• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Texas A&M Forest Service
  • Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostics Laboratory
  • Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service
  • Texas A&M AgriLife Research
  • Texas A&M College of Agrculture and Life Sciences
Montgomery County Master Gardeners
Montgomery County Master GardenersTexas A&M AgriLife Extension Service
  • Menu
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Demonstration Gardens
      • Adaptive Garden
      • Aquaponics
      • Bog Garden
      • Bees – Our Apiary
      • Composting
      • Discovery Garden
      • Floral Gardens
      • Greenhouse
      • Herb Garden
        • Entry to Herb Garden
        • Herb Recipes
      • Orchard
      • Vegetable Garden
    • Educational Gardening Classes
      • Gardening Classes
        • 2025 June 14 Gardening Class – Container Gardening
        • 2025 June 12 Gardening Class
    • Arbor Day
      • 2025 March 8th Willis Arbor Day
      • 2025 February 22, Conroe Arbor Day
    • MCMGA Privacy Statement
    • Speakers Bureau
  • Contact Us
    • Garden Helpdesk
    • How to Become a Master Gardener
    • Soil Testing
  • Resources
  • Members Only
    • VMS
    • Forms for MCMGA Members
    • Membership Directory
  • Publications
    • Articles
  • Blog Posts
    • 2025 June 14 Gardening Class – Container Gardening
    • 2025 June 12 Gardening Class
    • 2025, June 7th Open Gardens Day
    • 2025 May 8th Gardening Class, Squarefoot Gardening
    • Gulf Muhly – Texas Superstar
    • Box Turtle
    • Red Velvet Ant
    • March Protecting Your Lawn
    • 2-23 Soil – A Living Layer of Earth
    • January Gardening Tips
    • Texas Kidneywood
    • Red Velvet Ant
    • Wildscapes
    • Walkingstick Insect
    • Texas Wild Orchids
    • Tea Roses
    • Japanese Maple ‘Baton Rouge’
    • Skinks of Texas
    • It’s time to think spring bulbs!
    • Spring Bulbs Planted in Fall – Part one
    • Canna Leafroller / Brazilian Skipper
    • Mexican Bush Sage (Salvia leucantha)
    • American Beautyberry Jelly Recipe
    • Dragonflies and Damselflies
    • Rattlesnake Master
    • Do Copperheads eat Cicadas?
    • Crinum
    • Texas Bluebell
    • The Red-cockaded Woodpecker
    • Indian Pink
    • A happy gardener’s view to a symbiotic relationship with deer
    • New Texas Superstars
    • Profile of a master gardener – Lynell Soltys
    • Profile of a master gardener – Michael Christensen
    • Profile of a master gardener – Teena Reese
    • Profile of a master gardener – Lloyd Schill
    • Profile of a master gardener – Cliff Blackerby
    • Heat-loving plants for summer months
    • Why you should aerate your lawn
    • Planting for Pollinators and Other Wildlife
    • Monarchs and Milkweed
    • What the heck is pH and why is it important?
    • Tale of Woe by Bob Dailey
    • Photographing Flowers Series Part 11: Still LIfe Photography
    • Photographing Flowers Series Part 10: Life Cycle
    • Photographing Flowers Series Part 9: Abstract Photography
    • Photographing Flowers Series Part 8: The Art of Exclusion
    • Photographing Flowers Series Part 7: Find Something
    • Photographing Flowers Series Part 6: Shallow Depth of Field
    • Photographing Flowers Series Part 5: Black and White
    • Photographing Flowers Series Part 4: Macros
    • Photographing Flowers Series Part 3: Perspective
    • Photographing Flowers Series Part 2: Composition
    • Photographing Flowers Series Part 1: Light
    • Not Just Another Rose of Sharon
    • Must Have Abutilons
  • Events Calendar
Home » MCMGA Blog » What the heck is pH and why is it important?

What the heck is pH and why is it important?

February 6, 2020 by nitaschiro

By Bob Dailey, Master Gardener

Remember the high school science class? No, neither do I, but if I had been paying attention, I would have learned about the “litmus test.”

Here’s how it went, I’m told. First, you dip a piece of litmus paper into a solution, and it turns color…either red or blue. If the paper turns red, then the solution is acidic. If it’s blue, it’s “basic” or alkaline. If you’re interested in what litmus paper is, I think it’s made from lichens. I could go into that a little deeper, but I’m not that interested. If you are, either Google it or send me a message.

The critical point is that it tells you if the solution is acidic or alkaline. Chemists call the range between acidic and alkaline “pH.”

The term “pH” was first described by Danish biochemist Søren Peter Lauritz Sørensen in 1909. The O with the slash is called a “minuscule” by the way, and that’s all I know about it

pH is an abbreviation for “power of hydrogen” where “p” is short for the German word for power (potenz), and H is the element symbol for hydrogen. Why a Danish scientist used a German word is Greek to me, but he was a scientist, and I’m not, so I’ll just go with the flow. The H is capitalized because it is standard to capitalize element symbols. So now you understand about as much as I do.

Chemists and soil scientists have assigned a number to the pH test, ranging from 0 (highly acidic) to 14 (highly alkaline).

Now we know that soil is made up of living and non-living materials, both inorganic and organic.  This concoction of components creates some complicated chemistry (how’s that for alliteration). The pH designation and number are considered a “master variable” in soil science.

If I (or you, as the case may be) change the pH of a soil, the process can change biological, biochemical, and chemical processes in the soil and the interaction of those processes.

