ph down

need to get my ph down iam growing in soil. havent been using phed water. the leaves have brown rust spots and are curling and drying up. it all started wfrom the bottom leaves and went up. I did use mollasses for three waterings.question is can i mix in dolomite lime in to the top layer of th soil will that fix my ph from going higher?groiwng in mg organic potting soil. i was using jacks classic orchid 3-6-9. watering every 4-5 days with a bit of lemon juice. day 27 of flowering.also do walgreens ph strips work fine to test water.

Those test strips are garbage, honestly. You'd be much better off to buy those test kits with the liquid drops that you add, they're more accurate. How high is the PH? MG soil usually is in the 6.5 range, or lower, unless the water you've been using is really high? Anyway, lime will probably raise your PH even higher, so isn't a good idea. I'd give it a flush with some water PH'ed around 6.3(6.0- 6.5 will be fine), and that should do the trick. Then make sure that everything you add from then on, is PHed to about 6.5, and you should be good to go.