I'm working with a soil that has a pH of 9.0 and contains a lot of nitrogen from chicken manure. I'm worried that the excess nitrogen might harm my hot peppers. Is there any chance that the nitrogen and alkaline soil will balance each other out and lower the pH as the nitrogen leaches away? Or will my plants suffer from nitrogen poisoning? This is my first time growing vegetables, so I'd appreciate any insights!
2 Answers
Honestly, the best way to get concrete answers is to send your soil to a lab for testing. That said, there’s a lot of misinformation about nitrogen levels. Most newbies worry about ‘excess nitrogen’ when in reality, many struggle with not providing enough. Also, if you’re using manure, you might want to keep an eye on phosphorus levels instead. How much chicken manure are we talking about? And is that pH from a legit test or one of those cheap kits?
Just so you know, organic manure like chicken doesn’t typically lower soil pH, that’s usually something you see with commercial fertilizers like urea. So you probably don’t need to stress about excess nitrogen unless you literally plant directly in fresh manure. Your plants should be fine!
Thanks for the clarification! That's a relief to hear. Now I feel like I've got one less worry!