Adjusting soil acidity makes organic fertilizers work even better
Dong X, Yao Y, Han B, Zhong Y, Li B
Soil Health
If your vegetable beds or garden soil run acidic, nudging the pH toward neutral with compost or manure doesn't just help plants grow, it also locks more carbon into the ground.
Farmers who swap out some synthetic fertilizer for organic stuff like compost or manure already know it helps soil health, but this study found a hidden bonus: it also nudges soil pH toward neutral, and that pH shift alone does a lot of the work. In acidic soils, that pH change accounted for 15% of the extra carbon stored in the ground and helped boost crop yields by nearly 9%, mostly by feeding more microbes in the soil. The effect was strongest in acidic soils, which are common across Africa, where yield gains topped out at almost 10%.
Key Findings
pH amelioration independently drove 15.0%, 9.2%, and 4.1% of soil organic carbon accrual in acidic, neutral, and alkaline soils respectively, mainly via enhanced microbial biomass
pH-linked carbon gains translated into yield increases of 8.6%, 5.1%, and 8.1% across acidic, neutral, and alkaline soils
Benefits persisted over long-term organic substitution and peaked regionally in Africa, where pH-driven yield gains reached 9.9%
chevron_right Technical Summary
Shifting soil pH toward neutral through partial organic fertilizer use boosts both carbon storage and crop yields, with the biggest gains in acidic soils like those common across Africa.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Soil pH Amelioration Synergizes Carbon Accrual with Yield Gains Under Organic Substitution.
Soil pH management underpins sustainable agriculture globally, yet the intrinsic effects of pH change on soil organic carbon (SOC) accrual and crop yields remain obscured by concomitant shifts in o...
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