How Do You Change The Ph Of Vegetable Garden Soil When The Plants Are Already In The Ground?

Question

We’ve planted our fall crop of veggies and then we checked the ph of the soil. All the veggies grow best in pH of 5.5 – 7. Our soil is at 3.5 pH.

Answer 1

Since your garden is established, you need to add lime in increments rather than all at once. And it takes time for the change to take effect, especially since it would have to be surface applied and not worked in. I fear your current garden will suffer in the meantime. Is it possible to move the plants to a more desirable bed now? (If you only have a few vegetables, containers will work.) Then you can work on this bed up till the ground is frozen and get it ready for spring.

This article gives you the amount of lime needed to increase your pH:

https://rocklandcce.org/resources/correcting-soil-ph

https://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheet/changing-the-ph-of-your-soil/