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Soil PH

S

Spudm

Member
About a 4 acre portion of this field, the soil ph. is 7.3, too sweet for growing potatoes. I need to get the ph. down to 5.5, but in order to do this, I need to put down 1,000 lbs/acre elemental sulfer & 250 lbs/acre of ammonium sulfate, not counting NPK, I'm looking at over $2,800 to sour the ground, or risk scab on the potato skins. CPS quoted bulk @ 1,300/ton, elemental sulfer & 410/ton ammonium sulfate. What to do....Your thoughts?
 
Buy potatoes at the store... they're cheap.

It seems to me that quite a few vegetable crops like a pH of about 6.5, and fertilizer works much better around there too. The market gardeners will weigh in soon. They know better than I do.

7.5 is pretty high though.

My $0.02

Good luck with it,

Troy
 
Yes lowering pH is harder than I thought. I put on 400 lb/ac of surfur for a small blueberry patch, which had not been limed in years, and after a couple years took another sample and the pH is still at 6.2. No wonder the blue berry bushes are not taking off like they should. Any chance to get a hold of some chicken manure? That will help sour it.
 
Some of the blueberry growers around me are putting woodchips around their plants. I know that helps sour the ground, but is only temporary while they decompost...
 
The chemicals needed to grow this stuff for commercial production is costing a lot of money. It's like spending a thousand to make a hundred.....
 
I would not spend the money to plant a crop if not willing to make the investment in the soil chemistry, make a business decision and see if it makes sense to plant that crop.
 
I cannot understand why anyone grows potatoes or onions. They are cheap at the store plus they are more uniform and have been grown under the right conditions so they taste a lot better than you can do yourself. Things like tomatoes, I understand.
 
Wow, elemental sulfur is outrageous there. We get less than half of that per ton bulk. We do use lots of it here, high pH (8 or better) soils that we grow spuds in. The AMS price is on par with ours though.
 
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