Soil ph for planting bare root roses

Roses have arrived and i just soil tested to find it is about 8-9 , is this too high ? Thanks

your roses will like a neutral of 7.5, but ideal is about 6.0-6.5

Oh drat , will have to lower it , thanks Neptune !!

plant in a pot first......easiest way to control while growing and establishing itself

I've got about eight roses that came bare rooted and have put them all in pots while i decide where to put them , so do you mean that once its established itself in a pot it won't matter about the soil ph ?

no because if you do that you are not putting them in ideal conditions and they will take a backward step........but while in pots , it will give you time to get the ground soil to and maintain at the right ph you want

Oh okay , no worries , thanks  

What a bummer Marie. There always seems to be a blip on the radar. Will you be adding lime to lower the acidity of your soil?

Hi Silky , i think i've seen a soluble lime at Bunnings made by the Eco people , but i'm just wondering how reliable these soil testing kits are , cause wherever i test in the garden i get the same result , i have imported a lot of soil too , to make the garden beds ..

I think she said her soil was alkaline....

Ooops your right Neptune , need to add Sulphur !!

Has anyone else used those soil testing kits from Bunnings ? How reliable are they ?

I have got one of those testing devices that you stick in the soil I bought it from ebay.Most areas I tested were between 6.0 and 7.0.Only a couple of areas were below 6.0.Guys what is the best way and easiest way to fix high Acidic soil or Alkaline soil and products you can get from Bunnings.Cheers.

Oops, my blunder. Sorry Maree, can't help with accuracy of Bunnings soil testing kit but I'm sure someone will be able to help. Did you notice any whitening/yellowing of leaves when your roses were in full leaf? Have you used a lot of mushroom compost, which I believe can be quite alkaline?

Well , its a bit of a long story here Silky , short version is , i wanted to plant some new roses , so i demolished the standard bed which was overcrowded , left two roses there , so i dug out a lot of soil and put it in the vegie patch and brought over soil from the vegie patch plus bags of soil , cow manure and compost from Bunnings , roses were fine before . Mushroom compost ,no i never use that . Better go over to Bunnings and check it out ...

Danny sounds like your soil is pretty good , looking on the back of the Manutec soil testing kit , you need sulphur to lower it and Lime to increase it .  I think the soluble ones are better absorbed .   This kit is the liquid and powder version , might look for a different kit .. Silky post for you on page one  

I use a test it from Bunnings and the variation on the soil Ph shows up across the garden. I generally don't do too much about it though.

The roses seem to do ok without bothering with soil modification. Ours is in the 5 -6 range in most of the garden with a couple of areas down to 4.

We did buy some soil (with lots of chook poo in it) to extend a garden last year and it had a high (9) PH in which the roses grew quite well and had very deep colours compared to the "native" soil.

Balinbear you have tea roses i think from memory , i think they are hardier to soil ph than hybrid teas , correct me if i am wrong ,do you have any hybrid teas in high ph soil ?

Maree

No not really. The few Hybrid Teas we have are older varieties.

The problems with Blackspot etc due to the humidity make it not worth the effort. We are not into spraying too much and with 2 acres of garden fertilising etc is pretty expensive.

It's better to grow what suits the area with minimal expense.

Couldn't agree more Balinbear , thanks !!

I was advised by a "Hortico", not to use mushroom compost with roses, due to the alkaline aspect. Apparently, it's good for veggies though! Not tried it!

I've never used Mushroom compost Sue , but i'm wondering if the compost i've been buying from Bunnings is actually mushroom compost without being labeled as such , i think its the only explanation ...

We were using mushroom compost (and still do when it is available).

We have acidic soil though so the alkaline issue is a non issue for us.

Thanks everyone , i have put on the sulphur and watered it in , just got to wait for it to work now ...

so long as you didn't overdo it, otherwise you will stun your roses.........little bit at a time so that the roses get used to the ph change