The Soil Factor–pH Makes A Difference For Roses
When somebody is talking about the pH of soil it’s easy to get confused. A lot of people really don’t know what this means or why it’s important. In order to have the best understanding of soil you need to know exactly what pH is and why it’s important to the health of your roses.
The term pH is an abbreviation for hydrogen power. When you’re measuring the pH of soil, for instance, you’re measuring the hydrogen ions in that soil. The measure you obtain will tell you the either the acidity or the alkalinity of the soil. The pH scale ranges from 0 to 14 and as you can guess, 7 is the neutral number.
As the amount of hydrogen ions in the soil goes up, the pH of the soil goes down. With a smaller pH measurement the soil is more acidic; 7 and under is acidic while 7 and over is alkaline. Most roses need a more neutral soil–a pH measurement of 6.5-7.0 is ideal. Because some roses do need a lower or higher pH, remember to follow the instructions from the place where you buy the roses.
Out of the seventeen essential plant nutrients, did you know that fourteen of them are obtained from the soil? This should give you a good idea of just how important that soil pH is to the health of that plant. In a more acidic soil the nutrients are move available to the plant. With alkaline soils, the nutrients aren’t as soluble. If your plant doesn’t get the proper nutrients, you can say goodbye to it. Just like people, plants need specific foods to survive.
This is why it’s so important to test the soil before you start planting. To get your soil tested there are several routes you can take. There are places locally that will test your soil for you. You just need to take a sample to them and they’ll do the rest. The testing isn’t too expensive, usually under $15. You can also buy pH strips or a pH meter which will allow you to test your own soil at home. If you do choose to test the soil yourself, remember to follow the instructions exactly as the accuracy of the results are dependent on you.
Collecting a good sample is another important aspect of testing the pH of your soil. You’ll want to remove mulch and debris from the top of the soil to begin with. Then collect 3-6 small samples of soil from the top six inches of the soil. Make sure you take the soil from the area you’d like to plant your roses and make each sample size as similar as possible. As you get the samples mix them together in a plastic bucket (if you use a galvanized or tin bucket your soil can be contaminated and you’ll get inaccurate results). Then you’ll want to get one cup of that soil to use as the actual sample. When sending in a sample you’ll want to follow the instructions for packaging as well. Some places provide a box in which to put the sample and others would rather you use a plastic baggy. It’s important to follow the directions exactly in order to get the most accurate test results.
The reason that you collect a bunch of small samples, mix them together and then only use a part of the soil is to get a representative sample of the soil. It’s the same process as when you’re finding the average in a math class. You take each part and add it together, and then you divide by the total number of parts. So basically we’re just getting one sample that represents the whole area of soil.
Before you plant anything put in the time and effort to test and improve the soil in your garden. If you skip this first step, you’ll end up watching your plants fail to thrive and you’ll have to start all over again (only that time you’ll improve the soil). For successful growing and beautiful roses make sure you take care of the soil first.
