soil ammendments for low pH for conifers

[treeguytodd]

I am working with a property with heavy clay soil, and pH of 3.5 to 5.0. What reccomendations for raising the pH of the soil can you make?

 

[Ekka]

You use lime to increase the PH scale and make it more alkaline.

This will have to be done regularly and a longer term solution needs to be in place.

Dont fertilize with chemicals use organic.

Mulch helps a lot.

Try to increase the organic matter content of the soil by using additives such a seasol, kelp products and organic matter.

Some mulches break down fast and are ideal for clay. Look for those, some straw etc.

 

[Sprig]

Right on with the lime, as an addenum resulting from some research I did on fig trees for continued release of lime (which figs love) you may consider using crushed (as opposed to powdered) lime stone as you'll get a steady release each watering and if you use it in particular areas rather than spreading it all over it makes it fairly easily removed should the PH swing too wildly. In the case of the figs one of the recommendations was to place a layer on the bottom of the pot.
Excellent advice on the mulching and addition of organic matter but I'd be careful with pine, fir, or cedar chips if the needles are in there as I suspect that may raise the acidity to unwanted levels but I am unsure of facts of this, anyone? I have found maple leaves very good for helping create better soil, lots of nitrogen and break down quickly, easy to till in too.
My 0.02$ fer the day.

 

[treeguytodd]

Would you suggest just spreading the limestone over the surface of the soil, or perhaps vertical mulching or radial trenching? I was hoping for a timely reaction from the white pines, since some of these are fading fast.

 

[Sprig]

I really don't know, the lime stone suggestion was an idea that popped into my head as a long-term thing so once you have the soil worked (with lime powder, ash, or bonemeal), mulched (get that nitrogen in there man), etc, PH to where it should be. Crushed limestone is very slow release and my thoughts were that it would work best just under the soil layer, the idea being that it would save you from having to spread lime as often (I envisioned several pockets of it around the outside of the root system and under the soil, like maybe several ponds in each one, but it is just an off the cuff idea), but this is not my field of expertise (if I even have one lol). I found this site's information on soil very easy to read and understand, it has tonnes of good stuff on amending soils, I would pay particular attention to Table#2. I hope this helps and you can get those trees up and healthy again. >
http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/co/maho/la/la_001.cfm

And by the way welcome to the site and enjoy the wealth of info here.



Serge

 

[MarsCrash]

Vertical mulching and radial trenching

I think that either vert. mulching or radial trenching would help. Using the air spade would probably break up the clay a little bit to help the lime mix. If the clay soil is too compacted, it seems to me that the lime would run off of it like a spilled margarita on a marble countertop.