"Chris French and Helen Johnson" wrote in
message ...
In message , shannie
writes





"Rick McGreal" wrote in message
...
Anyone know how do you tell if your soil is acidic?
You have a garden full of Rhoddies ?

B-)
Something a little more scientific is what I was thinking of!

You do a pH test on the soil.

Can you buy litmus paper at garden centres?
Or I suppose now there will be better, probably electronic, versions
around
now....

Litmus wouldn't be much good, but if you have kids at secondary school
they could probably cadge a bit of Universal indicator paper.


You can buy a very simple kit at your gc.

You can also get pH meters as well.

. A tip I
recieved was to take a teaspoon of soil from about an inch below the top
from several parts of the garden, mix all of em together and use a little
of
this mixture in the tube,

I'd disagree with that. pH can vary around a garden, it is better to
test individual soil samples from different parts.

Quite right, I do apologise I meant to write bed instead of garden, my
error, thanks

I was also told to use rain instead of tap water,
but then we have very limy water here from our own well so that may have
been the reason for that.

If rain water has been collected from a roof etc. there is no guarantee
that it is neutral either.... Distilled is best if available.

It had been raining for three solid days when we did ours and we just left a
clean glass in the garden and used the water that collected in that.
--
Chris French and Helen Johnson, Leeds
urg Suppliers and References FAQ:
http://www.familyfrench.co.uk/garden/urgfaq/index.html