how to make my soil acidic ?

Wed Mar 23, 2011 8:50 pm

how do i make my soil acidic enough for potatoes (an easy way) :wink:

Wed Mar 23, 2011 9:05 pm

Welcome to the forum Potato Boy.

Do you know the Ph of your soil? It maybe naturally acidic.

I have never check the Ph of my garden. With 25 beds they all could be slightly different. I have no problem growing potatoes except for the occasional wireworm problem.

Eric

Wed Mar 23, 2011 9:28 pm

Thanks and i'll make sure to check my Ph to see.

Thu Mar 24, 2011 4:51 am

If I had to I would probabally use mir-acid by the miracle-gro co. Long time ago I found out that evergreen bushes like acidic soil and the concrete that was by the bushes was messing up the soil. Mir-acid really did a great number to fix them. JMHO

Thu Mar 24, 2011 4:29 pm

potatoes are well-known for growing decently in many conditions. my guess is that you won't need to worry too much about pH for them.

Sun Mar 27, 2011 1:42 am

As others already stated, it's likely the pH will already be fine for your Potatoes.

But, if you do need to lower the pH at some point, you can also purchase Soil Sulphur ... http://www.fertilome.com/product.aspx?pid=1bc0e9fe-8d82-4ce0-a887-cfa0c90124ac

Sun Mar 27, 2011 6:33 pm

I guess stubby didn't see this was the organic forum. Miracid is NOT organic...

Sulfur is the usual tool to shift towards acidic in the garden, but there are other ways... fungal dominated soils tend towards acidity, so a fungal compost or fungal compost tea would usually help to shift towards acidic (if there is a high calcium content, sometimes increasing the weak acid response can etch extra calcium out of the CEC, actually buffering and making things more base, but this is not that common).

However I agree with the groupthink that an acidic soil is not that important towards potato growing...

HG

Mon Mar 28, 2011 3:19 pm

coffee grounds make the soil more acidic.

If you or family/friends drinks gallons of coffee, you may want to ask them to keep their grounds for you and add it. Or if you are close to someone who makes espressos and those types of drinks and such ask them to keep their grounds.

As many people said, you do not need it more acid. But I also think it depends on the potato you grow.

Tue Mar 29, 2011 4:11 pm

Interesting, Can you tell me more about the vinegar?

Eric