{"id":21920,"date":"2025-07-16T07:58:16","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T11:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/?p=21920"},"modified":"2025-07-16T07:58:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T11:58:16","slug":"understanding-your-soil-ph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/understanding-your-soil-ph\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding Your Soil pH"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Maintaining a pH level within the optimal range is crucial for your plants&#8217; health and vigor. The soil pH value measures the acidity or alkalinity of the soil. Soil pH affects nutrient availability. The pH scale ranges from 0 to 14, with a neutral value of 7. Any numbers below 7 indicate acidity, while numbers above 7 indicate alkalinity.<\/p>\n<p>I have been teaching the importance of understanding your soil, especially its pH, for decades. If you want your plant(s) to grow and thrive, it all starts with two things:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Choosing the right plant for the location<\/li>\n<li>Understanding your soil<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Often overlooked, soil pH has as much of an effect on plant health as any disease, insect, drought, or drainage issue.<\/p>\n<p>We sell plants that thrive best in different soil pH ranges. For a quick example, azaleas, rhododendrons, boxwoods, hollies, and blueberries thrive best in acidic soil. If you are growing acid-loving plants, then you do not want to lime around them\u2014unless your soil pH is so low that it is locking up vital nutrients for the plants. In contrast, vegetables and ornamental grasses thrive best in a pH range near neutral.<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to some varieties of hydrangeas\u2014did you know that the pH level will control the color of the actual bloom? With a pH near 6.0 you will have blue flowers whereas with a pH near neutral or above you will have pink flowers.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">GET YOUR SOIL TESTED<\/h3>\n<p>We can do FREE pH testing for you. Just bring us soil and you will have your pH reading in a minute.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to testing pH, I am a strong advocate for knowing your soil completely by having a complete soil analysis done on your landscape or gardens. We can\u2019t do that for you because it takes a laboratory to do this level of testing. We have soil tests here to give you. Just follow the simple instructions and mail off the box of dirt to Virginia Tech. The cost is only $10. With this test you will know everything needed with your soil. I equate this test to us having blood work done with our annual medical exam. This exam tells us most everything as to how our body is working. Without this test then it is all a guessing game.<\/p>\n<p>Off on a side tangent\u2014you may be wondering why the \u201cp\u201d is lower case and the \u201cH\u201d is capitalized. pH is an abbreviation for \u201cpower of hydrogen\u201d where the \u201cp\u201d is short for the German word for power, <em>potenz<\/em> and the \u201cH\u201d is the element symbol for hydrogen.<\/p>\n<p>Fall will be here before we know it. Being mid-July is a great time to get ready to do fall gardening and planting by having your soil tested. This way if the test indicates some needs then you have the rest of summer to do the corrections. You do want your plants to thrive and be happy. Right?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>PLANT A LITTLE HAPPINESS !!!!!!!!!!!<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/\">To read more posts from Doug, visit our blog<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/hours-locations\/big-great-greenhouse-in-richmond-virginia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Return to the Great Big Greenhouse homepage<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maintaining a pH level within the optimal range is crucial for your plants&#8217; health and vigor. The soil pH value measures the acidity or alkalinity of the soil. Soil pH affects nutrient availability. The pH scale ranges from 0 to 14, with a neutral value of 7. Any numbers below 7 indicate acidity, while numbers &#8230; <a title=\"Understanding Your Soil pH\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/understanding-your-soil-ph\/\" aria-label=\"More on Understanding Your Soil pH\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":21921,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gardening-with-doug","masonry-post","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Understanding Your Soil pH - The Great Big Greenhouse Gardening Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Maintaining a pH level in the optimal range is crucial for plant health and vigor. 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