Pam wrote in message ...
simy1 wrote:

Pam wrote in message ...

Bottom line - amending the soil in a correct manner is a good thing.
Attempting to significantly adjust soil pH is generally an exercise in
futility and can destroy a rather fragile ecological balance.

So, if the pH in the area surrounding my veggie garden is 5.0 (it is),
I can forget about beets and asparagus? They both prefer at least 6.5.
Indeed, of the
veggies that prefer around 7.0, only lettuce does consistently well.
Garlic does OK, chard cabbage cardoon onions and tatsoi are relatively
small. I do not have a fetish about having huge veggies, just trying
to understand the pattern. I certainly have success with acid tolerant
radicchio and tomatoes.
I spread enough wood ash every spring, incidentally, to bring the pH
around 6.5. And the beds are more than 50% organic matter and most of
their surface is mulched with wood chips or leaves most of the time. I
manure the beds every two years. Under the beds the soil is probably
even more acid than the surroundings, having been a boggy area for a
long time.

I have also noticed that the soil near concrete has a pH of 6.5 or
higher (using the color charts provided with the kits). The pH is
permanent as long as the lime source is permanent.

Most veggies do prefer neutral to slight alkaline soils - have you considered using
raised beds? T

I have raised beds.

hat way you can add soil that will be a suitable pH for the veggies
without trying to constantly change the existing soil acidity.

Beet roots go down six feet. Are you suggesting six feet deep raised
beds?

And depending on the
source of the wood chips, they could be contributing to the acidity.

Generally, they all do. I only use them together with wood ash, and
alone for fruit trees, shrubs, and bulbs.

Using a coarse
wood product as a mulch maybe not a great idea in a vegetable garden, anyway - it
does tend to tie up nitrogen at least through the first few inches of the soil,
which is where the bulk of the feeder roots are located.

That is something I failed to replicate over many tries. It could be
that I always woodchip for the tomatoes, and layer high N compost
under them (kitchen scraps). Or it could be that N tends to go down
rather than up.

However, there is contradiction in the wisdom of this group. If you
can not change the pH, why use raised beds/compost at all? The only
hypothesis that seems viable is that veggies grow well as long as they
have part of their roots in soil with the proper pH. However, since
the soil of the beds will tend to become like the soil underneath, one
has to lime every year, even though he/she started with neutral soil.

I used to use compost as a
mulch for my veggies.......when I was able to grow them in a former, more sunny
garden.