lower a soil ph with plants in it

[Tonygreen]

Its all chunky pieces of various size pretty much once it dries. Its pretty crazy how it got pulled together. Just the littlest layer of silt on the bottom of the pots.
Texturally it looks more like a decent potting soil than dirt now eh? More peat? Perlite for air?

Alright?! should i let it dry then mix it all up so its homogenous before sending off?

And if you could please slow, pm me the exact tests im looking for again.
I think I saw I can just send my sample in a sandwich baggy. How do they get paid? Do I send a check cash or money order with the sample?
Whats the turn around time look like?

 

[Mikell]

Re: spoons. The analogy is too many cooks with their spoons in the pot makes for bad soup.

I have washed dishes and pretended to cook food for a living in the past.

It is easy to get over whelmed with many opinions. Nothing to do now but plant in it.

If it still fails, in my own limited experience I have found a place for potting soils I have tinkered too much with. 1/3 leaf mulch and a few monthes time may bring it back. Worms will find it.

Truley I just popped in as I was smoking said old paper. But then rambled off. Like now.

So fawkin' offtopic. Sorry about that.

Sounds like a Canuck not wanting folks to use their peat.... LMAO.

Which organic subforum you talking about?

Hey as long as you're paying cash.

Just the regular one. I'm a stickler for words sometimes.

 

[Tonygreen]

As the soil is drying I notice we have a bigger more crumbly mix.
Before it was much more fine matter, obvious when i was mixing it would stick to my hands and arm hair real bad and not wanna brush off, now it brushes right off, and not so clingy if you will. softer, fluffier, bigger, more crumbly less compact dense and fine. Little more expansive it seems with water maybe, shrinks and swells up, more movement it seems like if that makes sense.

 

[slownickel]

You need a soil that breathes.... that is how you get microbiology cranking. Not in mud.

 

[slownickel]

So what happened Tony?

 

[corky1968]

Don't mix wet soil again assuming that's what you did.

You'll destroy it's texture and cause compaction.
Which is one reason farmers don't plow wet fields.

 

[Tonygreen]

Nah they are still dryin out, a few buckets went back up over 1.0 after flushing so I had to redo em. I'm in no rush working on new clones.

 

[slownickel]

What do you figure sent this medium balistic? Any ideas?

 

[Tonygreen]

End of the year bags of soil sitting on a pallet all summer soaking wet, I reckon all the amendments they added had become available in the bag and I dumped all the extra shit in it. Compounded by my massive addition of lime and mag overload in the particularly large smart pots. It was super hot down there, was it composting? Good thing i didnt turn my soil to ash ha!

Tested a bag of miracle grow potting soil 6.0 ph and 2.0 ec out of the bag.

Seems peat moss raises ec? The pot I added more to with the high ph seem to trend upwards to .8 .9 ec (more peat). The hard ass water doesnt help!

One thing you mentioned is its a lot of dirt in there. When the first big bags dried the texture was great but I kept thinking about air with so much dirt, ph had also trended back up to 65.-6.8 on the bad side. Then I thought of the comment about following the texture so I added some peat which raised the ec some ha.

Anyway we have a nice soft mix now, lots of particles of varying sizes, it wants to stick together a bit, good water holding capacity, im just hoping the structure holds up over a grow and doesnt collapse on me. I came out with a whole nother 45 gallons of medium lol.... Still drying some lol. Ill grab a pic.

 

[slownickel]

You're learning! Congrats!

Seems a lot of folks are adding ferts to the peat and mixes, we saw the same thing in blueberry nurseries here and then when I started reading the bags, there was a code that showed you what was being added.

The companies think they are doing you a favor, giving you a head start.... be careful!

 

[Tonygreen]

Some texture pics, very soft and fluffy now, lighter...

 

[slownickel]

Still drying unevenly.... looks better though.

How does it smell?

 

[Tonygreen]

Eh thats me, as I get 15 gallon buckets to the right EC and ph and they stop leaking water I been adding them to the big pots and mixing it all up with my hands in a fluffing motion.
Whats in the big pot is dryer than the new one i add.

Got two 45s full now with stuff in the right range.

Easier to wash in the 15s than the big ones!

You can see the particles pulled together in all sizes now, peat particles binding with dirt etc.

Top dressed a few clones with the mix in cups, instant greening up the next day.

Let me go get a whiff be back in a bit.

The initial smell out of the bag was very strong and composty not unlike cow paddies on a hot day, (even though all bags of dirt said no bio soilds ha)
Much milder now more greenhousey less pasture field if that makes sense, ill go get a whiff and try to see if i can describe it better.

 

[Tonygreen]

Best I can describe it is it used to smell like a cow field on a hot day thick stuffy stench, you could pick up hints of decay almost sewage like, (i used to be a sewer man ha).
All my soil bags said no bio solids but i know the smell.

Now it is much more mild smelling not thick in the air or any twinges of decay, similar to the smell of a nice clean lake with vegetation on a hot day.
No offensive twinges to the nose if that makes sense.

Also i do not have the tremendous build up of heat happening deep down at this point. Also seems less dirt to fill the 45s if that makes sense. its not sinking down settling near as much.

Smells like this kind of...

 

[slownickel]

You are scaring me... that is all water!!!

Are you saying it is now getting an earthier, leaf compost type smell? Go outside, push some leaves to the side and then smell that soil. That is what you are after. And you want that smell down deep.

You can make some leaf compost teas and drench them with that to get the right biology back up. Drive some bamboo or other type stakes in the bags, going all the way to the bottom. Come back later and pull them out. Smell all along the stick. That way you will know where the air is getting to. Leave them in the bags and use them as sensors! Fancy technology.

 

[Tonygreen]

Exactly Slow, like it smelled on that lake, the clean nature and leafy smells in the air
Like brushing through a field of cat tails or walking through a shaded forest on a warm day.
Like jumping in a pile of leaf in the fall when you were a kid.

Smells like clean earthy nature instead of driving past a cow pasture on hot day!
Out of the bag my nose got that twitch from rotting decay, i know it well.
Now it is not offensive in the least just clean pile of leaf smell.

Good call on the bamboo poles, on it...
It has a very light texture, i can plunge my hand right to the bottom, out of the bag it was dense as hell, compact, stink like rot almost, would have to work my hand down wiggling and brushing aside... felt heavy and dense, now straight to the bottom with little effort.

 

[slownickel]

Good job!

 

[slownickel]

You going to be able to make it a nice Christmas still?

 

[Tonygreen]

If youve ever been chest deep in a catch basin you will never forget the smell of sewage.
The bags said no bio solids i think they were full of shit!

I got 4 kids to provide for so I always have more than one plan!
Cutting it close on this one tho, still possible ha! Worst case I'll cash in some vacation time to make up.

One thing I learned if you try to make the plants work on your schedule its never as good as letting them do their own thing!

 

[slownickel]

I know the smell of sewage, I have worked in Mali, Senegal, Pakistan, Haiti and many others with open sewage canals.

At my farm, we installed the first real septic tanks and drainfields and had to tap into exisiting silos.... thanks for the memories... LMAO

That is the smell of anaerobic decomposition due to high N.

It will be interesting to see how much N comes back in your sample.... haha... realize that often high conductivity is often due to high N.