JSJ
Well-Known Member
My soil is based off of the "re-dun-that" ss. My base was a local organic soil(compost, peat, mulch, sand), my own compost(leaves, clippings, veggie scraps, egg shells, coffee grinds with filter) and EWC. Addmendments are bone meal, blood meal, gauno, lime, azomite, Epsom, humic acid and some myco innacculant. Its been cooking now for about 6 months and I have watered with EWC tea a few times.
My water comes from the water dispenser at the grocery. It pH's right at 7.0 and usually reads around 50ppm.
I have been told from the start of my indoor experience 3 things to remember when watering, 1) dry, 2) Dry and 3) DRY. So I have never watered my pots enough to ever get any run off. So I couldn't tell you what my soil runoff pH is.
However I have what looks like pH problems on some girls. Slow growth, dark green leaves on one of them and the one right beside her has twisted new growth.
So since I never water to the point of run off, I scooped up an ounce or so of soil and mixed it with an ounce or so of pH7.0, 52ppm water. Stirred it up good and then strained it into a cup. I rechecked the water and it pH'ed at 5.2 with 456ppm.
Now, first off, I already now that the soil I scooped up off the top of the pot does not give a good representation of the soil in the root zone. And there seems to be a huge fight over whether pH is important in organics. But if pH is not important, why have farmers for centuries addmended soils organically for correct pH?
Why do I add lime to pH a soil? Must be important for some reason. So is a soil pH of 5.2 too low?
My water comes from the water dispenser at the grocery. It pH's right at 7.0 and usually reads around 50ppm.
I have been told from the start of my indoor experience 3 things to remember when watering, 1) dry, 2) Dry and 3) DRY. So I have never watered my pots enough to ever get any run off. So I couldn't tell you what my soil runoff pH is.
However I have what looks like pH problems on some girls. Slow growth, dark green leaves on one of them and the one right beside her has twisted new growth.
So since I never water to the point of run off, I scooped up an ounce or so of soil and mixed it with an ounce or so of pH7.0, 52ppm water. Stirred it up good and then strained it into a cup. I rechecked the water and it pH'ed at 5.2 with 456ppm.
Now, first off, I already now that the soil I scooped up off the top of the pot does not give a good representation of the soil in the root zone. And there seems to be a huge fight over whether pH is important in organics. But if pH is not important, why have farmers for centuries addmended soils organically for correct pH?
Why do I add lime to pH a soil? Must be important for some reason. So is a soil pH of 5.2 too low?