AJ's Research Lab : Soil Testing

AJ's Research Lab ✌

The other day I went on a road trip and found this place full of lush greenery. 

                             I wanted to grow a garden of my own and started doing some research and learned that the amount of water required to grow a plant is equally important to the soil in which you grow the plant. For some plants, the soil has to be alkaline and for others acidic. So, how do you find the alkalinity and acidity of soil? By finding the soil's pH value.

What is pH?

                          pH is a measure of the hydrogen ion concentration of a solution. Solutions with a high concentration of hydrogen ions have a low pH and solutions with low concentrations of H+ ions have a high pH. (It's confusing. I know) The PH level is measured from 0-14. The neutral levels are 6-7. If you use a meter and your soil is measured between 0-5, it means that it’s acidic. A PH level of 7-14 means your soil has more alkaline in it.

After gaining this knowledge. I was ready to put myself out there and find it out for myself. Sadly, tho I wasn't able to find a soil testing kit in Virudhunagar. But I didn't give up. Every problem has a solution. I found a solution to my problem. I found a quick and quite dirty method to find the pH value of soil. The method that I found doesn't give an accurate pH value but it is good enough to say whether the soil is acidic or alkaline.

I used the Vinegar and Baking soda method!

First I collected a bag of black cotton soil:

I had to use a knife... because the area that i dug in was very hard. I was an Archaeologist for that moment.

Secondly, I collected a bag of red soil:

Then I Bought Vinegar & Baking Soda:

#1. Testing for acidity in red soil using vinegar:

Get a cup of red soil (or any soil) that you want to test for its acidity or alkalinity. Make sure that you get pure soil. No  twigs, stones, pebbles, etc for a more accurate result.

Ignore The Black Soil For Now. We Are Just Going To Use The Red One For Now.

Put your soil sample in a glass container or a mug like what I have already done and then pour half a cup of water on to it. Stir your mixture and wait for it to become muddy. If needed you can add more water. That's not going to be an issue.

Once you are done stirring your sample with water. It should look something like this.

Once your sample is muddy enough, pour in half a cup of vinegar and wait for awhile. 

If your mixture fizzes or bubbles up, your soil has more alkaline. If it remains calm, then you've acidic soil. Since, My sample of red soil remained calm it has more acidity in it.

And according to google the results of my experiment is correct because apparently, red soil is almost always acidic in nature.

#2. Testing for acidity in black soil

Take at least a cup of soil that you want to test. I'm using black soil that I have collected formerly. It has the same rules as the previous experiment. No sticks, twigs, stones or pebble in your soil mixture if you want a more accurate result. Put your sample in a glass jar or container I personally used a mug. 

Add half a cup of baking soda into your soil sample and stir. Add half a cup of water onto your sample. Make sure that your sample's consistency is a bit mushy and slimey. If half a cup of water is not doing the job, you may add more water as needed. Just make sure that the texture won’t be too runny and watery.

See what happens to your mixture. If it fizzes, bubbles up, or foams up, your soil is acidic. According to google black soil has a pH range varying between 3 to 10. Which means it can either be acidic, alkaline or neutral. It just depends on the area from which you took the  black soil from. Apparently, the area the black soil that I took is acidic because my content fizzed and bubbled like crazy.

If you had tried both baking soda and vinegar on one type of soil and there is no change at all it means that the soil that you used has a neutral pH value and that you can use it to grow your plants.

A.N: Hope that helped few of you get started on gardening by choosing the right soil for your plants. Happy gardening people. ❤