how use sawdust or woodchips to lower ph of soil??

[qunupu]

hi
i check the soil ph of my outdoor grow..
the soil has a ph range between 7,5 \ 7,7 . it lock out zn, fe , and manganese .
i give water at ph of 6,6\ 6,7 (

i know i can use sawdust or woodchips but i dont know HOW TO USE IT . how much sawdust or woodchips i need to use to raise off ph soil to 6,8.
i have two large "bed" of about 1800\2000 liters of soil and about 1000 liters of soil divided into many pots (from 20 liters to 80 liters).

Synthetizing ...my problem is to low the ph of soil from 7,6 to 6,8.
(can i give only water with a ph of 6 to get the ph soil lower??? )

many thanks at alls

 

[BrotherMonk]

I would think you need to throw a handfull of sawdust around each plant to help lower your ph. Although I have no experience using this method, so take this post with a grain of salt. Some dolomite lime spread at the base would be my advice. Let the lime leach into the soil with waterings.

 

[Pops]

Do not use fresh sawdust to try to lower PH. Fresh sawdust and wood chips can contain terpentine and other chemicals that can kill your plants. Sawdust from oak trees can contain tannic acid that can damage plants. Some gardeners use aluminum sulphate to lower soil PH for berries that like acidic soil. Alumiminum sulphate needs to be used very carefully to avoid burning plant roots. . A better option would be to mix peat into the soil. Peat has a PH around 4.8 and will lower the soil PH.

 

[BrotherMonk]

^^^Yess! The voice of reason!^^^ Love ya pops! You always know how to put it in perspective. K+++

 

[qunupu]

good explanation
many thanks

 

[D.I.trY]

sawdust takes ages to decompose and in so doing it consumes alot of nitrogen from the soil to do so- this is what i have been told by my neighbour but not before i was cutting oak sleepers for the garden and spread the chips and sawdust around some of my raspberry plants. Those plants went pale green pretty quickly and i believe that it was that process that caused it. All in all i think its not a good idea.