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  • From: list@ginda.us
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] nafex pH Question
  • Date: Sat, 5 May 2007 09:09:47 -0400


On May 4, 2007, at 8:18 PM, oowonbs@netscape.net wrote:

I don't know a lot on the topic and I don't know what pH southern soil
normally is. But my statement only address the fact that what comes
into the
tree is the same as what eventually falls off.
Kurt

Hmmm, so a lemon tree out west... ;>)

I'm no expert on the pH of plants, but I'm pretty sure that it's not true that "what comes into the tree is the same as what falls off", at least, not if you are also assuming that what's in the soil is the same as what comes into the tree. Trees and other plants burn energy and are active living things that control their pH as well as other aspects of their internal chemistry. Yes, it takes engery to drive the pH differently, but plants are good at gathering and using energy. Similarly, healthy people can eat food that's somewhat acidic or somewhat basic, but we maintain our internal pH within very narrow boundaries. Most life forms can do that.

And of course, most plants have a preferred range of pH for the soil they grow in, so it's certainly possible that all blueberry leaves are acid because blueberries have a lot of extra H+ to work with, and dump some of it in their leaves. (just an example, I have no idea what the pH of blueberry leaves is)

Plants differentially take up elemental nutrients from the soil, too. The only "nutrient" for which I've seen numbers is lead, and for lead, I know that some plants take up vastly more than others from the same soil, so much so that there are some crops that can be grown to remediate lead-heavy soil. Although, in that case, I wonder what you're supposed to do with the lead-heavy leaves those crops produce.

In the discussion a couple years ago about pine needles,


On Oct 22, 2003, at 9:20 AM, Jim F wrote:
Why do so many people believe the 'old wives tale' that pine needles and oak leaves make the soil acidic?
Upon the first day of my Horticulture class, for a gee-whiz experiment, I grind up dry pine needles, add distilled water, insert a pH meter, and ask a student to read the meter. "Oh, it's alkyline," is the usual response. Not very alkyline, really, with a pH of 7.2 to 7.3. Next, I take a jar of pine needles and oak leaves that have been fermenting for a month and ask another student to read the meter. "pH 7.0," is the invariable response. For the last portion of the experiment, I have a third student read the pH meter for a jar of pine needles and oakleaves that have been composting in my garden for a year. The pH is still 7.0, no more acidic than other composted vegetative matter.
Every time I encounter a conifer that I hadn't tested before, I collect its needles for a pH test and I have yet to discover acidity among those I have tested. Perhaps there is a species of conifer, somewhere, whose needles make soil acidic, and if there is, I just haven't found it yet.
Jim Fruth
Pequot Lakes, MN




Ginda



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