Mississippi
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ready for spring gardening in January
Mississippi Gardens Newspaper and Web Column - December 29, 2003
The New Year is here and gardening season will soon be upon us. Believe it or not January is a great time to get ready for spring gardening. For example, mild days provide opportunities to clean up the garden spot or amend it with compost or lime. When nasty weather prevails, open up the favorite seed or gardening catalogue and place orders before supplies are exhausted. Later this month we'll have the opportunity to plant onions and potatoes. For now, though, let's think about adjusting the soil pH, which is likely the most important aspect of soil preparation.
In order to have beautiful curls some hair care product manufacturers say that shampoo pH should be balanced. What they are really saying is that the product acidity is neutral. Sometimes these products show the number "7" on the container because this is right in the middle of the pH scale used to measure acidity. It starts at "0" and ends at "14". While I'm not sure why pH is so important to hair, we can discuss the value of pH to your plants and what to do about it if it is not quite where it should be.
The pH (or acidity) of garden soil determines whether or not the fertilizers we add actually become available to the plants. That's why we could have nutrient deficiency symptoms and poor plant performance from tomatoes and other garden vegetables even when plenty of fertilizer is in the soil. If the pH is out of balance in the soil problems usually abound. For most garden vegetables, the ideal soil pH ranges from 6.2 to 7.0
There are several ways to test soil pH. Simple test kits are available at garden centers and mail order sources or soil samples may be sent to the Mississippi State University Extension Service Soil Testing lab for a complete analysis (including pH) for $6.00.
If soil is tested and the pH is too low, what can we do? Agricultural lime or dolomite lime are two materials that can be added to the soil to raise the soil pH. In our part of the country, low soil pH prevails. These two sources are readily available from local garden centers. If needed, lime is typically added to garden soil in increments of 25 to 50 pounds or more for every 1000 square feet of garden area. The lime is tilled into the top 6 or 8 inches. Wood ashes can also be used to raise soil pH, just put as many pounds of ashes as you would lime.
Having the proper soil pH cannot be emphasized enough considering the impact it has on the success or failure of a vegetable garden. Having the soil pH properly adjusted is more important than having a beautiful head of hair! Happy Gardening!
These archived columns were written by Kerry Johnson, a hobby gardener, former weekly newspaper columnist and retired Extension Horticulture Agent for 11 coastal counties in Mississippi.