Growing Big Onions from seed

I'm in that camp ... but I'm having a bit of a rethink.

In olden times the old boys had no pH test, of course ... although they did pour acid on the soil to see if it fizzed ...

But, sat here right now, I am thinking I may be wasting money on fertilizer that is not needed or, worse, spending precious time making compost / Comfrey feed / green manures and so on that may be inappropriate.

And I've been mucking my beds for 7 years now, maybe they are getting on the acid side and actually need Liming - I've always assumed that my soil was too Alkaline to ever need liming ... maybe not ...

... so I'm afraid I am going to be abandoning the Old Boy Camp and giving that newfangled Science a go

 

Hiya Kristen.

I too have a test kit that measures N,P,K as well as PH. As you've already indicated, one could add any amount of 'nutrient', but it would be a waste of time if the PH is such that the plant wont be able to take it up. To me, if I have a problem, then determining the PH is the place to start. Of course, I could be barking up the wrong tree, I hope I am That's a pretty good service offered by the RHS, and I'll probably go down that route, as it's looking increasingly difficult to determine the PH of my soil. John(JWK) had suggested using a PH meter used for measuring the PH of water, using distilled water which one would have thought would be PH neural. Turns out it's not as simple as that, never is, is it! Apparently, distilled water is affected by contact with the air...blah blah blah....

Anyway Kristen, I appreciate the time you've put into this, thanks

 

I've read that [some?] soil pH meter probes won't read the pH of a liquid (they use a different measuring process), and reading the forums today someone said that the pH changed the further they pushed the probe into the soil .... and if they tried it with a glass of water the same thing - it got more "acid" the further they pushed the probe into the water !! Moral = Don't a cheap one, eh?!!

 

Hiya Kristen.

The one I just bought is designed to measure the PH of liquid. It's a cheap one
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Digital-Mul...3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1349463797&sr=1-3

 

My soil should be alkaline being on the boundary of the chalky chilterns and London clay belt, but I'm not too sure, seems fairly neutral to me, hey ho, things grow, so who am I to change it?