misadventured-piteous-overthrows:One of my favorite infographicsI found it in bigger sizes for those
misadventured-piteous-overthrows:One of my favorite infographicsI found it in bigger sizes for those of us who have a hard time reading tiny text and also in Spanish (I think??):andWe’ll see what Tumblr does to the image quality…On the acid lovers: It’s weird that they group strawberries in with blueberries though as acid lovers?? They def all seriously benefit from mulch, but while blueberries want it crazy acidic (ph 4.5 - 5.5), potatoes also want it plenty acidic (pH 4.8 - 5.5), strawberries and garlic are in the standard weakly acidic (ph 5.5-6.5) range. The standard recommendation for blueberries is pine mulch aka soil conditioner, and TONS of it, because it’s so acidic*. You can actually mix it in the top few inches of the soil when you plant them. Pine straw just won’t get you as far. Since we’re suddenly on the topic of lowering soil pH, Ammonia sulfate is the quickest and most cost efficient way to do it, though you may have to go to a feed n seed to find it. You can dump elemental sulfur everywhere - which is what is commonly recommended to gardeners - but it takes a long time to actually lower the pH of the soil. We’re talking years. You can also just dump phosphoric acid on the soil. Whichever method you choose to go, these are best done BEFORE you plant blueberries or other acid lovers in. And get one last good soil test before planting. Correct the soil pH before planting. Your plants will thank you.There’s too many people out there planting their blueberries in soil that is way too alkaline, and then they get upset that the plants are sickly yellow and non-productive. Soil pH matters!*pine mulch has other cool properties, there is evidence that it contains some plant disease fighting compounds (PDF). In general it helps decrease damping off syndrome in seedlings AND suppresses nasty ol’ Phytophthora -- source link
#mulch#pine bark