2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Photo: Danil Chepko / Rusmediabank.ru
To get a decent harvest of vegetables and fruits on your land, you need to get acquainted with the nature of the soil on the site, with the preferences and whims of the planted crops. The quantity and quality of the crop depends to a large extent on a correct understanding of the friendship and mutual assistance between plants and the acidity of the soil. Like a person who prefers kebabs to semolina porridge, a sweet juicy apple to a sour astringent pear, some plants will respond with rapid growth to acidic soil, others to alkaline, and the most "peaceful" will be glad to soil with neutral acidity.
What is soil acidity
The acidity of the soil shows the ratio of hydrogen ions and hydrosilic ions in it. In simple terms, soil acidity indicates the presence of acids (for example, carbonic acid), salts (for example, lime) and their amount in the soil. Different plants behave differently depending on the predominance of a particular chemical compound in the soil, so it is very important to know the acidity of the soil in your own backyard in order to help plants develop successfully and bring yields that delight you and allow you to meet the winter-winter without anxiety.
So that people working with the land speak one language that everyone understands, soil scientists have invented an acidity index, denoting it with two letters: "pH".
* Neutral acidity is indicated by the number "7".
* Anything less than seven is acidic soils with different intensities of acidity, the closer to "7", the less acidity.
* Everything above seven is alkaline soils, the further from "7", the more alkali.
How to determine the acidity of the soil
* The most reliable and accurate way to determine soil acidity is to take soil samples from different parts of the territory to a specialized laboratory. This will require expenditure of effort, time and money. After all, you will need to prepare soil samples for your garden; find the location of the laboratory in the city; most likely, to stand (at best - to sit) in the queue for the transfer of samples for research, and then one more time - when the results are received.
* A less costly way to determine soil acidity is to use a litmus test. A set of litmus paper with a colored acidity reference scale is sold at chemical stores.
This method also requires collecting soil samples. We look around our territory with an appraising glance and divide it into separate areas that differ in soil acidity. I foresee the reader's ironic smile at this point: how can I distinguish these areas if I do not know anything about their acidity? And plants that grow wildly on your land without your permission and help will help you distinguish them. Information about them will be below.
At each site, we dig holes, the dimensions of which correspond to the dimensions of your bayonet shovel. At a depth of 25-30 centimeters (the average root deepening), we scrape the earth from different sides of the hole, mix it by adding a little distilled or rain water. We put a litmus paper into the resulting mixture, squeeze the earth tightly in our fist and after five to ten minutes compare the color of the paper with the color of the reference scale. Acidity determined! Of course, this is not as accurate as it would be done in a laboratory, but it is quite enough for the correct planning of planting vegetables, planting trees, for feeding plants.
You don't have to use your own fist, you can do it all in a bowl. After mixing the earth in water, let it settle. Then stir again and after 15 minutes dip the litmus paper into the water.
* There are other ways to determine soil acidity.
What acidity do wild plants like:
* Acidic soil containing a lot of moisture - sedge, horse sorrel, horsetail, meadow cornflower, creeping buttercup, plantain, tricolor violet.
* Neutral, the most fertile soil - nettle, sow thistle, quinoa, woodlice, coltsfoot, field bindweed, burdock (burdock), meadow clover.
* Alkaline soil - mountain ash, viburnum.
What acidity do vegetables and fruit trees prefer or can tolerate:
* Sour soil - sorrel, rutabaga, potatoes.
* Neutral, the most fertile soil - pumpkin, watermelons, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, cabbage, radishes.
* Weakly alkaline soil - white cabbage, beets, horseradish, mountain ash, viburnum.
It must be remembered that it is not only the acidity of the soil that creates comfort for plants. To obtain a bountiful harvest, a combination of various factors must be taken into account.
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