Jan 4, 2023 · The diagram illustrated the relation of the soil pH to plant nutrients in which the width of the band at any pH value indicates the relative availability of the nutrient.

What Is Soil pH? Soil pH is a measure of soil acidity or alkalinity. The pH scale extends from 0 (a very strong acid) to 14 (a very strong alkaline or base), but most soils will have a pH range of 4 to 8.5.

For the 11 nutrients on the diagram, a pH of around 6.5 was con-sidered most favorable. The diagram has been often published in text books and soil extension material and continues to be reproduced. This paper reviews how the diagram was developed, and what its limi-tations are.

The pH of a soil influences nutrient availability, toxicity, microbial populations, and activity of certain pesticides. Soils with a pH less than 7 referred to as acidic and pH levels greater than 7 are considered basic or alkaline.

The soil pH diagram details the availability of 11 nutrients across a spectrum of soil pH values. The width of a nutrient band at any pH indicates the relative availability to a plant.

The pH of the soil in relation to the availability of plant nutrients has been an important research topic in soil fertility and plant nutrition. In the 1930 and 1940 s, a diagram was proposed that showed how the availability of major and minor nutrients was affected by the pH.

A soil pH(CaCl2) of 5.2 to 8.0 provides optimum conditions for most agricultural plants (Figure 1). All plants are affected by the extremes of pH but there is wide variation in their tolerance of acidity and alkalinity.

In an accompanying paper (Hartemink and Barrow 2023), we discussed a conceptual soil pH-nutrient availability diagram that purported to show how the availability of major and minor...

Soil pH is a measure of the acidity or basicity (alkalinity) of a soil. Soil pH is a key characteristic that can be used to make informative analysis both qualitative and quantitatively regarding soil characteristics.

Soil pH is a measure of hydrogen ions (H+) in the soil. In other words, a soil pH value is a measurement of the concentration of ions held to soil particles andorganic matter. The pH is important because it influences the availability of essential nutrients.