Ph balancing peat.

[MustangStudFarm]

I am kind of new to using peat moss. I was using leaf compost before but I kept getting really big #'s from Phosphorus and I am using less compost now... I noticed that a month after mixing peat, the Ph is around 5.5. I feel like I added plenty of liming agent, but it is not really raising the Ph.

I am confused because I have pure peat that I have added dolomite, OSF, and glacial rock dust and the Ph of it is high 6's. Is it because I didn't add any nutrients yet?

I have other batches that I mixed and the Ph always starts off around 5.8, but it will raise a month or two later. Maybe I am just not being patient enough, but a little over a month has passed and my Ph is still in the mid 5's. I would like to hear about how other people have used peat and how long they have to let it sit before using it.


Here is my soil Ph tester... Made in Japan, watch out for knock-off Chinese brands.

 

[ShLUbY]

if you used enough liming agent, more will dissolve as more water is added and buffer the pH. water gets everything into solution and allows the reactions to take place. i'd just wait it out a little bit longer and see what happens

 

[MichiganMedGrower]

Takes at least a week to activate lime after initial watering according to the pro mix website.

They warn of over liming which leads me to believe lime is premeasured and not tested as not watered.

 

[MustangStudFarm]

Takes at least a week to activate lime after initial watering according to the pro mix website.

They warn of over liming which leads me to believe lime is premeasured and not tested as not watered.

Right, it's been a little over a month now...

 

[MichiganMedGrower]

Right, it's been a little over a month now...

I reread your post. I missed that. Maybe you didn’t add enough? I haven’t mixed my own soil. Maybe someone who has will chime in.

 

[MustangStudFarm]

Last night, I mixed a small batch with more OSF, basalt, and glacial rock dust. Everything appears to be fine because I planted some clones in it. I really didn't want to put them in so fast, but I was running out of options. Time will tell

 

[MustangStudFarm]

I reread your post. I missed that. Maybe you didn’t add enough? I haven’t mixed my own soil. Maybe someone who has will chime in.

I might not be using enough... I thought that I was being patient enough, but you know how that goes lol.

 

[Rasta Roy]

Your pH being in the 5.5 to 6 range shouldn't really give you any issues in an organic soil. When you go over 7 or even 6.8 for some girls I've seen lock outs but under as long as you're above 5 is alright. Especially if you have organic fertilizers like compost, animal manure, or green manures (alfalfa meal or comfrey) present. They are filled with water soluble nutrients that will still be uptaken and they release fulvic and humic acids into the soil that make other nutrients plant accessible even if the pH is under.

 

[hillbill]

PH of peat and grade varies from bog to bog as well as areas in the bog. I like a couple Tbs powdered limestone (calcitic) get gallon peat.

 

[MustangStudFarm]

Alright, when I posted this I started a little experiment. I took a small portion of the soil and added more liming agent to it; basalt, OSF, glacial rock dust, and dolomite... 11 days later, the Ph is reading the exact same on both of soils. Adding more lime didn't do anything, so I am going to assume that it is not the answer... Ph is at 6.0 now and the clones that I planted look really good, so I think that I might have answered my own question, just give it time, like a month and a half...

I am finally getting a concrete mixer tomorrow. So tired of mixing soil on a tarp...

 

[Dmannn]

if you used enough liming agent, more will dissolve as more water is added and buffer the pH. water gets everything into solution and allows the reactions to take place. i'd just wait it out a little bit longer and see what happens

seconded

 

[hillbill]

My mix has been working great for some time and I have no clue what the ph is anymore as I have not checked it in years. I push my ingredients together and turn for a few days as microbes heat things up and let it mellow for a month or so. With organics the ph will move around a bit but not go crazy. Our plants grow in many types of soil and mixes and do remarkably well. A fairly wide range of mixes will work if anywhere near reasonable. Relax and don't let ph worries steal your joy of growing. Beautiful mixer!

On a Ford note; Mustang will be Ford's only sedan or hardtop sold in North America as production will cease May 2019. Putting money that would have been lost on nonprofitable sedans intoTruck, SUVs and Crossovers and hybreeds and Electrics.

 

[Wetdog]

Alright, when I posted this I started a little experiment. I took a small portion of the soil and added more liming agent to it; basalt, OSF, glacial rock dust, and dolomite...

Just to be clear, basalt and glacial rock dust are NOT liming agents. No calcium carbonate = no buffering ability.

11 days is a bit of a short time, especially if not enough is added in the first place. It works by being in actual physical contact or, at least very close proximity to what it's buffering.

 

[MustangStudFarm]

Just to be clear, basalt and glacial rock dust are NOT liming agents. No calcium carbonate = no buffering ability.

11 days is a bit of a short time, especially if not enough is added in the first place. It works by being in actual physical contact or, at least very close proximity to what it's buffering.

Yeah, most of the time I am just running through the woods like an idiot(lost in the woods). However, I usually learn from my mistakes... It was the oyster shell flour that I expected to make the difference, but I already had all of the stuff mixed and I only experimented on a couple gallons of soil. The was that adding more rock dust didn't really make immediate changes to the peat. It has more to do with the amount of time you give it to break down... I bet that adding more rock dust was actually a bad move.

I think that I was confused about CaO and solubility. I thought that because CaO is soluble, that it would react instantly...

