my soil ph

Can anyone tell me if I should try and make my soil more acidic when it consistently stays at 7.0-7.5 on the soil meter? I am in my third year at a new site where I built up the soil with bagged compost and manure (and leaves) the first year but it did not change the ph. Which I found amazing. I cannot afford to continue to buy compost and do not make very much of my own compost, since I live alone. This year I have added sulfur in some places, and I have heard vinegar is a shorter, quicker fix. But I dont know if i need to fix it. I dont know that much about ph. Most of my garden plants did ok, but a few (like tomatoes) did not.
sophia

The common range to keep soil is 6.0-7.5 for most gardening. A reading of 7.0 indicates that your soil is neutral.

Personally, I would confirm the PH with another test such as PH paper before going too crazy with the amendments.

Are you growing plants? Any issues with growth? See what the plants tell you. If you are adding compost and getting yields then keep doing what your doing.

Do you live where there is a lot of limestone in the soil or is your water alkaline?

Try letting your water sit overnight for the tomatoes.

Do you have any coffee shops that will give you free coffee grounds?

Yes, vinegar will change the ph and so will acidic coffee grounds.

Good to know. I am using a ph meter that is metal. I used this in my four different gardens and it read 7.0 everywhere I sunk it into the dirt. I cleaned it after each use. My soils are all different. The newest one has no soil amendments at all.  Finally i sunk it into a bag of compost and it read the same, then into a bag of SULFUR and it read the same. Obviously there is something wrong with this ph reader.

Well that would explain why your amendments don't seem to have made a difference!

If it is helpful, you can make your own pH indicator with red cabbage. Just make sure you use distilled water with your samples, or the water pH will obscure your results (ask me how I know!). Here is some instructions:

source

Nancy Reading wrote:Well that would explain why your amendments don't seem to have made a difference!

If it is helpful, you can make your own pH indicator with red cabbage. Just make sure you use distilled water with your samples, or the water pH will obscure your results (ask me how I know!). Here is some instructions:

source

Ah snap! You beat me to it LOL.

3 years isn't very long from nature's perspective. I have acidic clay soil in zone 3. 3 year's in adding 1 ft of leaves every year and the soil is starting to show signs of improvement.

1 ft of leaves lasts about 3 months in the summer. It seems to just evaporate. Even thick oak leaves just vanish I can't believe it.

I thought they blew away so in August I put a foot of oak leaves down and covered it with straw in a particularly bothersome bed so that the wind can't possibly take it. 2 months later there is bare soil in maybe half the bed.

I always bury my leaves in the fall and my spring they have turned into nice dirt!
Thanks everyone, the new ph test is what I was hoping for, I will give it a try.
sophia

Hi Sophia -
If you are getting the same reading in all the soil you test, I would say the the meter is not working properly. What kind of pH meter are you using? It sounds like it might be like mine. Mine reads best in wet soil. I pour some pH neutral water in the soil, and then test it exactly the amount of time on the instructions. I do get different readings in different locations.
Different plants like different levels of pH. An indication that the soil's pH is not right for the plant is that it is not growing as expected. Of course, there could be lots of other reasons a plant may not be growing as expected, too. If they are growing as expected, I wouldn't worry about the pH.
But what was wrong with your tomatoes?

Jen: tomatoes never grew very large and although they would flower, they never made fruit. The squash and zuccini growing  in the same garden space did great and kept producing even through the heat.
sophia