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Know Your Soil: The Test Every New Plot Holder Benefits From
Why testing your soil transforms your growing
One of the most useful things a new plot holder can do is test the soil pH in each growing bed. Soil pH is a measure of how acidic or alkaline your soil is, on a scale from 1 to 14. Most vegetables thrive between pH 6.0 and 7.0. On our heavy Croydon clay, pH varies from plot to plot depending on what has previously been grown and how much lime has been applied.
When pH is wrong, plants struggle to absorb nutrients even when those nutrients are present in the soil. This is why plants can look hungry and yellow in apparently fertile ground. Brassicas — cabbages, sprouts, kale — need a pH of 6.5–7.0, and below this, they become vulnerable to club root.
