Soil ph, determines many outcomes in the soil including; fertilizer use efficiency, nutrient availability and uptake.
The availability of some plant nutrients is greatly affected by soil pH. It has been determined that most nutrients are optimally available to plants within this 6.5 to 7.5 pH range, plus this range of pH is generally very compatible to plant root growth.
It is the extremes in soil pH where it starts to get challenging. There will be some nutrients that will require special attention when we start talking about lower and/or high pH soils. In higher pH you must consider less available N and some of the micros like copper, zinc and boron being a little more restricted in availability.
You can see how the bars of each nutrient becomes constricted which means that the nutrient is less available based only on soil pH. In lower pH we see things like phosphate and some of the macros being restricted in availability.
With most soil characteristics some where in the middle is usually better than the extremes.
Make sure when you’re deciding on your fertility strategy soil pH is considered.
