I have been doing some research and found some references to Nikko Blue blooms that develop a green or bluish-greenish color when the plant is in neutral soil (pH is close to 7... not very alkaline but not very acidic either). Does anyone have any pictures of these blooms that you can share? Just trying to see what they look like. TIA, Luis
Nikko Blue Blooms In Neutral Soil Anyone?
No pics but thatmight explain the greenish mopheads I see in the neighborhood. Imagine Limelight in a mophead and you've got it.
luis,
I have never had my soil tested, but THINK it is on the alkaline side since my ES are all very much all pink now. Here's a couple pictures of my Nikko Blue that I managed to get a few blooms on this year! They are very light blue to pink with some green to white in the centers of the individual flowers. Maybe the soil varies in PH right there? Hope this helps you.
Oops, this shot cut the pic of the blooms off a bit, don't know why it's showing up like that? I think you can still see the colors though.
BTW Luis, a pH of 7 is the definition of a neutral pH, neither alkaline nor acid.
Edited to add, something is either acid or alkaline in nature. With soil being made up of different stuff, soil composition can vary from place to place and so pH can vary. pH is the inverse logarithm of the concentration of hydronium ions (the form hydrogen ions take on in water so in theory only water has a pH).
This message was edited Jul 15, 2008 8:01 PM
bbinnj - you seem to be knowledgeable about PH or so it seems to me because I didn't understand a thing you just said, other than soil PH can vary and theoretically only water has a PH (science was definitely NOT my thing)! Here's a question for you. Can you tell me if my hose water that I water my plants with has a PH of 8.4 and alkalinity of 240, will that affect my plants that tend to prefer an acidy soil? My Phlox paniculata start out nicely in Spring but it's foliage begins to decline and looks downright ratty by bloomtime. They are not filling out at all either.
Mine are pink this year but they were about the color you are speaking of last year. I didn't care for the color.
I'm with you LeePerk -
Nikko Blue. They should be blue! One of these days when I find the time, I want to add some alum. sulfate. I have all I can do to keep up with the weeds these days! Arggh!
Your water will eventually raise the pH of your soil, so if you want to keep your soil on the acidic side you're going to have to amend from time to time. But there are about a billion other things that could be making your Phlox unhappy. Since Plant Files says that P. paniculata can handle mildly alkaline, neutral, or mildly acidic soil I suspect it's something else rather than the pH that's causing your problems--water and fertilizer issues would be the first thing I'd check.
ecrane - What is the best thing to use to amend it to make the soil more acidic? I've read Spaghnum (spelling) Peat?
You can use peat but there are other things too, but depending on what you're growing you might not even need to adjust your pH at all. Why don't you start a new thread for pH and amendments though--I feel bad getting Luis's thread off track here when we still haven't given him a definitive answer on the Nikko Blue in neutral soil thing.
Sounds good.
@Medinac, I can only say that your hose water has a pH of around 7, maybe 6, maybe 8.4. Not 240, it would eat the hose and you (that may be theoretically impossible too). To check the pH of your hose water, you can buy pH paper. If the gardening store doesn't have it, try the science education area of a big toy or education outlet like Hammonds, or order it on line. Edmund Scientific has a pack of 100 strips for $1.95, I just checked.
@ecrane, why would water raise the pH unless there are minerals like lime around? Where I live, we have to add lime because the decaying leaves lower the pH of soil. I must have missed something.
If your water pH is above neutral and you water your garden with it, it's going to make your soil pH drift up eventually (and hose water can definitely have a pH above neutral--maybe in your area it doesn't, but in other areas it certainly can). Just like anything else where if you have something that's neutral or acidic and you keep adding something alkaline to it, the pH is going to go up over time. That's why people who live in areas where everything tends to be on the alkaline side have to keep amending their soil on a regular basis if they want to keep the soil acidic. If you're having to add lime to your soil then this is obviously not the case in your area, but it certainly happens elsewhere.
Anyway, let's get back to Luis's question about the Nikko...sorry to have gotten off track! Medinac started a new thread about pH adjustment so let's talk about this over there if there's any more discussion.
Sorry for the delay guys. We had some bad weather in the area Tuesday Night and lost power for almost 12 hours (Wednesday 12am-9am). I spent the night waking up and checking a clock I could not move in another room. Then trying to fall asleep again because it was not time to wake up. Do that three times and you get very little good sleep.
To top it off, one of my pooches is all black and hard to see under these conditions but she stayed out of the way; good girl! Yesterday I was waaaaaay to sleepy when I returned from work. Even had one phone call that went into the answering machine. For the life of me, I do N O T remember the phone ringing.
Thanks for the pictures, medinac. That is what I was looking for.... examples where the NB shrub grows in neutral pH or near neutral. Other hydrangea varieties blooms would turn purple or pink as they approach such a pH (depends on the amount and type of pigments that they have). NB seems to react in a different way by turning the blooms a "very clear blue" (I am not sure what to call it) or perhaps even green. This is not the same "green" aged look that all hydrangea blooms get starting in mid to late July around here and but rather, this is the look that the NB blooms have from the beginning in these types of soils.
Hydrangeas have an epidermis that does not react to soil pH. It is the next set of cells that do this. But in the case of NB, these cells -called indicators- react differently than do indicator cells of other hydrangea varieties. Alluding to bbinnj's reference to litmus paper, it is as if you had two slightly different types of litmus paper.
So, pictures/examples were of interest to me since my soil is out of the pH range needed (mine is above 7 but I needed to view examples of blooms grown at 7 or close to 7); and the few relatives who have hydrangeas live in strong acidic locations.
Water per se does not raise the pH but water -in Texas- is obtained near lakes where there may be a lot of lime and this causes the alkalinity. I regularly use city water on my shrubs and here city water is slightly alkaline. All this alkalinity would drive the hydrangeas nuts so I amend the soil once/twice a year. To limit the exposure and its effect on hydrangeas, gardenias and azaleas, I collect rain water in wood wine barrels and use this water when doing garden chores outside. The wine barrels have a spigot and an adapter for garden hoses or cleaning the inside once a year. Barrels made of wood look better but the plastic ones probably last longer; I recommend them if you do not have any.
Thanks again, y'all!
Luis
This message was edited Jul 17, 2008 2:00 PM
Luis, So sorry to hear of your power outtage. Those are awful to deal with! You never realize how much your life revolves around electricity! We had a 16 hour outtage last month and the worst is that our water well goes out too. No potty, no water for washing. Now that's "roughing it". No fun at all.
You know I do have a rainbarrel collecting water that I could use for the hydrangea that are near the barrel! I use it for the veggie garden but didn't think to use it for the hydrangea. I'd just have to get a longer hose.
Could you please do me a favor? Pop over to my question in this forum about PH and soil amendments and let me know what you use for yours? I'd appreciate that.
I'm glad my pictures of Nikko could help you! I'm just thrilled to finally get blooms on that baby, whatever color they are!