Hollatchaboy
Well-Known Member
No. I don't meter my soil water. I do my hydro though.Do you know what your input ph is?
No. I don't meter my soil water. I do my hydro though.Do you know what your input ph is?
I'm not disagreeing, I just personally don't feel I put anything in the soil that would harm the microbes. I know many others that do though.I've seen some organic gardeners really mess up their micro herd by putting highly acidic feed in their soil. A classic example is heavy doses of molasses to "feed the microbes", which makes sense in theory, except that a molasses feed of 4.0 ph will do more harm than good.
Yes, I have a soil pH meter; 6.2 - 6.5 range is where I want to be.Do you know what your input ph is?
Around 160 but I run it thru a hose filter to remove chlorine, heavy metals, fluoride, sediments, rust, and other contaminants.Do you have hard water?
What do you consider heavy dose?I've seen some organic gardeners really mess up their micro herd by putting highly acidic feed in their soil. A classic example is heavy doses of molasses to "feed the microbes", which makes sense in theory, except that a molasses feed of 4.0 ph will do more harm than good.
No I think it is pretty good as far as Cal Mag and ppm.Do you have hard water?
By input ph I meant the ph of the liquid (feed, water, whatever) you are adding to the soilYes, I have a soil pH meter; 6.2 - 6.5 range is where I want to be.
160ppm isn't bad, but depending on exactly what the 160 consists of, it could be considered hard water, which would be naturally high in ph.Around 160 but I run it thru a hose filter to remove chlorine, heavy metals, fluoride, sediments, rust, and other contaminants.
Over a a Tbsp/gal will quickly throw you below range, but it also depends on your water and nute profile (if using salt nutes).What do you consider heavy dose?
You think so?No I think it is pretty good as far as Cal Mag and ppm.
My tap water runs around 8.5.By input ph I meant the ph of the liquid (feed, water, whatever) you are adding to the soil
Sounds like a good procedure, but also point out the issues you could get if you didn't ph your tap water. If you put that ph 8.5 tap water in your soil without adjustments for a complete cycle, the micro herd will certainly suffer and struggle to maintain an acceptable soil ph.My tap water runs around 8.5.
I pH the water between 6.2 - 6.8, no synthetic ferts. Also, add a little ascorbic acid to neutralize the chlorine in addition to letting it evaporate.
Depends on the alkalinity of his water tho… my water is pH 8 / 32ppm so little alkalinity. Meaning it doesn’t take much at all to lower the pHSounds like a good procedure, but also point out the issues you could get if you didn't ph your tap water. If you put that ph 8.5 tap water in your soil without adjustments for a complete cycle, the micro herd will certainly suffer and struggle to maintain an acceptable soil ph.
See this is something I’m recently stumbling upon..
BTW Tap water simply contains far too much sodium-chloride.... this is to protect the pipes. Its ok for big organisms with big kidneys, like human or dogs... we can flush it out! Smaller organisms like birds get sick from tap water over long time... the salt accumulates in their body, they cant flush out that mass. Same than in soil. Plants need chloride and sodium only veeeeery little, the higher it rises, the harder they can get to other nutrients, in that salty juice. Lockouts going to follow! You cant recycle your soil with tap water more than a few cycles. It gets salted up quickly.
wow that just sounds like a lot of work.... you could set a bucket outside and catch the rain water and avoid all of that... or get a 50 gallon barrel and attach it to one of the down spouts from your gutter system. Maybe even use your air stones in the barrel to avoid any algae buildup. However, I personally try to keep things as simple as possible. To each their own and if it works for you keep on doing you...Im using reverse osmosis water on recycled organic terra-preta soil.
I dilute some BB CalMag with some anorganic nitric- or phosphoric-acid (veg or bloom) at PH 5.5 first before i add organic ingredients.... stone me!
I have these bootles (anorganic PH+/-) since my first steps as a grower 17 years ago and they are great for tweaking the PH, adding the correct ions!
Then I add oxygene-nano-airstones bubbling, wait a few hours for maximum oxygene and the CalMag to dilute for EC 0,2 (100ppm) and pH rising again, because of it, to at about 6... and then I add my organic nutrients.
Finally I adjust it with organic PH+ to 6.1/6.3 (veg or bloom) if neccessary... stone me to death!
