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Soil Acidity - Soil pH is a measurement of soil conditions, which at different levels, is one of the factors limiting the availability of certain elements, e.g., at high pH levels, iron becomes unavailable for trees like Pin Oak. A pH of 7 means that 0.0000001 moles of active hydrogen protons are in solution. Earthworms neutralize soil acidity. A problem is that when the pH conditions favor pathogens it does not take long for them to infect. The pH of the soil and the pH in the rhizosphere are two different things. The pH of the rhizosphere is very difficult to test. We do know, that coarse woody debris, buffer soils and when we remove such material we greatly alter soil pH over time. That means the pH will rise rather than be where it was designed. Moss is an indicator of low pH soil. Different species of flora, require different pH soil.