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hi oh wise ones ;D i have a craneberry plant that needs ericaceous soil. i made a lovely container for it yesterday to plant it into but only have approx 10L of ericaceous soil i was wondering if i could make up the extra with my homemade compost and was wondering whats the approx pH of compost?

"Normal" compost is neutral... about 6.5-7 it would be too high for cranberries. Remember to only use rainwater... tap water is also too high.
If you have neighbours with big leylandii hedges the needles from underneath are very acidic... they could be used as a top dressing...  :-\

Quote from: saddad on September 21, 2008, 13:24:16
"Normal" compost is neutral... about 6.5-7 it would be too high for cranberries. Remember to only use rainwater... tap water is also too high.
If you have neighbours with big leylandii hedges the needles from underneath are very acidic... they could be used as a top dressing...  :-\

thanks for the info. i have been meticulous with only using rain water for watering, i'll check if there are any leylandii plants around and ask for their pruning, etc and mix it in with the compost. do you think this will do the trick ???.

Any conifer needles will be acidic. You can acidify soil very neatly by planting conifers on it. If there are any plantations near you, go and get a sackful. They only rot slowly as the more acidic the soil gets, the less worms and other soil fauna like it.

thanks for the extra info i will add some conifer leaves to the compost i have bagged for the cranberry.