Acidic loving plants in alkaline/neutral soil

[PureBlackVoid]

I have a fair amount of shrubs which I have recently learned prefer acidic soil. Some are mature, inherited from previous owner and some I have planted in the last year.

I’m wondering is it enough to use an appropriate feed, or does the soil need altering? Some of them are planted amongst other plants that don’t need acidic soil so I’m wondering how best to treat them without affecting the other plants.

I really want to avoid moving the younger shrubs if I can, as I specifically chose a lot of them to fill a shady border so I don’t want end up back at square one. The younger shrubs seem to be okay for now, but I have a large camellia which was fine until this year when all the buds came through dry and yellowing which is what made me look into the soil types as I don’t want the same happening with the others

I would put ericaceous compost around the acidic loving plants. Put it on every 2 months or so, keep an eye on them. If they still suffer then they’ll have to go into pots with ericaceous compost.

in fact i would dig them up, make the planting hole a generous size and replant them with a lot of ericaceous compost,and reapply every so often.

We planted out a pot bound camellia into a bed, we are on chalk, I just dug out the area, filled with ericaceous compost, and am mulching with same. Also, avoid watering from the tap if you are in a hard water area, as you will be watering in those alkaline minerals. Use rain water, or the water from a condensing tumble dryer.

If the shrubs are mature and doing well, then they have adapted to the conditions. I would not disturb anything, but mulch with ericaceous compost in the spring and give ericaceous feed during the summer. Also agree with watering with rain water.

Under alkaline conditions, the iron in the soil becomes less soluble. So look into chelated or sequestered iron. Sequestrene used to be a well known brand … just checked, it’s still available

Thanks all