What Effect On Soil Does A Metasequoia Have?
I have an 80ft metasequoia (I think) in my back garden. It is deciduous and the fine leaves are distributed around the garden during autumn. I have a vegetable patch which gets a lot of the drop from the tree. Does anybody know what effect, if any, the leaf fall might have on the acidity etc of the soil? I ask because I seem to be unable to grow onions, carrots but can grow potatoes and peas. I'm going to buy a soil tester, but any help would be appreciated.
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Wow! You jammy thing! I’d love a Dawn Redwood in my garden, much more desirable than a carrot.
Metasequoia glyptostroboides likes an acid to neutral soil and its leaves could well increase the acidity of your veg’ patch, but the correct addition of a little horticultural lime/chalk should help.
A simple soil testing kit (available in the UK for about £1) will let you know your soil pH. For you interest the pH for Carrot is 6.5 – 7.5 and Onion is 6.0 – 7.0.
If it needs bringing up (which it probably will) then add some horticultural lime or crushed chalk. Alternatively use some spent mushroom compost which is not only high in lime, but a good soil improver too. However over fertilisation of your soil could cause the carrots to fork. If you follow the instructions for the lime though you shouldn’t do any harm to the tree, which prefers and acid to neutral pH.
Hopefully you should be able to accommodate both, so both tree and carrots will be happy. You could also rake up the fine tree leaves in the autumn to help.
Hope you get a happy tree and healthy carrots and onions!
The question went over the top of my head. But will try and help.http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/chatham/newslett…
sounds like you are talking about a dawn redwood,if this is the case yes the soil has a lot of acid in the soil and not much sun light.not much will grow under these trees except other redwoods..
You are absolutely right. Your soil is on the acidic side. Over the years of needle drop from this tree, the soil has become acidic. You are doing the right thing by testing the soil to see just where the PH level is.. You will more than likely have to add a heap of lime to correct this problem. Get the soil tested and go from there. Good luck!