This year we're going with 50:50 soil:vermiculite. The two peps I rescued from Lowes last week look happy so far, but they've only been in the mix for a few days. Time will tell.

I'll pick up a soil ph test kit if I see any yellowing and take it from there.