Soil runoff

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Well i did what i said i was gona do, mix 1 fith of soil with 4 fiths water ph7 and test the mixtures pH. Also recorded ppm but not sure this is relevant. All tap water is ph'd to 7 before mixing in soil and stirred vigorously!

Westlands seedling soil - Water/soil mixture tested at ph 6.6 and ppm 200
Westlands peat free mp - Water/soil mixture tested at ph 6.6 and ppm 200
Westlands flowering mp - Water/soil mixture tested at ph 6.6 and ppm 300

I futher tested the seedling soil in the same way by making another one fith soil and four parts tap water p.h. at 6.2 and when the final mixture of soil/water was tested it held its ph at 6.2!

Any comments?
 
I can't say a whole lot, but I will say that the seedling mix sounds like it's a tad acidic, right out of the bag. Then again, I'll be honest, and say that a lower PH might be ideal for the youngins, during the first stage of life, i don't know. I use the same soil from beginning til the end, to avoid the slight stress of transitioning to different mediums, and it has a PH of around 6.8, and does very well. The other two sound like they're also down close to the 6.0 range, not bad, but might have a tendency to drop faster than if it were closer to neutral. I'd hit it with a little lime, either before use, or a few weeks into growth, 'cause it'll likely go low in ya, a tad prematurely.(maybe by week 4)

The PPMs don't mean a whole lot, but it's good to know that they aren't sky-high already, cluttered with a bunch of 'unknowns'. Those numbers sound good to me, whether you subtracted for the water, or not.
 
The final test i did was to ascertain the exact pH (if this is an accurate or semi accurate test) At 6.2 pH'd water the soil water mix neither rose or lowered the pH. It dose sound a bit low but i have read a lot of contradicting advice on westlands (gardenhealth) and peat free version. Both get a good slating and a lot of praise. I think you are right that the low pH to start with might bring on early acid conditions. I always add powdered dolomite lime to my pots and will water some in at a later date providing the plant is well.

I read a lot of info that suggests the soil will buffer the pH better when it has been wet for a period as it needs water for the buffering minerals to work but as always there is a lot of sh!t on the web.

I think i should take runoff readings at the first, second and third waterings from both types of soil to see what happens to it when first used. My plants are loving the pH 6.8 water though and loosing a lot of the purple on new seedling stems and taking on a new lighter healthier shade of green to them.
 
Does anybody know If I use too much dolomite lime will it make my ph alkaline? I know it's supposed to buffer it to 6.5-7 if you put the right amount in. Lets say for instance I put double the amount in that it says will this then buffer the soil and keep it around 7.5-8. Bottom line my question is can you over do the lime resulting in a alkaline soil thats very hard to bring down the down in pH due to the lime bringing it back up?
 
Mort Fink said:
Does anybody know If I use too much dolomite lime will it make my ph alkaline? I know it's supposed to buffer it to 6.5-7 if you put the right amount in. Lets say for instance I put double the amount in that it says will this then buffer the soil and keep it around 7.5-8. Bottom line my question is can you over do the lime resulting in a alkaline soil thats very hard to bring down the down in pH due to the lime bringing it back up?
Click to expand...

Dolomite lime, regardless of amount will not make your soil more alkaline than 7.0 in my experience.
 
But will it add too much cal/mag to the soil in excess swhagbag?

I had a plant not growing much so i did a flush exactly like you guys told me. Run off started at pH5.8 and runoff ppm was 2300. Needless to say i flushed with ph6.6 water till runoff was 6.6 and ppm was 200. Then i gave 100ppm mag and 400ppm biobizz grow.

Dose it sound like i did this right? Plant is looking like it wants to do some growing now and only been 12 hours since the flush! Can pH results be seen this quick from flushing?
 
As I mentioned earlier, the polymers they use to make pelletized lime breaksdown almost instantly when it gets wet. Those pellets were made from powdered/ground lime, they just pelletize it for ease of application.
 
Mort Fink said:
Does anybody know If I use too much dolomite lime will it make my ph alkaline? I know it's supposed to buffer it to 6.5-7 if you put the right amount in. Lets say for instance I put double the amount in that it says will this then buffer the soil and keep it around 7.5-8. Bottom line my question is can you over do the lime resulting in a alkaline soil thats very hard to bring down the down in pH due to the lime bringing it back up?
Click to expand...
It wont make it alkili but you can overdose the medium/plants with calcium using too much dolomite. 1 Tablespoon per gallon of medium is a good place to start......
 
