{"id":4961,"date":"2015-03-17T10:00:34","date_gmt":"2015-03-17T15:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/blog\/?p=4961"},"modified":"2023-01-05T00:25:40","modified_gmt":"2023-01-05T06:25:40","slug":"measuring-soil-ph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/blog\/measuring-soil-ph\/","title":{"rendered":"Growing Green by Measuring Soil pH"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With green as the color of the day, it prompts the question: how can you make your garden flourish? Perhaps measuring soil\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/Category\/pH_Meters_Ion_Meters_and_ISFET_Meters\/3415?referred_id=5618\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow noopener noreferrer\">pH<\/a> will provide the answer. The pH of soil indicates more than its alkalinity or acidity; it signals the availability of nutrients, the soil life, and the type of plants that will thrive.<\/p>\n<p>Typically, the range of soil pH varies from 4.0 to 8.0; the range of soil pH for the optimal availability of plant nutrients is 6.0 to 7.0. Soil\u2019s ability to provide nutrition to the plant depends on:<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4963\" style=\"width: 129px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/Product\/Oakton_Waterproof_pH_150_Portable_Meter_with_SJ_All_in_One_Electrode\/EW-35614-30?referred_id=5618\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4963\" class=\"wp-image-4963\" src=\"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/oaktonc2ae-waterproof-ph-150-portable-meter.gif\" alt=\"Oakton\u00ae Waterproof pH 150 Portable Meter \" width=\"119\" height=\"200\"><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-4963\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakton\u00ae Waterproof pH 150 Portable Meter<\/p><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Essential elements in the soil<\/strong>\u2014Available nutrients depend on the elemental nature of the soil and its organic material content. Soil nutrients can be complex insoluble compounds (organic materials) and simple soluble forms.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Nutrient release to plants<\/strong>\u2014Simple elements in the soil are available for plant uptake. Complex forms (organic materials) must be broken down through decomposition to simpler, more available forms to benefit plants.<\/li>\n<li><strong>soil pH solution<\/strong>\u2014pH directly affects the availability of essential nutrients. For example, though iron, manganese, and zinc become less available as the pH rises above 6.5, molybdenum and phosphorus become more available. When the soil is acidic, minerals such as zinc, aluminum, manganese, copper, and cobalt become more soluble for plants\u2019 uptake. Yet, an excess of these ions can be toxic to plants. Alkaline soil contains a higher quantity of bicarbonate ions, which interferes with the normal uptake of other ions, harming plant growth.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Soil bacteria that assist in the decomposition of organic material thrive at a pH of 6.3 to 6.8. Fungi and mold prefer a more acidic soil, making the soil more prone to souring and putrification. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/i\/ph-6-soil-ph-testing-kit-meter-probe-beakers-and-buffers\/2500043\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Test soil pH <\/a> to determine how to treat it.<\/p>\n<p><em>See <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.com\/c\/water-quality-products\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"><em>ph meters and w<\/em><em>ater quality products<\/em><\/a><em> to measure your soil.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With green as the color of the day, it prompts the question: how can you make your garden flourish? Perhaps measuring soil\u00a0pH will provide the answer. The pH of soil indicates more than its alkalinity&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":6411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,24],"tags":[1951,1227,1240],"class_list":["post-4961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environmental-2","category-water-sampling","tag-measuring-soil-ph","tag-ph","tag-ph-meters"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Growing Green By Measuring Soil pH - from Cole-Parmer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Discover how the pH of soil can indicate more than its alkalinity or acidity; it signals the availability of nutrients, the soil life, and the plants that will thrive.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.de\/blog\/measuring-soil-ph\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Growing Green By Measuring Soil pH - from Cole-Parmer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Discover how the pH of soil can indicate more than its alkalinity or acidity; it signals the availability of nutrients, the soil life, and the plants that will thrive.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.coleparmer.de\/blog\/measuring-soil-ph\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cole-Parmer Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/antylia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-03-17T15:00:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-01-05T06:25:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.coleparmer.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/oaktonc2ae-waterproof-ph-150-portable-meter-1.gif?fit=178%2C300&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"178\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cole-Parmer Blog Team\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@antylia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@antylia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Cole-Parmer Blog Team\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Growing Green By Measuring Soil pH - from Cole-Parmer","description":"Discover how the pH of soil can indicate more than its alkalinity or acidity; 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