RainbowYuca
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Fixing soil pH with plants

Hello Permaculture Friends,

I live in the Andes, and there we have a lot of ferns, I guess because of the acid soil caused by all the rain.
We already put limestone to increase the pH.

Some Farmers here say that the ferns making the soil even more acidic. Can that be true?
Are there Plants that make soil more alkaline?

Thank you for your advice.

The Rainbow Community

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rainbowgardener
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Hmm.... I don't know anything about living plants actually changing soil acidity. Most ferns like to grow in acid soil. That suggests that maybe the fronds themselves are slightly acid. Then if you have a lot of ferns and the fronds stay where they are and decompose, that would go back into the soil. But even so, it is just a cycle of drawing whatever the acidic compounds are up from the soil and then returning them to the soil. I'm not sure that would concentrate/ increase the acidity.

Limestone is very slow release, so would take a long time to change your soil pH. There are quicker methods. Garden lime is powdered limestone, so it releases the calcium a lot quicker. Wood ash and powdered oyster shells are also used to raise pH. Bone meal is a good source of phosphorous and calcium. Just adding a lot of compost and other organic materials helps bring your soil back to neutral while adding nutrients and beneficial micro-organisms.

Depending on what you want to grow and how acid your soil is, it may be just fine. Many ornamentals as well as blueberries and other plants like acid soil. Many vegetables like to grow in slightly acid soil.

RainbowYuca
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Thank you for the reply

I have a question about what you said about wood ashes

I know they are alkalizing. But arent they also anti spetic and anti bacterial?
If so does it effect microbiological life in the soil? I Just inaculated with a very good mycroyzie fungi to increase biodiversity.

And do you have an idea how to get the ferns under control, they are very invasive around here.
I'm trying sheetmulching, but they are very penetrative and have long roots sideways

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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

I found this by searching with keywords ‘phytoremediation of acid soil”


https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.10 ... 012076/pdf
Novel Technique to improve the pH of Acidic Barren Soil using Electrokinetic-bioremediation with the application of Vetiver Grass
ATSAzhar1,ATANabila1*,MSNurshuhaila2,EZaidi1,MAMAzim1 andAMF Zahin1
1 Research Center for Soft Soil, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, 86400 Batu
Pahat Johor, Malaysia
2 Faculty of Engineering Technology, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, 86400 Batu Pahat Johor, Malaysia
E-mail: ainnabila782@gmail.com

Abstract. Residual acidic slopes which are not covered by vegetation greatly increases the risk of soil erosion. In addition, low soil pH can bring numerous problems such as Al and Fe toxicity, land degradation issues and some problems related to vegetation. In this research, a series of electrokinetic bioremediation (EK-Bio) treatments using Bacillus sphaericus, Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas putida with a combination of Vetiver grass were performed in the laboratory. Investigations were conducted for 14 days and included the observation of changes in the soil pH and the mobilization of microorganism cells through an electrical gradient of 50 V/m under low pH. Based on the results obtained, this study has successfully proven that the pH of soil increases after going through electrokinetic bioremediation (EK-Bio). The treatment using Bacillus sphaericus increases the pH from 2.95 up to 4.80, followed by Bacillus subtilis with a value of 4.66. Based on the overall performance, Bacillus sphaericus show the highest number of bacterial cells in acidic soil with a value of 6.6 x 102 cfu/g, followed by Bacillus subtilis with a value of 5.7 x 102 cfu/g. In conclusion, Bacillus sphaericus and Bacillus subtilis show high survivability and is suitable to be used in the remediation of acidic soil.
This might also be relevant?

https://link.springer.com/article/10.10 ... 005-6914-7
Bioremediation of Acid Mine Drainage Using Acidic Soil and Organic Wastes for Promoting Sulphate-Reducing Bacteria Activity on a Column Reactor
21 April 2005
...searching for “mycoremediation” might yield some results, too....

imafan26
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Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Soils in high rainfall areas are usually acidic, not because of the plants, but primarily because rain causes the soil to leach. Soils in high rainfall areas are usually low in nutrients but have good cec which means that they can be made more productive when minerals and nutrients are replaced. Ferns do not require a lot of nutrients that is why they can grow in a nutrient poor soil.

Soil usually wants to be the pH that it is, you can correct it, but it will always try to go back to its natural state. Adding compost which is usually alkaline can help. Wood ashes will work too, but it is very alkaline and you have to be careful not to change the soil pH too rapidly or nothing will grow. You will always need to add a source of nitrogen as it is highly volatile.



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