Wilson wrote:
On 12/04/11 4:27 PM, sometime in the recent past David Hare-Scott
posted this:
Wilson wrote:
I have a drilled well that goes down 220'. When it was drilled in
1995, the pH that came back with the first water test was 7.0,
perfectly neutral.
Over the years, I've had some plants begin to give me problems that
took a while for me to notice developing as I thought it was just a
year to year change in local conditions.

This year, in the spring while natural rain was sufficient, I
remember remarking to my wife, 'Go look at the cucumbers if you
want to see some nice dark green foliage.' During the past few
years, my cukes have dropped off in production and the leaves are
more yellow than dark green. This year we made no cucumber pickles
and barely had enough for sandwiches.
I maintain a totally organic garden making compost & using some aged
hen manure that is mixed with softwood chips in their bedding, so I
doubted that the yellow leaves came from a lack of nitrogen. Also,
these are raised beds (3' x 10' x 10") and have good drainage.

This year, after testing the mother-in-laws water and finding a
level of coliforms higher than zero, I retested my own. I found
that my pH had risen to 8.7.

But before testing, as the springs rain slowed, I began using a
'wand' waterer on my hose which puts down a lot of water fast.
Within a couple of weeks, I noticed that the cukes were yellowing,
my zukes wouldn't set fruit, indeterminate tomatoes failed to
achieve their usual height and her garlic shriveled up and
disappeared. I sifted the garlic bed and saved all the bulbs I could
find. In
August, we got 18" of rain & I stopped watering with the well water.
New garlic sprouted from the tiny bulbs I missed and are still
growing lushly.
I'm going to switch to rain water next year. However, I can't find
anything when I search on the effects of high pH water on plants.
Nor have I any idea why my pH would change. Anyone else seen this
happen?

I have no idea why the pH of your well water changed but I doubt you
can alter it. I also doubt that the water is doing much directly to
your plants but it may be altering the pH of your soil which will
make a difference. The effect of high pH in the soil is to lock up
some minerals by making them less soluble, this produces
deficiencies in plants. A pH of 8.7 is quite high for a garden soil,
not that it is certain your soil will necessarily be that high just
because you are using water of that pH. You should test the pH of your
soil before going any further. I find
the best kind of test is using dye indicators, a kit will cost maybe
$20 and will do many tests. These kits are sufficiently accurate and
reliable for the purpose, cheap electrical probe systems are not. I
would stop using that water except in emergencies as it will slowly
deposit minerals in your soil that will eventually raise the pH of
the soil. For most plants (there are exceptions) a pH of about 6-7
is desired. If your soil's pH has in fact risen much above 7 you may
have to amend it to lower it again or stick to alkali tolerant
plants. David
I have both the probe type pH tester & the liquid ones. Never put
much stock in the liquid type as it seems rather subjective to try to
determine the proper color of now muddied water.

I have not had that problem as the one that I have comes with an insoluble
white powder that is use to give a constant colour to read the dye against.
Also I don't know why you have muddy water the dye indicator I use works on
a solid sample. The _cheap_ probe sort are not reliable in my experience as
they depend on water content of the soil to get a reading, the expensive
ones (ie glass electrode) can be up to laboratory standard.

So what is the pH of your soil by each method?


Also, if I use my
well water (pH 8.7) to perform the test, won't my reading be higher
than if I used distilled water with a pH of 7.0?

Why do you need any water to perform the test? Both systems ought to work
without it. What brand of dye indicator do you have, does the manufacturer
have a web site?


Going one further,
if my soil is higher or lower than 7.0, won't distilled water move
the results toward the neutral 7.0?

Not appreciably but it's a non issue - see above.


But my real question is about the effect of continued high pH or
alkaline water on my plants. I can tell you it's not neutral from my
experience, but am at a loss as to why I can't find info on when I
search.

I explained this before, pH determines the solubility of minerals which
determines their availability to the plants. There are many thousands of
references to this on the web I cannot understand how you can't find one.

Start he

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_pH


Like I said, it will be rain water for me next year or I might try to
adjust a 50 gal. barrel of well water with some 5% acid vinegar. Now,
if I could just find a good formula or equation for calculating the
amount of vinegar to adjust 50 gals. of pH 8.7 water down to say 6.5, I
might be in
good shape.

You will not find 'a good formula' to adjust the pH of your water, it isn't
that simple. Also if you can water your garden satisfactorily with a 50
gal barrel you could use rain or tap water and forget all about the well,
assuming that the well water is in fact the cause of your problems.



Thanks to you & Billy for your replies.

There is no certainty the soil is as alkaline as the water you put on it.
Until you tell us the pH of your soil there isn't much more to say.


David