Alkaline Soil in Kansas

[kfickler]

Tilled up some good Kansas clay for a garden which did ok the first year. Covered with mulch in the fall and tilled in cotton burr compost in the spring.....and almost nothing grew the second year. With an inexpensive soil tester the soil shows to be 7.5-8. Any suggestion on how to make the soil more acidic/less alkaline? Sulfer comes up on a google search. Can I make any difference this year and still expect a garden?

Any suggestions on plants that like the alkaline soil in KS?

Everywhere I test on 5 acres seems to be very alkalkine.

 

[Egon]

Do a soil test.

 

[dave1949]

Is cotton burr a common composting material in your area? Any possibility something came with the compost that caused the poor second year results?
I don't know what cotton burr is BTW
Dave.

 

[Jim in ICT]

Where are you located in Ks.? Have you tried your county extension agent?

 

[sld]

Hi Jim, I am in Wichita too, west side.

We have a lot of clay in our area but over the years I have tilled in leaves and other composted stuff. Now, several years later the garden soil is much better but still not perfect.

I second the idea of calling the county extension office. You can probably find something that will fix the problem in time for this years garden.

 

[kfickler]

Thanks guys. I took a soil sample in Monday. I will let you know their recommendations.

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

One year Tom was being really helpful and put fertilizer on my garden. The seeds didn't want to germinate and didn't do very well at all. We aren't sure but we think he got ahold of a bag of weed and feed. Next year wasn't great, it was the 3rd year before it got back to a good garden spot again. Maybe it was something else but we will always think that is what happened.

 

[Lacal]

I would think wood ash would raise the PH of soil and would not hurt the soil while doing so.

 

[kfickler]

Our soil test came back from K-State.

As expected, they recommended sulfur to reduce the PH but found it very interesting the different application rates for the various soil samples we took. Our PH ranged from 7.2 to 7.9, and the recommended sulfur application doubled. We were also high in phosphate and potassium, and therefore they recommended we use only one of a number of different fertilizers. The depth of the information alone put a smile on my face, and also made me realize that without having a soil sample of that specific area, we(you) could potentially make a bad condition worse. Dirt is pretty complex! This is going to be fun.

I will post an update on what we did and the results, but if you are fighting a similar condition please go get a soil test of the areas you plant!