When you think about lawn care, you probably think of mowing, trimming and using soil additives to enhance the condition of your grass. You probably don’t think about soil pH, but it’s just as important when it comes to lawn management. There are a number of things that can affect the pH of the soil your lawn depends on – if you aren’t careful, incorrect pH values can kill off your expensive plants and grasses. Therefore, it’s important to check the pH of your lawn every year in order to design an appropriate watering and fertilization regiment.
For the most part, grasses do best in neutral soil with a pH range of 6.5 to 7. Think of your lawn as an aquarium. If you’ve ever kept fish, you know that the acid or base salts dissolved in the water affect the pH value of the tank and play a significant role in whether or not your fish will survive. Or if you aren’t a fish enthusiast, maybe you’ve heard about azaleas and other plants that require enrichment with coffee and tea grounds in order to provide additional acid to the soil. As in both of these examples, the plants that make up your lawn require a specific pH in order to grow and thrive.
How to test soil pH
Many lawn and garden stores sell easy-to-use kits that will give you an accurate soil pH reading. Check several spots on your lawn to make sure that each area is roughly the same pH. This is especially important if you treated one part of your lawn differently, and thus altered the pH in that area. For example, if you’ve used some form of pesticide on a problem patch, it may have a different pH reading than another area. You’ll need to adjust the pH values of these different areas before progressing with your general lawn care program.
When pH is too high
If the pH of the soil beneath your lawn is 7.1 or higher, it means the soil is not acidic enough. This most commonly occur when you’ve added too many basic soil fertilizers like lime, or if there’s been a limited amount of rainfall in your area. In order to correct high pH, try adding a fertilizer with a lower pH or do some extra watering to help flush out the basic salts.
How to correct pH that is too low
In most cases, you will be trying to lower the pH of a basic lawn – not correct for a soil that is too acidic. Limited rainfall, basic fertilizers, and many other factors contribute to creating a basic soil. However, if you do find that your soil is too acidic, try adding lime to alleviate this situation – just be careful to not add too much. You may also want to look for organic fertilizers that are known to increase pH, or formulas that release their nutrients over a longer period of time.
Unfortunately, many people add lime to their lawns believing that it will improve growth without realizing that the pH of their lawn may not need this type of adjustment. As a result, grass plants may suffer if they aren’t in an optimal growing environment. Therefore, it’s very important to test the pH of your lawn before adding lime, or any other treatment. If you had to replant parts of your lawn, or added fertilizer only to certain areas, it’s also important to test those areas separately. If you find areas that differ in their pH levels, be sure to adjust treatment of those areas accordingly.
