How to balance PH ?

[rootcap]

Hey again,

I noticed some people not recommend to use the PH +/- to balance the PH of fertilized water for soil.
how bad is it ? Does it really affect the fertilizers ?
How you recommend me to balance the PH in my soil and water ?

 

[onelung09]

go organic so there is no need to worry about ph'ing just good soil mix and water , best way to go imo good luck

 

[TGT]

You could also use promix with a little Dolomite Lime mixed in, this way you wont have to mess with ph again, as long as your regular water is close to 7. I have been using it for years and never once measured my ph with excellent resukts. JMHO.

TGT

 

[lowriderguy]

I never use that ph crap. I find the right ratio of tap water to bottle water/ro water to get the right ph. Protekv is a cheap way to raise ph and all it contains is potas and sili

 

[rootcap]

So what should i do if my water ph is 7.8 and i need to balance it with the fertilizers ?
if i only add the fertilizers (Bio-Bizz) the ph drops to around 5.5. should i balance it before adding the fertilizers or after ???
As far as i searched in my area there's nobody around that selling "Dolomite Lime"...
any suggestions ?

 

[BOMBAYCAT]

I use a product called Hi-Yield Agricultural Limestone which is the same thing as Dolomite and contains Calcium/Magnesium. I got it at the nursery for about $5 for 6 lbs which is a bit costly I think. I have heard you can get it by the 50 lb bag at animal feed stores. LOL. Don't use the quicklime or hydrated lime as it will easily burn the plants. Use the powered agricultural Limestone rather then the pellitized kind. My tap water is way high so I do pH it after I mix the nutes in. In organic you don't need to worry about pH so much but I just feel better if I set it correctly. Good luck.

 

[OrganicOzarks]

So what should i do if my water ph is 7.8 and i need to balance it with the fertilizers ?
if i only add the fertilizers (Bio-Bizz) the ph drops to around 5.5. should i balance it before adding the fertilizers or after ???
As far as i searched in my area there's nobody around that selling "Dolomite Lime"...
any suggestions ?

My well water is between 7.6 to 8.0, and what I have found is that less lime or oyster shells is better for me. I brew compost teas once per week, and I have no idea what the ph of the tea's are. I just know that when I have a high ph in my water why would I add something to raise the ph. I have also just started testing Peat based soiless mixes, and the peat seems to be helping out my high ph as well. There is no need to ph your water, or nutes every time. Once you have an idea of what you are dealing with you can solve the problem in the soil.

 

[Vampire]

So what should i do if my water ph is 7.8 and i need to balance it with the fertilizers ?
if i only add the fertilizers (Bio-Bizz) the ph drops to around 5.5. should i balance it before adding the fertilizers or after ???
As far as i searched in my area there's nobody around that selling "Dolomite Lime"...
any suggestions ?

I use vinegar to lower the ph in organic soil. I go with one Tbls per gallon water just plain white distilled brings the ph right down.
Happy growing.

 

[rootcap]

I use vinegar to lower the ph in organic soil. I go with one Tbls per gallon water just plain white distilled brings the ph right down.
Happy growing.

The problem is my PH is too low after all and i need to raise it, not to lower it.
Does the PH+ that im adding after the fertilizers is doing any harm ???

I can see that after i started to balance the PH after the fert. the plants started to stretch up and the growth looking better, BUT can it be only because they got now the correct PH ? (untill last week i left the PH by 5.5 after the fert.)

 

[BOMBAYCAT]

You are going to get lots of opinions about the proper pH. If the pH gets too high or too low you get nute lockout which means the nutes (ferts) are not available for the plant to use. Think of organic gardening as a herd of micro creatures growing around the roots of your plants. They do a good job of taking in food and also give some to the plant roots so the plant doesn't need to work so hard to feed itself. There is so much stuff going on you don't need to be so careful about pH as the critters will take care of it for you. On my last run I had a very picky Sativa plant and got nute lockout at pH of 7.9 so that is why I mix the food into the water and then set the pH so it isn't so outrageous.

 

[supermanlives]

compost organic material and lime added to soil. havent checked ph in years

 

[rootcap]

OK, after a long search in my area i found the Dolomite. now the question is what size do i need it ? 3-6mm, 6-10mm, 1-2.5cm or 2.5-4 cm ????
3-6mm should do the job right ?

 

[Scrogerman]

cant you get the powder on-line? personally i wouldn use the pellets. If you wanna PH ya water/sol, use citric acid.

 

[rootcap]

cant you get the powder on-line? personally i wouldn use the pellets. If you wanna PH ya water/sol, use citric acid.

I prefer not to order online due security concerns. i live in israel and to get a powder from over-seas it's not that easy, usually they asking questions about the powder...

To tell you the true, after i searched all over and asked lots of old farmers and botaniques (if i spelled it right) most of them told me that i dont need to worrie about PH and fertiliers, as long as my soil mix is good. so i guess i'll run some tests on my next grow to check what mix of soil is better for my next grows... i'll try to post you the next grow and the soil mix that i used.

Thanks all.

 

[supermanlives]

the old timers are right. with quality compost ,wormcastings and lime added to your mix you should be set. i think lime alone aint enough . the compost too seems to help

 

[mg75]

can one crush palatalized lime into powder? are they the same thing?
for example... taking some Epsoma Garden Lime and crushing it with a brick before adding to the soil mix?