Soil PH estimation for new lychee tree.

[AshPedreiro1323]

So im prepairing to plant a lychee tree, but wondering about what the ph levels are roughly for spot ive chosen. Anyone have some tips on how I can find this out? Or even guess-timate ? Thanks.

 

[DirtMechanic]

The Red Cabbage color trick, or the vinegar, baking soda trick will show whacked out numbers. A cheap soil stick would help if the soil is moist like the day after a good rain. You can also look at some of the other vegetation that prospers and get an idea of range. Also the government has probably done in depth soil type analysis for your area which might hold true if it in an undisturbed area. Contractors can import soil.

 

[Chuck]

For a cheap easy way you can use the vinegar and/or baking soda method. It won't tell you the exact Ph but it will tell you whether your soil is alkaline or acidic which basically is all you really need to know. Get a handful of your dirt and make mud out of distilled water. Slowly pour vinegar over it and if it fizzles your soil is alkaline. Or, get a handful of dirt and make mud out of distilled water. Sprinkle baking soda over it and if it bubbles it is acidic. If it doesn't do anything your soil is neutral.

 

[DirtMechanic]

For a cheap easy way you can use the vinegar and/or baking soda method. It won't tell you the exact Ph but it will tell you whether your soil is alkaline or acidic which basically is all you really need to know. Get a handful of your dirt and make mud out of distilled water. Slowly pour vinegar over it and if it fizzles your soil is alkaline. Or, get a handful of dirt and make mud out of distilled water. Sprinkle baking soda over it and if it bubbles it is acidic. If it doesn't do anything your soil is neutral.

I like all of this but have one question. Whenever I have tested distilled or rain water, my pH numbers show something on average pushing down to a 6 pH? So here is my question; Is it more important to listen to youtube and the internet spokespersons who say a 7 pH as the middle is best or is it more important to follow rain, mother nature if you like, and use a 6 ph as your neutral where plants would then have to be slightly re-described? Me? I am for the latter. It is a story that has less advertising for one thing.

 

[Chuck]

Here is my OPINION. Plants cannot read, they either grow or they don't. What actual numbers are, either 6 or 7 or 5 or 8 doesn't make much difference because your soil Ph is what it is. And nothing is going to change that in any meaningful way for an extended period of time. One can change Ph in containers fairly easy but not in the ground for a few reasons. Distilled water has a Ph of 7, anything more or less and it is not pure distilled water. Rain water varies slightly in acidity usually about 5 - 6 and very rarely is alkaline. Trying to make one's soil Ph into something it isn't just doesn't work. One can lower or raise Ph in ground soil for short periods of time on a plant to plant basis, but trying to change an entire garden is, IMO, a fools errand. It would be costly and labor intensive plus, after a big rain one would basically have to start over again. IMO soil Ph is of much less importance than soil fertility. I look at my garden and then I look at Meadowlarks. He has acidic soil and I have very alkaline soil but our plants look about the same. Soil fertility is the secret, not the Ph. Some plants are Ph specific such as blueberrys, but, everyday vegetables not so much. Anyway, that's my opinion about Ph.

 

[DirtMechanic]

I am gonna have to adjust that distilled water opinion value down a bit bro. 7ph may be inert, and thus suitable as treated water to move through my copper pipes, but acids eat metal and that is why the electrically neutral 7 pH is useful in our water systems. Metals are madly toxic. No need to have them dissolve and enter our bodies via our water pipes like the lead ones in Detroit or even ancient Rome. Copper is being banned in the UK as a fungicide that builds up in the chalky high pH areas. Were it dissolved like my acid clay could do for it, copper would leach down with rain, and in a far future somebody might mine it as a deposit. 7 pH is definitely electrically neutral, but distilled water has to have additives such as they use in the public water treatment systems here to raise the pH up or we suffer either a degradation of the metals in the supply system pipes or a loss of enamels in our teeth or substance in our bones. I think rain and distilled are mother natures middle ground and I am fascinated that it is slightly acidic at 6pH.

 

[YumYum]

Walmart had the Mosser Lee soil test pills on clearance for $5 at the walmart here a few weeks ago. Worth checking into I guess.

 

[Meadowlark]

Probably worth checking, however as your tree prefers acidic soil pH 5.0-5.5.