Question about soil Ph

[Spidermonkey]

Hi Everyone,

I have recently built some no dig grow beds and planted Peas, Corn, Zuccini and Cucumber that so far seem to be doing ok. In these beds the Ph is around the 5.5 mark but later in the year I would like to grow some Cabbages, Broccoli, Onions and maybe some Cauliflower. The problem is according to the Permaculture Designers Manual, most Brassicas don't do well in low Ph soil. If we were talking acres of land I would accept that and find low Ph compatable food plants and use those instead. But as this is a small suburban veggie patch I was wondering if there is a safe organic way to increase the Ph a bit?
I have a small bag of lime with dolomite which I bought for my aquaponic system that isn't very soluable, and I have a bag of builders lime which is very soluable and used to keep my AP system around the 6.2 Ph mark. Or is there a better method for no dig beds?

[pippimac]

Wood ash is great, as long as soil potassium levels aren't high already.
I'd steer clear of 'builders (slaked) lime: it's extremely alkaline and kind of dangerous.
Dolomite's basically fine, but it takes quite a while for the microbeasties to do their thing on it.

[matto]

Biochar will eventually raise your pH level. Bazman has some homemade stuff ready for sale, he is just north of Brisbane, check the for sale section of the forum here