Aluminum Sulfate to quickly lower soil pH

Does anyone have any experience using aluminum sulfate to lower garden soil when there are already established plants? My peppers and some other plants are not doing as they should? Showing some yellowing and are not growing as good as they should be.

I did five slurry tests for pH and they all came in between 7.8 and 8.0 which is too alkaline. I need to lower it and don't have the time it takes for soil sulphur. Aluminum sulfate works immediately once it's dissolved to lower the pH. My concern is the effect it will have on the plant's already growing. I've found conflicting information online. I know the application rate but am hesitant at this point to apply it. Yet if I don't some of my plants will likely not amount to much.

If anyone has any knowlege/experience regarding this I'm all ears.

Thanks

I really don't know about it so better take it from someone who does. But, aluminum is not what I would be putting in my food. Sulfer will work fast if its in powder form. Any powdered or water soluable sulfate would be a better option IMO. Maybe try some iron sufate if your plants are yellow. Or magnesium sulfate.

NirvanaMesa said:

I really don't know about it so better take it from someone who does. But, aluminum is not what I would be putting in my food. Sulfer will work fast if its in powder form. Any powdered or water soluable sulfate would be a better option IMO. Maybe try some iron sufate if your plants are yellow. Or magnesium sulfate.

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Yeah that's what I was thinking as well. Didn't sound like something I want to use on Vegetables. It's more for flowering shrubs like hydrangea and rhododendrons that prefer an acidic soil. I have a box of Down To Earth Acid mix and I noticed the main ingredient is cottonseed meal. It can be used quite liberally without burning the plants. I'll probably work some of that and some peat into the soil to try and lower it.

Yeah cottonseed meal is good stuff. Works good on food crops too. If you have sulfer pellets you can crush them into a powder and speed things up. Sulferic acid for car batteries at the auto part store is cheap and pure. You can use it to PH down your water also.

NirvanaMesa said:

Yeah cottonseed meal is good stuff. Works good on food crops too. If you have sulfer pellets you can crush them into a powder and speed things up. Sulferic acid for car batteries at the auto part store is cheap and pure. You can use it to PH down your water also.

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Yeah I do have the pelleted garden sulfur. I didn't even think to powder them up. Thanks for the tip.

I'm trying to understand why my soil pH is so high. I've narrowed it down though. I've been trying to use organic amendments and think I used too much of some. I bought 50 lb bags of a bunch of stuff and probably got to liberal with my applications. For instance, kelp meal can be up to 9.5 pH and I think that's what caused the spike. The only plants showing issues are my peppers and Armenian cucumbers. So I think the combination of my high pH and the fact that the nighttime temperatures are still pretty low sometimes all added up. I also am always in a hurry to get plants in the ground. I should probably wait a little longer before putting plants in the ground. I've learned to be patient with my cannabis but I still need to slow down with my vegetable garden. But it's so hard to just sit there and wait while looking at empty garden space.

I have a lot to learn about organics. I have it down to a science using chemical salts. But organic growing is an entirely different animal.

Yeah if you are in so cal, its been a very cold year. I always want to get a jump on the vegetables too but realisticaly no point in starting summer crops until June.

So I just ended up mixing some Dr Earth Acid blend into the soil and watering it in. A few days later I said screw it with all organic and mixed up some VitaGrow that I use for cannabis and watered each plant with some of that. The results have been good. The plants were stunted and yellowing. Now they're growing and greening up. One of the Jalapeno's is setting fruit. It's still early in the season and they will get much bigger so everything should work out.

I think most of the problem was due to me putting them out too early in too cold of temperature. They might have done fine on their own once it warmed up more. Regardles, they seem to be on the right path now.

They look sad right now but much better than they did and are growing fast.




The eggplant is looking much better as well and are starting to grow.




You can see the older yellow leafs. I'm going to have to work on the soil next year. These are raised beds and my attempts at going all organic haven't gone that well so far. Maybe I'll fill them with coco and water with blumats. Joking. I'll get everything in shape soon. Just have to get a handle on the organic amendments, how they break down, and when they're available to the plants.