Your garden's success greatly depends on preparing your gardening ground with the proper soil. Most gardens are clay or sandy, but plants prefer to grow in a rich medium where they can thrive with the correct amount of nutrients, aeration, and the correct soil pH. Adding a wetting agent to soil products allows water to disperse evenly, which prevents dry areas.
Soil pH is the concentration of hydrogen ions measured in the soil. this scale ranges from one to fourteen. A pH level of seven is considered to be neutral. If the pH level is below seven, you have acidic soil and there's a higher level of hydrogen ions present. When the pH is above seven, you have alkaline soil, which means you have lower levels of hydrogen ions in your soil.
How do pH levels affect growth? Having the proper soil pH gives plants the opportunity to grow in an environment that's most beneficial to them. For example, biologists have learned that plants are most receptive to plant nutrients and beneficial bacteria, organisms that release vital nitrogen from organic matter in the soil, when the soil pH is in the 5.5 to 7.0 range. If the soil pH drops below 5.0, many plant nutrients may wash out of the soil and high concentrations of toxic elements, such as aluminum, may occur.
Most soils with a balanced pH will usually maintain a granular crumb structure, increasing the availability of water and air to plant roots. Farmers have long used limestone to condition their fields for proper pH to maximize their crop yields.
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