How do I lower the ph? Its super high!

i want it all said:

Stop by your local hardware (gardening section) and purchase some ph down. It's about $5.

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Can i just say to everyone who thinks pH down or lemon juice/vinegar will pH your soil for you that it obviously dosent. This is pretty much a fact. No matter how much lime i add i never seem to push pH above 7.5 and sulphur and lime dont work togethr, bat guano and other things in your soil make adding sulphur not an option, even though sulphur is not for indoor or pot plants anyway, more outdoor gardens.

Seriously its not pH and there is nothing poinying to pH. The suggestions of adjusting your soil are not right and for a company to make a soil that starts out pH 8 to 9 and then goes down to normal levels i.e. 6 to 7 sounds like one hell of a story to me. Peace

beginner.legal.growop said:

It has like 5 different cotton paper tabs. U dip them all in the solution (for instance the run off from my soil) and it tells you how much chlorine, bromine, alkaline, etc... and then at the bottom it tells the ph and u compare it to the color. Which is why i say such a rough ph estimate because I had to compare it to the colors. Theres no chlorine, and the ph reads 8.4-9.0.

forgot to add, I use water with the ph of 6.4 and a ppm of 599(Crystal Geyser Alpine Spring Water). The soil i used obviously must be the problem. It has a lot of composts which means in about 6-7 days those should break down and lower it. I used Kelloggs brand. It was like $4.99...

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600ppm water too! Back that down to between 150 to 200, if must 300/400 will just about do but 600ppm is just bad. Peace

fersure, and ill keep you posted on how it looks tomorrow. I really do hope it doesnt die.

........go buy a bottle of pH down... its orange and $10.99 for a bottle that will last you like a year... dont use vinegar. it will lower your pH but it is NOT good for your plants

Kingrow1 said:

Its not a pH problem that i can see either. They dont look too bad, how long in between waterings anyway? Someone sugessted that it was a new clone or young clone? Peace

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Its a week old clone. and it has only grown an inch in that week. but it grew a lot of leaves. I water every time the soil is dry like 2-3 inches. So every 2-3 days.

Lets talk again then, some things are wrong here but it looks nice and green, let her grow and, pH is generally a myth, dont believe the hype about it, i barely ph anything these days and get no problems. Peace

beginner.legal.growop said:

Its a week old clone. and it has only grown an inch in that week. but it grew a lot of leaves. I water every time the soil is dry like 2-3 inches. So every 2-3 days.

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So its probably still rooting, a week from cutting or a week from rooting? Some problems may lie here and with the transplant. Peace

a week after rooting (roots only poped out of the cube small but there were roots). I got it from a Medical marijuana club

You need to get a real soil ph tester. So many variables to conclude that your soil is high ph because the water is doesn't necessarily make it so. And you bought outdoor soil with nutes....which is very bad. Kellog Patio Soil (<--- link) is not on the list of the website. Kellogg potting soil is. Neva eva eva eva eva use outdoor soil indoors. You're gonna get your plants all sorts of nute burned. I mean it says OUTDOOR right on the bag man. And you're feeding it on top of the over-nuted outdoor version of soil. If I were you I'd go back to the MG or skip them all and go with just dirt.

beginner.legal.growop said:

The ph is 8.0-8.9 and i need to lower it, i know over time the composts will lower it but i need a fast and EASY way. (not sulfur, unless sulfur is some basic household item).

I used a pool tester btw, meaning I used the water run off from the plant and tested it with a little cotton swab stick.

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vinegar works better than lemon it takes alot less.just buy some REAL ph up and down.and get a digital tester its the difference between knowing whats going on with th ph levels.I used a pool tester b4 and it was way off come to find out.put some money into your grow and it will pay itself back ten fold.good luck

This is just my opinion. Miracle grow around the USA is not the same everywhere. They do not ship it clear across the country. They have plants around the country producing it. What you get for miracle grow in one part of the country, might not be like another. In nevada, Miracle grow soils will have large pieces of uncomposted bark and wood chips, with chemical time released nutrients. And a lot of generic soils for sale out there are the same way. I look at the soil thos plants are in, and I am reminded of ground up wood and bark. If that is true, it will most likely also have chemical based time release nutrients.

Lord Dangly Bits said:

This is just my opinion. Miracle grow around the USA is not the same everywhere. They do not ship it clear across the country. They have plants around the country producing it. What you get for miracle grow in one part of the country, might not be like another. In nevada, Miracle grow soils will have large pieces of uncomposted bark and wood chips, with chemical time released nutrients. And a lot of generic soils for sale out there are the same way. I look at the soil thos plants are in, and I am reminded of ground up wood and bark. If that is true, it will most likely also have chemical based time release nutrients.

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He's not using MG he's using some random outdoor soil mix.

Lord dangley got a damn good point there, everynow and then my soil company puts a litttle too much wood bark in and its not fully composted, the bottom of the bag of many of mine are like this. I avoid this stuff, plant dont root well in wood chipping stuff, needs it to be more composted and yes chem ferts would be better for this stuff but we are just seeing the top of the pot so it might be good under that stuff, it might have just floated up from below when watered or somthing, my perlite dose thea in soil, make it look like im growing in pure perlite. Anyway just some thoughts.

