boysetsfire
Well-Known Member
Guys, I was thinking...if pH level of soil is for exp. 5.5 and I want to fix it to be 6.5, should I water a plant with pH 7.5 water to make it around 6,5? Or it doesn't work that way?
Low soil pH adjusted using high pH water?
- Thread starter boysetsfire
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Hugo Phurst
Well-Known Member
It's what I do in hydro
boysetsfire
Well-Known Member
Is it possible in soil?
ApfelStrudel
Well-Known Member
Make a slurry test and see where it gets you.
R Burns
Well-Known Member
Basically, yes! You may have to higher with your water ph to adjust the soil. And keep in mind that it only changes ph temporarily. It will drop again when water/nutes are used up. Alot of factors will effect how far it drops. Moisture level, nutes present, microbes, things breaking down in the soil. It likely wont drop all the way back down. But most of it. Then raise again, it'll drop a bit less, raise again. Eventually you will be around where you wanna be. Gotta mess around with the water number a bit. See what works for your set up! This raising and lowering will take place over regular waterings.
Chip Green
Well-Known Member
I have had(temporary) success with raising soil PH, by using the GH PH Up powder, mixed with plain tap water. I guess it temporarily re-buffers the media to an extent. Ive had more long term improvement by using pulverized dolomite lime, sorta washing that into the soil throughout the process....
Chip Green
Well-Known Member
Yes, this is a good point....I have a BlueLab Leap PH probe, without this its pretty difficult to get any sort of trustworthy reading...A slurry test can be done, but testing runoff PH is VERY, VERY misleading....
Kingrow1
Well-Known Member
It dosent work that way sorry
MichiganMedGrower
Well-Known Member
If the soil mix is buffered with lime or oyster shell (calcium) then a low runoff ph may be indicating too much fertilizer buildup.
Ppm/ec is what i check to see if this is happening over time.
boysetsfire
Well-Known Member
I tried that last time I was growing and it seemed to work. My plants(2) turned out perfectly as u can see on the photo. I had only cheap mechanical pH meter. I used lemon for pH down and soda bicarbonate(baking soda) for pH up.
Why don't you make a test, since u have that good equipment? Just on plane soil, with no plants in it ofc.
MichiganMedGrower
Well-Known Member
Reading runoff in soil mix is to check trends over time. Not for an accurate soil check.
Its how you manage your medium. When you see ppm rise a little each time its time to leach.
Slurry method is most accepted. Or a real expensive soil ph probe.
Its how you manage your medium. When you see ppm rise a little each time its time to leach.
Slurry method is most accepted. Or a real expensive soil ph probe.
boysetsfire
Well-Known Member
what's that?
Well it worked for me... They didn't have almost any problems, only few minor ones.Soil is not a ph its a buffer, the sooner you learn this the sooner the stupidity of adding bicarb and lemon juice to soil will sink in.
MichiganMedGrower
Well-Known Member
@boysetsfire the slurry method is when you mix some of the soil with water and mix it up. Then test the slurry you made.
Kingrow1
Well-Known Member
I do understand this but when you make it work without you will be at a higher level and have learnt a lot from it.
See what a carbonte soil buffer is and how it works, its not based on ph but its potential.
Good luck
hawse
Well-Known Member
I tend to agree, it's usually not the best idea to worry so much over your soil ph unless you really think you have really bad soil for some reason... Worry more about what goes in, but most good soil should buffer out ph issues for the most part.
At least that's the advice I've been given on here from a lot of people, and over time I've learned that most of what I thought were ph problems in the past were really ppm problems... (as in I was under-nourishing in my case). Eventually I want to give organic a try though and make my own soil...
At least that's the advice I've been given on here from a lot of people, and over time I've learned that most of what I thought were ph problems in the past were really ppm problems... (as in I was under-nourishing in my case). Eventually I want to give organic a try though and make my own soil...
boysetsfire
Well-Known Member
Thank you my friends!
I will order PPM meter as soon as possible. I realized it's "must have" tool.
Anyway...I know that my water pH meter is good, so I decided to measure soil pH using water-soil mix in ratio 1:5 and 1:2. I red couple of articles from some professors, and used those methods. First was 7.1, and second 7.3 pH. So I took the middle as relative number, 7.2.
That's too high and it probably locked some nuts. As I can see on this chart(see photo), a lot of them are locked over 7.0 pH.
There are possible signs of Mg, P, Zn, Fe, Cu deficiency.
What do you think?
I will order PPM meter as soon as possible. I realized it's "must have" tool.
Anyway...I know that my water pH meter is good, so I decided to measure soil pH using water-soil mix in ratio 1:5 and 1:2. I red couple of articles from some professors, and used those methods. First was 7.1, and second 7.3 pH. So I took the middle as relative number, 7.2.
That's too high and it probably locked some nuts. As I can see on this chart(see photo), a lot of them are locked over 7.0 pH.
There are possible signs of Mg, P, Zn, Fe, Cu deficiency.
What do you think?
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boysetsfire
Well-Known Member
???
churchhaze
Well-Known Member
Amend your soil with lime.