HelpfulGardener.com

I have 4 raised beds. I used existing soil from another bed from last year that was never tended to (my grandmother) a few bags of different types of compost and a small amount of peat moss. What should I do, I am only a few days/weeks away from wanting to plants my seedlings


THANKS!

What did you do for the test that you used to get that 8?

My faith in any of the home test kits is just about zero. Same goes for the test meter with two prongs you stuck in the ground. I had on and it never read any difference between in the ground or on the truck seat.

Sulphur will lower Ph but I don't know how much is used or how long it takes to work.

Coffee grounds. Get some from starbucks, your local cafe, gas station, where ever
I say this because the only difference between the 2 samples I brought to the ag department was one had the grounds mixed in and the other didn't. The untouched came back 6.5 the one with grounds came back 5

Alan in Vermont wrote:What did you do for the test that you used to get that 8?

My faith in any of the home test kits is just about zero.

Yes, I second that opinion.
Be sure to have a test performed by your local County Ag Extension.

You may need to add some Sulfur to lower the pH to the desired range. If you tell them the test is for a Vegetable Garden; they will usually return an indication of how much material (Sulfur or Lime) to add per 1,000 sq ft.

While keeping the advice that home testing kits are not accurate in mind, something that hadn't occurred to me is NOT to use tap water for the test because the pH of the tap water can throw off the result. I believe the instruction I saw said to use distilled water.

Peat moss is acidifying, you could mix some into your soil.

PH of 7 is Neutral if you really do have PH=8 its not a big deal. Several things will lower the PH, pine needles, vinegar, sulfur.