How to find out the acidity of the soil in a summer cottage: a simple method without devices and laboratories
The most accurate way to determine the acidity of the soil in your garden plot is to purchase a special device in the store.
But people have found a way to do without it and even without laboratory tests and analyses. The method is amazing in its simplicity and accessibility.
You can do some chemical work in the kitchen with baking soda, vinegar, use other reagents or litmus paper.
But it will not be possible to obtain an accurate result in this case.
A much more reliable method was suggested by nature itself - you just need to take a closer look at the weeds that are the first to appear in any garden in the spring.
Acidity and Weeds
If the soil is acidic, horsetail and horse sorrel, field mint, plantain and sedge will grow in abundance. In this case, you can safely add dolomite flour or other similar additives.
The following plants grow on neutral and slightly acidic soils: creeping wheatgrass, scentless chamomile, coltsfoot, field bindweed, red and creeping clover, sweet clover, and sow thistle.
Signs of high-quality and fertile soil are nettles and woodlice, shepherd's purse, and quinoa.
You can tell the difference between clayey and wet soil by eye, but herbs such as coltsfoot, horsetail, and wild mint grow on them.
On light sandstones, climbing knotweed, blackthorn, field snowdrop, and wormwood prefer to grow.
All work on bringing the soil into order is carried out gradually. To achieve the maximum effect, lime, ash or dolomite flour are added during digging in the fall.
