Ph. The primary factor

[smokeymacpot]

Hey smokeymacpot.
You can monitor your ph at your site with one of the cheap little rapidtest ph meters. They're cheap and effective. Ive never had any luck with the paper and have found it difficult. Im not sure about rainfall. I bet because i live in a low lying sheltered area and there are many coal fired electrical plants in the area my rain may be a bit acidic. Ive never measured it or considered it relevant. The ph of the soil determines the capacity of the plant to absorb nutrients and I can adjust that. I cant do squat about the ph of rainfall.

I cant help but ask what qualities of your native soil disallow you from adjusting it as opposed to completely replacing it with a soiless mix? The natural vegetation around your plants indicates to me an acceptable capacity for root development, so if its clay, it cant be too heavy. Are your local farmers adjusting their soil and growing food or feed crops such as corn or soybeans? Just curious?

Thats a tasty lookin bud shot man. Lets burn that rascal.

the soil wasnt so bad, needed mixing with compost... but i couldnt do that as it had too many limestone? rocks in it. so i dug a crater i know im ok with this soilless mix indoors and slightly ph'ed water, and outdoors last year pic:


received N ferts 2-3 times in flower and that was it.
i need distilled water to do a soil test dont i?

 

[Guest]

Last years sure looks good enough. If its working for you, thats all that counts. I don't know if you need distilled water for the nutrient soil testers smokey, i don't really test mine for nutrients as i just mix in a 40lb bag of compost and that provides a good basis, then i just supplement with chemicals. There's no water needed for the little rapidtest ph meters, just stick the little probe in the soil, wait 3 minutes and read the rating.

 

[BACKCOUNTRY]

No problem BC. Although I don't really consider it an obsession.

I knew you wouldn't agree with that, it is of course my personal opinion, I think every grower sees something in another grower that seems off from their own sensibility, its normal.

For Ph testing, i follow your KISS philosophy. I use the cheap little hand held meter from Rapidtest that you can buy at lowes or walmart or at Rapidtest.com. They cost about 12$. I teste one against a higher priced model and it was accurate to within .1 and thats close enough.

I very much disagree on the rapidtest meters being accurate, labratory tests have proven that, get a chemical test or use a good quality meter like the indoor boys use, ground probes are not ideal at all.

Checkout this test done by the University of Missouri comparing various PH testers(click the link)- How to Diagnose Soil Acidity and Alkalinity Problems in Crops: A Comparison of Soil pH Test Kits

The Rapidtest meter was proven to be anywhere from .5 to 1.0 off from the Lab based meter used as a control, not too accurate in my opinion.

 

[Guest]

BC, this is in no way disrespectful of you, but Good god thats scary. Please don't consider their feeble efforts as valid or credible. The proposition that someone would conduct such a misguided attempt at research and then present the "results" as fact is horrendous. Clearly the ?researchers? had no formal education in hypothesis development and probably cant even spell, random sampling, analytical design of control groups, population analysis or statistical analysis. A study utilizing a focus population of 1 is a statement ONLY to the fact that college cirriculum for extension agents contains no requisite for the basic understanding of research methodology . I can't say their methodology is flawed, because it nonexistent!

The model i use wasnt tested but thats of no relavance. I think most people can tell if their device, whatever it measures, is working or not, but after reading their study, let me advise anyone that purchases a hand held ph meter that observes no difference in soil samples tested to return it to the store immediately for a refund as it is broken and not working. If you purchase a hand held rapidtest meter, check it and make sure it works. They are cheap , made in china and may not work. They don't work for long as it is, but they will usually last one season.

I start out with regular compost, which generally is slightly acidic. I then raise the ph to 8, because im going to be mixing it in soil that is 6.5, and over a few months, it will level out to about 7 or just under. Because of these differences, I can tell if my rapidtest meter is working. Those boobs cant.

 

[early4surely]

Hi Folks, nice debate going here.


Spin off... May I request your humble opinion on: what is the ideal PH for plants grown outdoor in pots? And would this measure be only for water / nutrient solution, other words is it necessary to adjust the soil? Soil I buy is from Canna and measures about 6.0 ph.

Thanks for suggestions family

 

[BACKCOUNTRY]

silverback- Its hard to make much headway here without sounding disrepectful to you, but how much methodology do you need? It looked like a fairly scientific test to me, and whats more it is a mid-western school on whom many serious commercial crop growers depend for services and advice, I think your discounting their abilities is a bit pre-mature, this is not just some anonymous guy on the net voicing his personal opinion, its a established center of learning.

One thing is that the experiment was also done to show how average folks can mis-understand the proper use of various tests, also I think the experiment showed that most testing methods done without a lab are probably off by at least .5.

It is a Rapidtest soil probe meter, take look at the picture again, I've owned and discared one of those pieces of garbage so I know perfectly well what they look like. In my opinion, any of the soil probe type testers are garbage, and should not be used for anything more than currious toys.

I can't help but wonder if your "perfect" soil may actually be closer to 7.5.....

At any rate, I'm not going to try and convince you of anything if you are just going to discount people who are probably more knowlegable than either of us.

 

[Guest]

BC, it seems like we disagree about the ph meter, but thats really ok with me. Hindu Killer and I disagree about Deep Chunk, but I always enjoy his input and respect his views as i do with everyone here. Life is richer when we don't surround ourselves with ourselves.

early4shurely, i dont know, but if its six, I think BC and I both would agree thats too low.

Ive found most potting soils to be fairly nuetral and 6 is a bit acidic in my view. Id like to see it higher. Can you buy a different soil? Miracle Grow is 7. This plant is growing in miracle grow, nothing more.


If this plant was growing in 6, the bottom leaves would be yellow and the plant in general would be lighter green and smaller. Thats what I beleive.

 

[Musicophiliac]

I thought the optimum ranges are 5.5 to 6.0 during seedling and veg stage and then slowly work your way up from 6.0 to around 6.8 during flowering??