Has anyone worked out the pH of the box store peat products? I want to amend some areas of my garden and the packaging for, say, the. Majestic Earth Sphagnum Peat isn’t listed on its packaging (from what I read from online images) or on their website for that matter. I send an email to them asking.
If it’s truly Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss it should be quite acidic, but what is sold here might be amended already.
Its hard to believe folks are selling a soil amendment product without the pH information.
Usually runs pH 6.0 or thereabouts. But, as peat decomposes it tends to mitigate low pH soil by moving it toward pH 6.5 to 7.0. I routinely use a pint of dolomite lime per 3.5 cubic foot bale of peat to give about pH 6.0 for potting mix. I’m using some other ingredients that are also mildly acidic. For pure peat, a cup of lime should be enough for first pass.
Majestic Peat web site says it will lower ph but no details.
Not exactly your topic but I run across a grad student study awhile back about the nature of various bagged “garden soils” commonly available. They analyzed brands like Kellogs and Sta Green. Only the Sta Green products had high enough lime to get the ph around 6.5.
So I have been using SG for various soil amendments and potting mixes. Of course products change every season and they may not be making the same stuff using the same formula or it varies from regions where produced.
Peat is acidic. pH would not tell you anything useful, if you want to know how addition of it to your soil changes the pH of the amended soil. This depends on the buffering capacity of the peat and your soil (you’d have to know the titratable acid of both peat and your soil, not on the pH difference.
I think Majestic Earth is the kind from lowes? That’s where I get mine, and I did test it by letting it sit in distilled water for a day, and it’s the real deal. I believe I estimated 4.5 ph or so, based on test strips. This was good in my case, for blueberry purposes.