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Old May 8, 2014   #5
b54red
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Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Alabama
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I got my ph too high a few years back and have been working to get it down some. The problems that I have had due to the high ph is the inability of the plants to take up enough iron and Phosphorous. It doesn't always show up but sometimes on some of my tomatoes or peppers I will definitely get iron deficiency and have to spray an iron supplement to the foliage to correct it. It also affects my peppers in their ability to pull enough P so I found that I could help by giving the plants a drink of water with a little vinegar in it which would temporarily lower the ph. Another result of the high ph is my soil test shows extremely high P because not enough of it is being pulled out by the plants the last 5 years. Six years ago my ph was just under 7 and my P levels registered as high but as my ph eased up my P levels rose dramatically.

My ph has come down some in the last year and a half. I have put in a lot of bark fines and fertilized heavily with cottonseed meal which is acidic and I haven't put any type of lime in my garden in years.

Avoid putting any lime in for a while and if you can start trying to get your ph down a bit so you don't have the problems I have had. I would also avoid using any cow manure as it will raise your P levels fairly rapidly especially if your ph is high.

Bill
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