I dont need it? I agree. Does a dog need to lick his balls? But then why would he do it? Because he is able to! So why should he not do it? See
Oh sure, when I recycle the soil, i check the PH to, usually it got 6.3..... so with enough coffee ground and some other stuff, ill revert it to 5.9.
If somebody tells you you dont neet it on organic.... yeah, if you buy new organic soil each time, sure! But you should keep it balanced when you want to recycle the soil... otherwise it keeps increasing/decreasing from the mineral-salts calcium and magnesium, depending if the drop or rise what you feed, what they need... even if you keep it low with RO-water and only little CalMag.... you need to keep an eye on balancing if you dont want to throw it away!
I use my recycled soil now for 15 cycles at least! I dont think about throwing it away. It is the best soil i ever had! Free from pollutants from tap water and free from heavy metals, cause all my cannabis sucked them out. I never flush the soil or drain a lot to spill out nutrients.....because my soil has high nutrient absorbance capacity and very high ion exchange capacity due to bentonite and zeolithe with the coals.
Flushing phase means to me: Only water with RO-water and some molasse in the last two weeks, to feed the microbes with less then before but starving out the plants with no more extra nutrients at all, so the microbes fight for survival too and dont share nutrients anymore. It works. Theres ready to use products for this kind of effect, called final solution.
BTW Tap water simply contains far too much sodium-chloride.... this is to protect the pipes. Its ok for big organisms with big kidneys, like human or dogs... we can flush it out! Smaller organisms like birds get sick from tap water over long time... the salt accumulates in their body, they cant flush out that mass. Same than in soil. Plants need chloride and sodium only veeeeery little, the higher it rises, the harder they can get to other nutrients, in that salty juice. Lockouts going to follow! You cant recycle your soil with tap water more than a few cycles. It gets salted up quickly.
Living beeings are not meant to drink salty water, thats why i use RO-water at most, secondly because of other contaminants that i want to keep away from the microbes and away from the plant-roots... I need it to enable recycling my soil at ALL.... without it would fill up with sodium-chloride, fill up with cocktail of thousands of toxins and chemicals, all just tiny doses, that are scientifically sooooo unproblematic to humans when drinking at least "professors say so" to calm the masses, haha, masses that experience more and more "cancer", think about it...whatever these contaminants getting more and more with each watering in the pots, until they become a problem, because some of them contaminants are non-bio-degradable. , yup, they are high toxic non degradable industrial wastes, like tulole and others, thousand of them, human WASTE in the tap water! But dont freak out: Since your country has the highest water standards, right? Haha, everyone believes that! Everyone! "Our water is the safest in the world".... Dont panic....do thisand relax. Only RO-water preserves that problems over long durations!
... smells and tastes like heaven! Nothing I found elsewhere came close! Balancing the PH is one part of the story!
Edit: Btw dispite this soil beeing ultra strong with a fat nutrient reservoir, still my kitchen herbs all breed from the seeds very well and fast in it and also grow well in it. I dropped "light mix" completely from my list because of this. The terra-preta enhanced "allmix" is good enough for ANYTHING, I just dont need the weak light-mix anymore. My soil is ultra friendly to the unborn seeds and young plants while beeing ultra strong same time..... i still cant get my head around it, WHY is this working. Im fascinated! Must be because the coal and the zeolith and bentonite depositing the nutrients, sucking them out of the water.... still the roots can dock at these dopositions and exchange what they want..... it's a kind of magic! Thank you Yanomami!
is it ok to look for perfection if i already find that unity in acceptance.... bro.... it's just my 50cents.find unity in acceptance
I think the low pH you're seeing in those bagged soils is because the liming agents haven't been activated yet. It always comes back up to the 6.5 range for me after a few waterings.Yes, I have a soil pH meter; 6.2 - 6.5 range is where I want to be.
My pH has been higher, near 7.0. To rectify, I made some soil with a neutral pH and combine with either Happy Frog or Ocean Forest to get the desired pH.
I started flower 2 weeks ago and was seeing pH issues. So, I bought some Ocean Forest and blended with some neutral soil and was simple to adjust it to 6.4. After, repotted plants and they seem to be doing well. I'll continue to utilize this technique if it works out.
Happy can range from 5.5-6.5 and Ocean 6.3-6.8 and I have seen Ocean down below 6.0. If you use these soils, you need to know the pH because some adjustment may be needed before you stat using the dirt.