And i see no problem with the compost, got bat guano and all kinds of top notch stuff in, as some say it might be a little hot but organic compost is a lot more forgiving on a plant, him adding ferts on top of this before the plant is fully established in the pot may be a problem, organic soil and amendments keep my plant going a long time before needing a feed, that being said you goto feed the soil organisms before it runs out, i fertilize earlier with organic ferts than i ever did with chem ferts and a lot more often.

Guys i like his choice of soil, seriously a company dont use bat guano and organic amendments without knowing at least how to produce half good soil and i in no way can believe that pH test is correct, organic soil also seems to need little pH adjustments and is easily made crap with horrible synthetic man made ferts with their high salt content, even this probably takes time though. Can we just say that that soil looks like it should be good, better for him than the miracle grow, just dont fert it for a while till it is established. Peace

beginner.legal.growop said:

And here is the day after replanting it into the new soil.
View attachment 1734668View attachment 1734669

I'm hoping the plant is just in shock from such a brutal root transplant... And its a clone.

forgot to add (once again haha) that this website says it is an ok soil to use http://www.mandalaseeds.com/Guides/Soil-Guide

read the bottom right lable on the bag, reads like a dream organic pro soil, could be a little hot but i would have just added perlite and hoped it was good, i wouldnt root a seedling in it so probably a clone will take a whilee to get use to it as it probably sits around 800 to 1200 ppm out of the bag, hey it looks good, indoor out door whats the difference, outdoor maybe more heavy but it aint topsoil so its got to be good either way, scrape away the wood chips and lets see what the rest is like dude. peace
The soil I use has bat guano, worm castings, perlite, S. peat moss, chicken manure.
heres a pic

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read the bottom right lable on the bag, reads like a dream organic pro soil, could be a little hot but i would have just added perlite and hoped it was good, i wouldnt root a seedling in it so probably a clone will take a whilee to get use to it as it probably sits around 800 to 1200 ppm out of the bag, hey it looks good, indoor out door whats the difference, outdoor maybe more heavy but it aint topsoil so its got to be good either way, scrape away the wood chips and lets see what the rest is like dude. peace

PH down,..simple

The*Mad*Hatter said:

PH down,..simple

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Dose this really work, i see it will change the pH of my water but i never seen my water change the pH of my soil, if it were that easy i guess i wouldnt have to use lime in my soil for pH'ing it. Peace

cranker said:

You need to get a real soil ph tester. So many variables to conclude that your soil is high ph because the water is doesn't necessarily make it so. And you bought outdoor soil with nutes....which is very bad. Kellog Patio Soil (<--- link) is not on the list of the website. Kellogg potting soil is. Neva eva eva eva eva use outdoor soil indoors. You're gonna get your plants all sorts of nute burned. I mean it says OUTDOOR right on the bag man. And you're feeding it on top of the over-nuted outdoor version of soil. If I were you I'd go back to the MG or skip them all and go with just dirt.

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cranker it IS on this link as a good soil. http://www.mandalaseeds.com/Guides/Soil-Guide

also on the back it clearly states nutrients are broken down over time. No pre added nutes. Sorry man, but the bad does not lie, and if it did, well I would sue the company for 3 different things . I will look into it, I have sued 6 companies for false ads. ESPECIALLY ones that give misleading or wrong labeling.

beginner.legal.growop said:

also on the back it clearly states nutrients are broken down over time. No pre added nutes. Sorry man, but the bad does not lie, and if it did, well I would sue the company for 3 different things . I will look into it, I have sued 6 companies for false ads. ESPECIALLY ones that give misleading or wrong labeling.

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Hey there BLG, I understand where you are coming from. But to sue a soil company because you lost a crop. Hmmm. If you won, all you would win would be the cost of the soil.
I look at it t6his way. Why in the hell would I want some dude in a factory to make sure my plants are getting a good healthy feeding for the first 4-7 weeks, when I could just grow in a medium where I have total control over what is going on inside? I am truely not trying to get into thatage old debate over what is best, Soil Or soiless. I would love to find a company that would just sale basic top soil that is steralized so they do not have bugs or weeds. But that is not happening. This is why I switched to Coco Coire. It looks like soil. kind of smells like it, not so sure about the taste. But in coco I have almost to-tal control of what goes on inside that medium.
People tell me how bad Coco is for growing, then they try and ram it down my throught on how Coco needs 6.5-7.0 OH. No dam wonder they had so much trouble with COCO.
Anyway, I am just ranting on a good buzz. But I still get upset sometimes when someone grows an assume crop with Mircale grow soil. Pfft I hate that crap.

I love the mandalla seed grow guides especially for soil, they rock and really tell things a bit differently to most guides, really great info.

I have no problem with that soil, my canna terra reads the same and is all organic, similar ingredients, pH 6.5-7, i mix this with westlands soil and use it mainly as my base fertilizer along with perlite, vermiculite and dash of dolomite powdered lime, never had a pH problem for a long time now.

I like that soil, looks fine for weed growing, probably a little too strong for seedlings but fine for bigger plants. So i see no pH issue, drainage yes but definatly nothing wrong with pH, mandala seeds is a good site for grow guides too, if they recomend it i trust them. Peace