soil ph balance

HI all
ive just purchased dome azalea's and Rhod's for my garden.
I had been told by an experianced gardener that because my garden has a large number of well established conifer/ leylandi, that the plants should grow well, as conifers prefer acid soil etc.

I did a soil test (quite an old kit) and found the PH was bottle green, 7 or 8.

How do i lower the ph in the areas i want to plant the shrubs in?

Will they cope ok in the longer term?

any help gratefully received

Thanks
Gareth

 

That's true up to a point, but you can grow a Leylandii hedge on alkaline soil, so if you have a leylandii hedge it doesn't mean you have acid soil.

An acid soil tends to mean that you see plenty of conifers (and conifer woodland) around & about nearby.

I would go by whether you see Rhododendrons and Azaleas in other people's gardens around you. If not then I doubt you have acid soil :(

My Mother grew Acid-loving plants on Alkaline-soil, in containers, all sorts. It was a huge labour of love, with mixed (dare I say mostly "poor") results. As a consequence I won't have any plant that doesn't like my soil in the garden. I just don't want all the special-handling requirements ... but if your garden is not too big, and you can cope with looking after them, then lining a bed with plastic, buying in ericaeous soil, ensuring you have enough rain-water-harvesting tanks / butts to water the plants from, and so on, is all doable. Watering them with Sequestered Iron may be enough if your soil is only slightly too alkaline.

Fingers crossed that you do actually have acid soil as I love Rhodies and Azaleas (and Camellias) even though i can't grow them, and there are none to even enjoy looking at anywhere near my home.

 

Gareth, throw away the soil test kit and plant the Azaleaes they will be fine.

 

My neighbours garden adjoining my boundary has a 14ft high 60ft long leylandii hedge growing quite happily on alkaline soil. Which I'll be glad to see the back of when it's removed late summer. The roots have damaged my drains twice.

So leylandii don't seem to have a preference for soil!

 

Alkaline soil

Thanks very much for that, will be gutted if i cant grow them, as they are lovely and not too fancy/ fiddly.

Got them in big pots at present as they arent the massive varieties.

if the soil is alkaline, is there any way in prepping the soil, and then being able to keep the PH alkaline for them?

Thanks again

Gareth

 

To be certain, when planting, mix some sedge peat or ericaceous compost into the soil under, and around, the rootball.

 

I read that conifers don't necessarily prefer acid soil, but that their fallen needles have a tendency to slowly turn the soil acidic over years and years.

I also know from first hand observation that an area of the country that has a major problem with escaped rhodedendrons becoming invasive, white peak, which makes up about half of derbyshire's peak district, is largely alkaline soil, being on a bedrock of lime.

 

If I was doing it I would create a lined bed and fill it with bought in ericaeous compost.

A raised bed is probably easier to create, but will need more watering (and you'll need to use rainwater if your tap water is "hard", so that will depend a bit on how much you can store in water butts)