 

[Wetdog]

Not sure about CaO, but CaCO3 (Calcium Carbonate), in close to insoluble in water. This is where "mesh size" (how finely ground-up it is), comes in, the particle size. Think of it this way; Oyster shell flour with it's flour like consistancy will start to break down and become available in less than a month. The oyster shell used for chicken grit or scratch, if added to the mix, will sit there for years (I tracked it to 5 years), and not break down in the least bit and still have sharp edges.

If it's more coarse than all purpose flour it could take a year or more to become available. Same deal with rock dust, if it feels gritty it's close to being too big useless. BTW, 1cup/cf of rock dust is way more than enough.

For myself, I've stopped using rock dust altogether and staying with the greensand that has allways been a part of my mixes. Not that the rockdust was bad, but it was redundant and, IMO, less effective than the greensand. But, that's just a personal opinion.

I've also increased my lime (dolomite), to 1 1/2cups/cf. This because I've found out peat moss was more acidic than I thought and also because of the pine bark mulch that is also a part of my mix. It certainly hasn't hurt, but there has been no noticeable change in either direction.

I really feel that you are not using enough lime and perhaps too much rock dust. Again, just my opinion.

Wet

 

[Roger A. Shrubber]

most organic gardeners (vegetable gardeners) have compost heaps that just get turned over, stuff has been in there for years, it just gets mixed with new stuff and turned over. they don't expect to use it the same YEAR they make it, much less the same month. time is a big component of organic gardening, don't forget to add it....

 

[MustangStudFarm]

For myself, I've stopped using rock dust altogether and staying with the greensand that has allways been a part of my mixes. Not that the rockdust was bad, but it was redundant and, IMO, less effective than the greensand. But, that's just a personal opinion.

You are probably right about the lime, I am not using anywhere close to 1cup/gallon. I see, you were saying per sqft. That seems right... Also, I understand where you are coming from about the rock dusts. It seems like the Kelp and compost has the same micro nutrients. I am going to pass on the greensand though, I have more than enough K in my compost. I used it before along with rock phosphate and my P and K were at toxic levels. It's not the fault of the greensand or rock phosphate, but I think that I already had more than enough when I added them. It was a total newb mistake on my part.

I've also increased my lime (dolomite), to 1 1/2cups/cf. This because I've found out peat moss was more acidic than I thought and also because of the pine bark mulch that is also a part of my mix. It certainly hasn't hurt, but there has been no noticeable change in either direction.

I read something really interesting about pine bark, it is supposed to be good for soils with high P. I was using this bagged soil called "MetroMix" and it was 60% pine bark fines and I was using it in my compost when I was recycling it. Everything was going great but after a couple of grows, I started to use more rabbit manure and I started to develop "iron chlorosis" from P toxicity. I misdiagnosed it for being a N problem. I thought that the wood chips were absorbing N from the soil, so I screened my soil. Everything went to shit directly after that!
Looking back on the situation, it made perfect sense but I had no idea what was going on at the time and that is when I started to get my soil tested. I might go back to using pink bark for my compost!!!

 

[MustangStudFarm]

Iron chlorosis


They changed the bag, it used to say "MetroMix 902"

 

[MustangStudFarm]

most organic gardeners (vegetable gardeners) have compost heaps that just get turned over, stuff has been in there for years, it just gets mixed with new stuff and turned over. they don't expect to use it the same YEAR they make it, much less the same month. time is a big component of organic gardening, don't forget to add it....

I have been composting for a couple of years now, but I can't seem to get away from the extreme excess of phosphorus. Here is a soil test from rabbit manure that has been aged since Apr 1, 2016... Even using this as 1/3 of my mix was still causing problems! P is 15x too high. I am impressed with the very low amount of Al though!!! I might use this very sparingly and treat it as a phosphorus amendment rather than compost. K is 3x too high, which is about perfect for using a 1/3 ratio...

 

[Wetdog]

You are probably right about the lime, I am not using anywhere close to 1cup/gallon. I see, you were saying per sqft. That seems right... Also, I understand where you are coming from about the rock dusts. It seems like the Kelp and compost has the same micro nutrients. I am going to pass on the greensand though, I have more than enough K in my compost. I used it before along with rock phosphate and my P and K were at toxic levels. It's not the fault of the greensand or rock phosphate, but I think that I already had more than enough when I added them. It was a total newb mistake on my part.

Please read my replys a bit closer. I never said anything close to "1 cup/gallon", nor was I saying "per sqft".

I was speaking in terms of cf (cubic foot), which is 7 1/2 gallons and it is a unit of volume most commonly used for mixes. Sqft refers to surface area and is mainly used for soil gardens or fields and such. If you had a 20' x 40' veggie garden the the sqft would come into play figuring amendments, nutes and such.

For container mixes volume is what's needed.

A handy trick for either new mixes or reamending depleted mixes is using 5 gallon 'Homer" buckets. Filling 3 of them gives you 15gallons which is also equal to two cubic feet (and fills a wheelbarrow nicely). This makes it easy to figure amendment amounts since you simply double the per cubic foot amount. Make sense?

Pine bark mulch is good stuff and has always been part of my mix.Just the way I was taught to make it 20+ years before the internet. It is 1/2 of my humus component with fresh VC being the other 1/2. I use no other compost in the mix either bagged or homemade. The homegrown VC covers that nicely.

The mix works well either being recycled or as a no till. I use it both ways.

Wet