Originally Posted by TreeSpecialist

Check out the table on this link:

Chart of the Effect of Soil pH on Nutrient Availability

It's what we learned back in Soils 101 about nutrient availability.

pH Ranges from 6.0 to 7.8 will grow most things well. Some things like it a little more acidic while others prefer it a little more alkaline.

High or low pH ranges don't remove the nutrients (chemical elements) but rather bind them to other molecules making them unavailable to the plant.

The most common example of this around my world is iron bound up by calcium. By lowering the pH, I can free up some of the existing iron in the soil making it more readily available to the plant.

Compost is a great buffer for any soil and brings most soils into this range with little additional supplements needed.

I wouldn't pay much attention to anything Len Phillips writes.