Plant Health Checks, pH Tests & Plant Identification

🌿 Plant Health Checks, pH Tests & Plant Identification

At Navigators Nursery, we provide professional, knowledgeable and relevant horticultural advice tailored to our local conditions. Our priority is to help you maintain a healthy, thriving garden while protecting the health of nursery stock.

Important: Protecting Our Nursery

If you're experiencing a pest or disease issue, please ensure your sample leaves, stems, roots or flowers are in a sealed bag. Even small amounts of infected material can spread pests or pathogens. Please include sufficient material to allow us to identify both the plant and the issue.

Complimentary Soil pH Testing

A lot of bulk garden mixes contain spent mushroom compost—sometimes called “garden blend” or just “soil.” They’re fine for planting once they’ve broken down and settled, but there are a few things to watch.

Mushroom compost is naturally alkaline, which can push up your soil pH and lock up nutrients like iron and manganese. Plants can really struggle, especially ones that like pH 6–6.5 or acidic soil.

Watch out for:

Azaleas, camellias, rhododendrons, daphne – they need acidic soil and can decline fast in alkaline mixes.

Most natives and veggies – they do best in slightly acidic to neutral soil, so keep an eye on pH.

Tip: Test your soil’s pH before planting. Bulk mixes aren’t all the same, so one batch might behave differently to another.

We offer a complimentary soil pH test to help you understand your soil conditions. Simply bring a small soil sample collected with a clean spoon:

One tablespoon from each garden area is sufficient

Collect samples from at least 100 mm below the surface when testing existing garden soil

We strongly recommend testing soil pH before planting into any bulk mixes purchased from soil suppliers.

Plant Identification

For plant identification, please supply a short length of stem, flowers, fruit, or clear photographs showing the plant and its surroundings. The more information provided, the more precise our identification can be.