And here’s how it affects gardeners and farmers.

Let’s use phosphorus as an example. As most gardeners know, phosphorus is one of the three major nutrients that plants need. The other two are nitrogen and potassium. When you buy fertilizer, the law requires that each container on the bag provides the percentage of these three chemicals…nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K), or NPK.

Phosphorus is an excellent example of how pH can help or prevent plants from taking up nutrients in the soil. Phosphorus is essential to a plant. It plays a role in photosynthesis, transpiration, energy storage and transfer, cell division, cell enlargement, and several other processes in plants. If the pH of the soil is between 5.5 (somewhat acidic) and 8.5 (slightly alkaline), plants can take in phosphorus.

But if the pH is outside those levels (lower than 5.5 on the acidic side or higher than 8.5 on the alkaline side), the phosphorus interacts with other soil minerals like iron oxides and carbonates. This interaction then locks up the phosphorus and make it unavailable to plants.

There is a “Goldilocks Zone” where the pH is just right. That range is between 6.5 and 7.5. This is the range in which most plants can access the nutrients they need.

Plants not only need phosphorus, nitrogen potassium. They need an abundance of other nutrients…minerals like magnesium, sulfur and calcium, as well as trace elements of iron, copper, zinc, boron and molybdenum. Many of these nutrients are already in the soil, but, if the soil pH is outside the “Goldilock Zone”, the plant cannot access the,

How do you find out your pH? Get a soil test done. Here’s where you can go:

Texas A&M Soil Testing Lab

 

Filed Under: Blog Posts

Upcoming Events

Jun 14
9:00 am - 11:00 am

Gardening Class – “Gardening in Containers”

Jul 10
6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

“EarthKind Superstars” – Gardening Class

Jul 12
9:00 am - 11:00 am

“EarthKind Superstars” – Gardening Class

Sep 13
9:00 am - 12:00 pm

“Turf” – Gardening Class

Oct 11
9:00 am - 11:00 am

“Citrus Trees” – Gardening Class

View Calendar

Events Calendar

35 events found.
  • June 2025

Calendar of Events

S Sun

M Mon

T Tue

W Wed

T Thu

F Fri

S Sat

0 events, 1

0 events, 2

0 events, 3

0 events, 4

0 events, 5

0 events, 6

1 event, 7

8:30 am - 11:00 am

2025 Open Gardens Day

June 7 @ 8:30 am - 11:00 am

2025 Open Gardens Day

Please join us on June 7th from 8:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. for "2025 Open Gardens" at the Montgomery County Texas A&M AgriLife Extension office.  All are invited to take a... Read More →

FREE

0 events, 8

0 events, 9

0 events, 10

0 events, 11

1 event, 12

6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

Gardening Class – “Roses- Basics on Growing Them and Landscaping with Companions”

June 12 @ 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

Gardening Class – “Roses- Basics on Growing Them and Landscaping with Companions”

Check - In: 6:00 pm - 6:25 pm Class: 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm Love roses and wondered how best to use them in your landscape? Come hear Katherine Persson,... Read More →

$5.00

0 events, 13

1 event, 14

9:00 am - 11:00 am

Gardening Class – “Gardening in Containers”

June 14 @ 9:00 am - 11:00 am

Gardening Class – “Gardening in Containers”

Check - In: 8:30 am - 8:55 am Class: 9:00 am - 11:00 am Come hear Montgomery County Master Gardener, Rick Kirk speak about successfully gardening in containers. Rick is... Read More →

$5.00

0 events, 15

0 events, 16

0 events, 17

0 events, 18

0 events, 19

0 events, 20

0 events, 21

0 events, 22

0 events, 23

0 events, 24

0 events, 25

0 events, 26

0 events, 27

0 events, 28

0 events, 29

0 events, 30

0 events, 1

0 events, 2

0 events, 3

0 events, 4

0 events, 5

There are no events on this day.
There are no events on this day.
There are no events on this day.
There are no events on this day.
There are no events on this day.
There are no events on this day.
June 7
June 7 @ 8:30 am - 11:00 am

2025 Open Gardens Day

There are no events on this day.
There are no events on this day.
There are no events on this day.
There are no events on this day.
June 12
June 12 @ 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

Gardening Class – “Roses- Basics on Growing Them and Landscaping with Companions”

June 14
June 14 @ 9:00 am - 11:00 am

Gardening Class – “Gardening in Containers”

There are no events on this day.
June 14
June 14 @ 9:00 am - 11:00 am

Gardening Class – “Gardening in Containers”

There are no events on this day.
There are no events on this day.
There are no events on this day.
There are no events on this day.
There are no events on this day.
There are no events on this day.
There are no events on this day.
There are no events on this day.
There are no events on this day.
There are no events on this day.
There are no events on this day.
There are no events on this day.
There are no events on this day.
There are no events on this day.
There are no events on this day.
There are no events on this day.
There are no events on this day.
There are no events on this day.
There are no events on this day.
There are no events on this day.
There are no events on this day.
View Calendar

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK

Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service
Texas A&M University System Member

Texas AgriLife Extension Office/MCMGA
9020 Airport Road
Conroe, Tx. 77303
(936)539-7824

  • Compact with Texans
  • Privacy and Security
  • Accessibility Policy
  • State Link Policy
  • Statewide Search
  • Veterans Benefits
  • Military Families
  • Risk, Fraud & Misconduct Hotline
  • Texas Homeland Security
  • Texas Veterans Portal
  • Equal Opportunity
  • Open Records/Public Information