Checking and Correcting your Soil pH Level

Sometimes you may find your lawn is not performing very well or not responding to fertiliser and this could be to do with the soils pH.

Now pH is a measure of acidity and alkalinity and most lawns like to be in the 6 to 7.5 range for optimum performance. A pH in the right range of 6 to 7.5 is a bit like a plant with its mouth wide open, no food will go to waste here and it will all be eaten by the plant.

Adjusting the pH is easier on loamy and sandy soils than on heavy clays. If your soil is a sandy loam and you need to raise the soil pH by one unit add the equivalent of 150g of liming material per square metre. An adult handful is about 100g.

Heavy clay soils will require at least 250g to raise the pH by one unit. A super fine grade of lime works quickest and generally costs around $8 a bag.

For an established lawn, which may be lacking magnesium, mix 50/50 lime and dolomite as the liming material to get the right balance of calcium and magnesium. Dolomite is only available in one grade and costs around $8 a bag.

After applying lime or dolomite make sure you water them well so that it moves into the soil. Testing the soil’s pH may seem like some mad scientific operation but it couldn’t be simpler with one of the soil pH test kits. All you have to do is follow the instructions and it even tells you how to make the changes.