Adding dolomite lime to already planted plants ?'s

Just transplanted about a week and a half a go 3 plants from 16 oz cups to 3 gallons of Fox Farm Ocean Forest. they were transplanted at 3 weeks from seed germination. A few days before transplanting the plants showed signs of a magnesium deficiency. It was assumed because they were rootbound but the problem persisted. Upon watering with ph 6.5 water the runoff was measured to be between 5.2 and 5.5. Obviously too low and could be the source of the problem.

Upon reading furthur FFOF apparently is notorious for ph fluctuations to the acidic side so dolomite lime is added to the soil and allowed to cook for a week before plants are planted in the soil. However, its too late since theyre already in their final homes. What is the best way to add dolomite lime at this point. Some say so sprinkle it on top of the soil and water it in. Others say to mix 1 tbs with a gallon of water and water in with the next watering.

Will theyre be any adverse effects of adding the dolomite lime while the plants are in the container? any suggestions to get this lime in the soil. If I do add it to the top of the soil and water it in should i flush more water thru perhaps 2 times the size of the container?

any quick ways to adjust the ph? Perhaps hydrated lime? Watering with basic water? the water watered with so far has been an even 6.5 pH just the runoff is way low.

Any advice is appreciated and thanks and stay safe all!

Big NO to the hydrated lime. I'm not going to do a long technical thing. It's just bad juju and let it go at that.

Top dress with the dolomite lime, 2tbl/gallon of mix (6tbl for a 3 gallon pot), and just water it in with regular waterings. No flush, nothing crazy with the water. Don't expect anything overnight either, it will probably be a week or so before it really starts kicking in. It IS just ground up rock, not an instant liquid nute.

I'd just keep everything the same as you are and not be playing with the pH of the water or whatnot. Usually when you start trying to 'fix' something, you create more problems than you solve.

For the Mg, either sprinkle a tsp or 2 on top of the soil, or add a tsp to a gallon of water, next watering. That should hold you till the lime starts breaking down.

Wet

They were given a little epsom salt(1/2 tsp/gal) with the last watering and a small foliar feed. Thanks for your reply! Figured a hydroxide would be too much and been reading quick ph changes or trying to control the ph is like chasing your tail.

If using fox farm nutrients and adding dolomite lime, do you stop using nutrients and water with plain H2O or can you water with nutrients? I read somewhere that they might not react very well with each other.

Hello there
Even if i dont have ph problems,can i use it on top of the soil as u said,
to avoid problems in the furure ?

Yes.. dolomite lime is a great ammendment to buffer the soil. I always mix it in, then again about 6 weeks of flower.

thanks for the quick answer,i will dress the soil with it the next time i water.

Kgp seems like dolomite lime works good for u ..I am using foxfarm soil as well..when I originally prepared my soil I added dolomite lime a 3 tbsp per 5gallonof soil..I watered for moisture and mixed well to activate..I was in veg for 2 months.. Now I am in fourth week of flower with my greenhouse chemdog..I hav been checking my runoff every watering and feeding..5.7..I was thinking about top dressing soil with dolomite 1 tsp per gallon of soil..and water with 7.0 phd water..what's ur opinion in this? Do u add to water or soil?i plan to do this once my soil drys up

I'm gonna be feeding my nutes this Tuesday..I'm using A.N lineup..can I add the dolomite to the soil then or just wait for my watering to add it in?

I usually mix the lime with a bit if light warrior and try and mix it in.

I get some low runoff with peat-moss based soils (In the high 4's) and went through the same issues where the runoff was low PH and high PPM. I dressed the top of my pots with dolomite lime, flushed, etc to find that no matter what I did the runoff always appeared really low and high PPM. I decided to see if this was really my problem and I ordered a soil PH meter to find out that the PH is fine and for some reason the runoff doesn't reflect what's actually going on in the soil so I wouldn't panic and jump to conclusions. I'm not an expert but my findings might help you out since I think from now on I'm going to not measure runoff and only the soil PH with the special meter.

If your using fresh ffof your not feeding right? This could drop your ph, but if your not feeding then yes garden lime would be great!! And does wonders!

Another question I want to ask is ..wen I water in dolomite lime,should I ph my water at 7.0?i flushed my soil this past Saturday morning with 7.0plain water and I will be feeding my nutes tomaro morning at half strength...after that I will water again on Saturday morning ..that is when I will add my dolomite lime..probably 1 tsp per gallon so I Dont over do it..any opinions or suggestions ?

