G
Guest
Just some ideas before you end up chasing your tail even more because of the build-a-bear soil salesmen :
Ph'ing water doesn't mean much on its own, you're only adding a tiny drop of acid to an entire pot of soil. You've only acidified the added water, not the soil. I never worried about ph outdoors in the "fertility belt" of the US because the naturally high level of microbes in the soil produce the acids in sufficient amounts to counteract hard water carbonates. Moved to the desert: no healthy microbe populations, BYOA (bring your own acid).
I just started a new run (after realizing humidity domes cause damping off), the ph is 7 and I'm eyeballing the acid because dropping reverse osmosis to 5.5 really means nothing, it's not a jug of acid now, it's still water, with a tiny pinch of acid. You could ph distilled water with citric acid to the pH of citric acid itself: it's not going to taste sour, and as soon as it hits the soil it's acidity power is null and void.
I've done "coots mix" with 2 different compost sources, one mix was 5.5, the other was 7.5. Buildasoil had no suggestions, they believe everyone has a worm farm and microbiology lab in the closet. Thought I was being smart and limed the peat first thing, letting it adjust over 2-3 weeks before inoculations compost and amendments. I can only wonder what would make a bag of compost 8+ on the ph meter. I would have to use gypsum instead of lime to get it under 7, and then I'm having sulfur overload (not sure how much is too much?) To summarize, despite what many will tell you, you need your ph within range from the beginning, attempting to change it later will drive you to drinking and would have the soil lab laughing at your test results.
Ph'ing water doesn't mean much on its own, you're only adding a tiny drop of acid to an entire pot of soil. You've only acidified the added water, not the soil. I never worried about ph outdoors in the "fertility belt" of the US because the naturally high level of microbes in the soil produce the acids in sufficient amounts to counteract hard water carbonates. Moved to the desert: no healthy microbe populations, BYOA (bring your own acid).
I just started a new run (after realizing humidity domes cause damping off), the ph is 7 and I'm eyeballing the acid because dropping reverse osmosis to 5.5 really means nothing, it's not a jug of acid now, it's still water, with a tiny pinch of acid. You could ph distilled water with citric acid to the pH of citric acid itself: it's not going to taste sour, and as soon as it hits the soil it's acidity power is null and void.
I've done "coots mix" with 2 different compost sources, one mix was 5.5, the other was 7.5. Buildasoil had no suggestions, they believe everyone has a worm farm and microbiology lab in the closet. Thought I was being smart and limed the peat first thing, letting it adjust over 2-3 weeks before inoculations compost and amendments. I can only wonder what would make a bag of compost 8+ on the ph meter. I would have to use gypsum instead of lime to get it under 7, and then I'm having sulfur overload (not sure how much is too much?) To summarize, despite what many will tell you, you need your ph within range from the beginning, attempting to change it later will drive you to drinking and would have the soil lab laughing at your test results.
