Low Soil pH

I have talked in recent weeks about some of the things that are going on under the ground just between the roots of your plants and microbes, i.e., bacteria. These can be a very good thing but are affected by soil pH. Darren and Brian Hefty, are agronomists with a television show called Ag PhD. They tell us about some of the effects of real low soil pH. "You might tie up with aluminum or some other nutrients out there, it's just not a good dealAnd that's why we want to get that soil pH closer to neutral. Also you will have better soil life. Your bacteria will survive better. Fungi. Your plant roots overall will be able to explore more soil because of the bacteria and fungi living in the soil and how they interact with your plant roots. It's kind of complicated but I'm going to make it real simple for you. You have to get your soil pH roughly within half a point of that 6.8, so we want to see our soil pH between 6.3 and 7.3. If you're not in that range you have to do something to fix that. Your best return on investment is to fix that pH." These guys say that one possibility for low pH is compaction issues meaning all your roots in a very small percentage of your soil. It might be nitrogen fertilizer staying in the top 6 inches of your soil.