In article ,
"someone" wrote:

"john hamilton" wrote in message
...
We have a lot of plants in pots. When scraping the bottom of the pond we
bring up a greenish muddy slime. Someone said they thought this would be
nutritious to mix with the soil in the plant pots. Would this be true?
Would it be likely to be on the acidic side or not?


Recently Aldi has been selling a brilliant pH meter for a quid or so. Just
stick it in your soil and find out. I put it in a pot of what I thought was
an ericaceous soil and lo and behold, the pH was 6.5. Perfeck. So at least
the gadget works.

I expect it would also work if you put it in water.

The annoying thing about most stuff to do with pH is that you have to
purchase some small quite expensive package where you only get enough
chemicals for one or two goes.

someone

There may be a cheap way. I'd guess you must take your soil or pond
scum and dry it which is a variable. Take a known weight and add water
a known water vol. and then use pH papers.

Lets see if you can avoid a pH meter.

http://tinyurl.com/y8k4a2a

--
Bill Garden in shade zone 5 S Jersey USA