Cease420 said:

Kgp seems like dolomite lime works good for u ..I am using foxfarm soil as well..when I originally prepared my soil I added dolomite lime a 3 tbsp per 5gallonof soil..I watered for moisture and mixed well to activate..I was in veg for 2 months.. Now I am in fourth week of flower with my greenhouse chemdog..I hav been checking my runoff every watering and feeding..5.7..I was thinking about top dressing soil with dolomite 1 tsp per gallon of soil..and water with 7.0 phd water..what's ur opinion in this? Do u add to water or soil?i plan to do this once my soil drys up

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Other people might have different opinions, but I use the same soil as you (FFOF) and add 1 cup of lime per 5 gallons of soil, then top dress as needed throughout my grow (whenever runoff ph drops, or mg deficiencies show in flowering). My understanding is dolomite lime buffers the ph to 6.5, meaning if you water with 7.0 water as soon as it mixes with the lime it will drop it to 6.5. They don't mix to make a ph of 6.7... so I don't bother adjusting the water before I water it. You can, but there's no need. The lime adjusts the ph for you. You can mix it up in the water, but I just put a tablespoon per gallon of soil directly on top of the soil. Then water.

Dolomite lime is great. It's cheap, very hard to use too much (I use a lot, probably more than others might recommend but my soil stays spot on) and it's good for your plants. Your ph might be a little off since you didn't add that much lime initially when you mixed the soil. I use 1 cup for 5 gallons and still top dress a couple times throughout the grow.

Thank you for the post. I am a new grower going through the exact same problem. now I have the information I need to fix it. Again thank you for your knowledge.

Jack87112 said:

Thank you for the post. I am a new grower going through the exact same problem. now I have the information I need to fix it. Again thank you for your knowledge.

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Agreed, what this guy said. Just got my lime in today. Lol

I just top dressed my FF with Dolomite lime today, 1.5 Tbsp for 2 gallon pot, then watered. My plants are at 1 month, is a ppm of 500 a good average number? Thanks

1Benjamin1 said:

I just top dressed my FF with Dolomite lime today, 1.5 Tbsp for 2 gallon pot, then watered. My plants are at 1 month, is a ppm of 500 a good average number? Thanks

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How did it end up going?

I am going to be top feeding 1tbsp/gallon for a 5 gallon pot, so 5 tbsp total. It's my first grow, so I will play it safe. Also planning on top feeding with a quarter of the suggested dose (Gaia Green Organic Fertilizers) to see how my lady reacts.. It is against recommendation, because she was just transplanted to FFOF 18 days ago, and FFOF has enough nutrients for a month... But I am experimenting. On my other plant, I mixed in a third of the recommended dose of the fertilizers for the bottom third of the soil, and 18 days later that plant is thriving in comparison to the one that was put into plain FFOF. I suspect it will take a few days for the nutrients to kick in, and by then the plant would have been in the soil for 3 weeks. Let's see how she reacts.

I just got a bluelab pH pen, but didn't know I had to leave it in a storage solution for 24 hrs prior to using.... so I left it in my desk unopened until I needed to use it, and now that I need to use it I can't. Need to wait 24 hrs, which my plants can't wait that long to be watered.

parrajara said:

How did it end up going?

I am going to be top feeding 1tbsp/gallon for a 5 gallon pot, so 5 tbsp total. It's my first grow, so I will play it safe. Also planning on top feeding with a quarter of the suggested dose (Gaia Green Organic Fertilizers) to see how my lady reacts.. It is against recommendation, because she was just transplanted to FFOF 18 days ago, and FFOF has enough nutrients for a month... But I am experimenting. On my other plant, I mixed in a third of the recommended dose of the fertilizers for the bottom third of the soil, and 18 days later that plant is thriving in comparison to the one that was put into plain FFOF. I suspect it will take a few days for the nutrients to kick in, and by then the plant would have been in the soil for 3 weeks. Let's see how she reacts.

I just got a bluelab pH pen, but didn't know I had to leave it in a storage solution for 24 hrs prior to using.... so I left it in my desk unopened until I needed to use it, and now that I need to use it I can't. Need to wait 24 hrs, which my plants can't wait that long to be watered.

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i’m in ffof also and 4 weeks into flowering,ph runoff is 5.9 when i water with ph 6.9.got some rusty spot on the widows,not the kush.just got dolomite lime powder and planning to mix it in with water,maybe letting it sit for a day before watering...i’m just wondering if i should keep ph’ing watering after that,i assume you would,right?