How much is like too much i guess the question would be. I guess people would be hesitant about adding extra lime to the suggested dose 1tbs/gallon soil because it would be hard to do anything to correct an overdose once mixed in with the soil? So just how much would be too much per gallon of soil?

Do you think i flushed and corrected pH and ppm right? Also do you think adding 100ppm mag and 400ppm biobizz grow would be acceptable after a flush?
 
Kingrow1 said:
But will it add too much cal/mag to the soil in excess swhagbag?

I had a plant not growing much so i did a flush exactly like you guys told me. Run off started at pH5.8 and runoff ppm was 2300. Needless to say i flushed with ph6.6 water till runoff was 6.6 and ppm was 200. Then i gave 100ppm mag and 400ppm biobizz grow.

Dose it sound like i did this right? Plant is looking like it wants to do some growing now and only been 12 hours since the flush! Can pH results be seen this quick from flushing?
Click to expand...

Yes, you can give them too much cal and mag but I reckon it would have to be a fairly large amount as my plants use it all up and then some. They crave for cal and mag when I induce flower, I like to throw them 1-2 tbspn of lime/gallon when I induce flowering now. I personally have never overfed with cal and mag to my knowledge, regardless of the application type.

That ratio sounds like a good start to get the veg going again, she'll be back in shape in no time.
 
So double the amount of lime no problems is what you are saying. I think this would be ok too but maybe any more than this might lead to problems.
 
We should've just agreed to disagree. I'm not a mean person and I don't enjoy pissing people off.
I apologize for being a jerk.
 
Los Muertos said:
We should've just agreed to disagree. I'm not a mean person and I don't enjoy pissing people off.
I apologize for being a jerk.
Click to expand...

Big deal, get over it, don't think anyone was being a jerk! We are just having a discussion and need different opinions always. I see no reason why pelletized lime wouldn't work all the same, i might even try it myself one day. Each to there own, nice to hear about different lime to dolomite as well. Your opinions were very valid.
 
So I have been digging a little deeper and talked to a professor about lime and what he told me is that even the powdered takes a while to start working. You should start your soil in advanced and wet it even before you use it so that the lime can "kick" in and start to work even before your using the soil.
 
Hmm, maybe i might buy a bucket and empty my soil into that and mix it a month before, seems a lot of work that way for me though. I always add 50/100ppm of mag to my soft water and this seems to buffer the pH a little too. I am dissapointed the lime takes a month to reach working strength. Could i just do a couple of good flushes to keep pH down till lime kicks in?

I did a flush last night and got soil to 6.6 and very low ppms then added 100ppm mag and 400ppm biobizz grow, which really was only a couple drops in a litre of water, pH'd it to 6.6 as well. I should expect this to keep a stable pH for a while shouldn't i?
 
I would def think so, to be honest i'm not that impressed with calmag.... I'm gonna try a few ladies using epsom salt instead of calmag and see what happens. I use the botanicare calmag at a rate of 1 ts per gallon. I used a different calmag before I bought the gallon of the shit i currently have and that imo worked a hell of a lot better.
 
Kingrow1 said:
How much is like too much i guess the question would be. I guess people would be hesitant about adding extra lime to the suggested dose 1tbs/gallon soil because it would be hard to do anything to correct an overdose once mixed in with the soil? So just how much would be too much per gallon of soil?

Do you think i flushed and corrected pH and ppm right? Also do you think adding 100ppm mag and 400ppm biobizz grow would be acceptable after a flush?
Click to expand...

*I* use 2tbl/gallon of mix, or 1cup/CuFt of mix. Actually a bit more. I use this amount of the powdered and about 1/2 again as much of the pellets. I need to check my pellets to see if how fast that coating dissolves. Apparently, some dissolve instantly and some don't. This is from people using different brands.

There is a guy in organic that uses 1cup/GALLON :o:o and says he gets good results.:roll:

IDK, I love lime and push its use, but that's 5x what *I* apply and I apply it heavy. I am surprised he doesn't get lockout from so much Ca.

Wet
 
Thanks for all the info guys, cuz no matter how much I flush my ph won't go below like 7.2-7.5. It's gotta be the lime.
 
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