Does digestate have any significant effect on soil ph?

[holmes65]

One for all the soil scientists out there, we are applying 20 m3 off digestate with a ph of 8.1 onto soil with a ph of around 6. Will it have any effect on the soil ph or not?

 

[Brisel]

@teslacoils

 

[cotswoldcs]

We've been applying biosoilds for 15 years and it's had very little impact on soil pH. Most of our soils are pH 8 so not keen to raise them much. I've worked out how much product we're applying to an estimated amount of soil in any field and I can't remeber but it's a tiny percentage. Will take decades to have any noticeable effect.

 

[teslacoils]

pH of rain about 5.5 - we put 600 cube on a year. Very little pH effect on soil.

Sorry that wasn't helpful. No real effect on pH from the digestate here. May see it more on grass where the surface of the soil isn't cultivated.

Should be regularly testing for pH anyway - most important factor.

 

[Luke Cropwalker]

One for all the soil scientists out there, we are applying 20 m3 off digestate with a ph of 8.1 onto soil with a ph of around 6. Will it have any effect on the soil ph or not?

Although the digestate has a pH of 8.1 it doesn't have a neutralising value so will have little or no effect on the overall soil pH.

 

[Cab-over Pete]

It’s not reactive- it’s inert- so very low chance of upping pH

Some folks think compost raises the pH, but that’s inert too. What it does is alters the soils capacity to hold onto stuff, so a good pH lasts longer. This might happen after lots of years of digestate application, but I doubt it because it doesn’t add much organic matter per cube if I recall correctly.