Hugo D. For you to have a thriving collection of plants in your garden, you need to consider many factors. For example, your plants need constant access to sunlight and water, and you should also consider providing them with fertilizers to boost their health.
While these are the usual things that come to mind, you should not forget soil’s importance in gardening. The soil acts as the habitat for your plants, so you have to make sure that it is healthy and robust.
After all, the soil becomes a reservoir of nutrients, organic matter, and minerals, which helps plants survive any environmental condition. So what can you do to make sure that your soil is healthy and rich in nutrients?
The first thing you need to do is to test your soil. You can either get yourself a soil test kit at https://trygnome.com/products/soil-test-kit or submit a soil sample to professional testing laboratories. The importance of testing your soil is to know which nutrients it already has, so you can feed it with the nutrients it lacks.
A soil test could also give you information on your soil pH, which measures acidity and alkalinity. Continue reading below to get more information about the importance of testing the pH level of your soil.
Benefits of Testing a Soil’s pH Level
There’s a reason why expert gardeners do soil testing: it’s more important than you think. Taking care of plants may be pretty easy for the most part, but there are also plants that require very specific requirements.
Those requirements might even become more complicated when they are placed in extreme environmental conditions. So if you’re still hesitating about doing a test on your soil’s pH level, read below to see why you shouldn’t.
Each soil is unique
You can’t treat each soil the same way. So your primary goal in testing your soil’s pH level is to find its unique characteristics. This way, you’ll be able to provide the exact type and amount of nutrients that it needs.
Check the acidity or alkalinity of your soil
The pH level of your soil depends on whether it’s more on the acidic side or inclined on the alkaline side. For most soils, their pH level range between 4 to 10. The goal is to keep your soil’s pH level around 6 to 8, which is considered the most suitable environment for a plant.
If your soil’s pH level falls under 6, it is considered acidic. On the other hand, your soil is alkaline if its pH level is more than 8. Whether your soil is acidic or alkaline, you need to make suitable adjustments to get its pH level to the neutral level between 6 to 8.
Know which plants fit your soil
While it is true that there is an optimum soil pH level, some plants actually prefer an acidic or alkaline environment. For example, most vegetable crops like potatoes, carrots, radishes, and spinach prefer acidic conditions. On the other hand, some trees, shrubs, and flowering vines prefer alkaline soils.
Use a Test Kit or Submit a Soil Sample
Submitting a soil sample to a professional testing laboratory could get you more accurate results and save you the effort of going through the process by yourself. However, purchasing a soil test kit could be the more affordable option, and the accuracy is not too shabby as well.
Either way, these methods will provide important information on your soil’s pH level. Before you proceed to choose the plants you need to put in your garden, always remember to test your soil first.
