please enlighten me do or don't

Before i even knew you could ph your nutes i grew with shop soil and chem ferts and had zero problems. Im slowly not bothering with ph in soil, its always well limed.
 
Your soil should regulate ph if it is balanced as most bagged organic soils are. Checking soil run off will not tell you if your soil ph is in range either; you need to use a soil probe to check ph in soil. That being said whatever you add can affect soil ph especially synthetic nutrients that contain ph buffers if allowed to build up in the root zone. Dissolved salts can push ph out of range if used heavily without regular waterings to wash them out...hate the term flushing but you need to give straight water in between feedings if using nutes in soil. Adjusting the ph of your water/nute solution when feeding in a soil grow is only telling you it's been nuted...ph buffers typically pull a 7ph out of your tap down to a 6ph if mixed correctly...yet it will not affect the actual ph of the soil. However in a hydroponic medium you do need to ph every time because it is the solution itself that regulates ph instead of the medium. The only way to adjust ph in soil is to use amendments like dolomite lime or sawdust, etc. to balance it out.
 
DesertGrow89 said:
Just add one tablespoon of dolomite lime per gallon of medium, soil is an excellent pH buffer so no, you shouldn't have pH problems unless your water is either extremely acidic or alkaline
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Or you can test test for free lime by putting a tablespoon of crumbled dry soil in a cup. Moisten it with vinegar. If the soil-vinegar mix bubbles, the soil has free lime.
 
The more control you have over your "environment" the better. It makes it easier to locate/diagnose your problems if you ever have them.
 
... Just spend the few dollars for a pool ph testing drop deal and check your water after you've mixed nutes once... As long as your water or additives stay the same you don't have to check often at all
 
dudes i have all this stuff ive been groing over a year and ive read and read just one site person says no other says yes etc ,,,,,,,,
 
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