Acidify soil?

bouicca21

I thought I should improve the soil in the flower bed and hoed some farmyard manure into it.  On second thoughts that may have been a bad idea as I think that may just make it more alkaline and I really want to acidify it slightly.  Is there any point in adding flowers of sulphur now?  Or have I just messed up?

[Deleted User]

If it's an acid soil you require just add ericaceous compost.
Certain plants thrive in an acid soil, others tolerate it and just look sickly - depends on your own 'eye' in that respect, to me, pale leaves on such plants look sad and i, personally, would add the ericaceous to return those yellowing leaves back to dark green.

Farway

I think it depends a lot where you are, I'm in Hampshire with chalk downs near by and thus acid soil is just not practically / financially feasible and grow accordingly and don't even attempt azaleas etc

If you were in with a fighting chance then working peat in would help acidify the soil

Davesnave

I'd never mess about with soil pH to grow ornamentals. If the soil isn't suitable for Plant X, don't grow it. There are thousands of other plants that will grow in highly alkaline or acid soils, while others simply won't care that much. Altering soil acidity is like some other bad habits; once begun it is hard to stop!

Apodemus

You could sprinkle some sulphate of iron on the ground and let it water in with the rain.

Soot2006

Farway said:

I think it depends a lot where you are, I'm in Hampshire with chalk downs near by and thus acid soil is just not practically / financially feasible and grow accordingly and don't even attempt azaleas etc

If you were in with a fighting chance then working peat in would help acidify the soil

Ditto. I'm on East Sussex chalk and all my ericaceous plants are in pots with their own soil type. It's just not realistic to grow them in open ground.

bouicca21

Actually what I want to do is to make the bed sufficiently acid to deter alkanet.

Apodemus

bouicca21 said:

Actually what I want to do is to make the bed sufficiently acid to deter alkanet.

Has someone suggested that is possible? I get it in with my heathers!

bouicca21

I can’t grow heathers!  But yes I thought acidifying the soil would help - alkanet is rampant in my area. I  got rid of some of the worst plants with glyphosate last year but the smaller plants just laughed and kept on growing.  I’ll have another go with glyphosate when the weather is a bit more reliable.  I was hoping I could do something to prevent it coming back.

Apodemus

bouicca, as far as I can make out, it tolerates quite a range of pH in the wild so you might perhaps be best to persevere with the glyphosate. 

bouicca21

Glyphosate it is then.  A war of attrition that I suspect I’ll never win.