Quote:
Originally Posted by Mikeod
A few years ago I had a company re-configure my landscaping and they included some azaleas and camellias that looked nice for a few months. Then I watched them slowly decline until I had to take them out. The company nicely replaced them (actually twice) but the new ones followed the same pattern. After discussing this with someone at the nursery, I tried using the same fertilizer they use, tried some spray for thrips, and tried mulching around them with some peat moss added. After still seeing them slowly go bad, I tried a pH reducing solution in the watering to try to neutralize at least the alkaline soil I believed they were planted in. And now they are doing better, not exactly thriving, but not dying.
So, I am re-doing more of the yard and would like to add more acid loving plants. But I would like to avoid the past problems by giving them a planting medium that addresses soil pH immediately rather than later. I know there are experienced people out there. What do you suggest?
Thanks.
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In most of the villages the soil is between 7 and 8. From your post, you've had a PH test and determined you have the wrong soil to grow acid loving plants. You can fight nature or grow plants better suited to what you have-not what you wish you had.
Our soil is sandy clay and it is loaded with LIMESTONE. Interesting-take some soil put it in a clear glass and add vinegar. You will see it fizz like the bathtub toy submarine we/I
had as kids. The PH for azalea, if I recall is 4 or 5. So for success you need to go from 7 or 8 to 4 or 5. I face the same problem as I grow blueberries.
My solution is to grow them in super large pots. My soil is roughly half peat moss. I add about half a cup of sulfur to each plant once or twice a year depending on the results of one of those cheap soil test meters. Home depo kind of thing about 10.00. They are NOT VERY ACCURATE but if you buy one and then have a soil test done through the cooperative extension, you can not how far off your meter is.
For azaleas if you insist on doing it, you can bury the large plastic pots that I purchased or at far lower cost you can buy those 55 gallon drums sold on craigslist. You want to find the ones from animal feed not from chemicals-they should be marked. You want to cut the drums in half cross wise drill holes into the drum for drainage. You can bury the pots so no one but you and I will know your plants are not in our alkaline sandy clay. For sulfur,Sparrs sells it. about $14 for 25 pounds. Rural King sells Ammonium Sulfate, the proper nitrogen source for acid loving plants. LOOK UP DIRECTIONS as to how much. More is not better.