Chemical free lower PH

Im wondering if I can use things around the garden or house that can be used to lower and/or raise the PH of water?

Vinegar and lemon juice for down
Baking soda for up

needthacheeba said:

Im wondering if I can use things around the garden or house that can be used to lower and/or raise the PH of water?

Click to expand...

keep in mind that a good soil base usually doesn't mind a LARGE variance of ph tolerance from water.
I've grown from three different wells, two different municipal sources, and the largest concern is chlorine, chloramines, etc.

greasemonkeymann do you have a complete list of what you put into your compost pile from A to Z so that I could just mimic you down to the last ingredient? I would gladly buy a book from you sir. I like experimenting with 1 or 2 plants but when I am playing fast and free with 30 plants I get a little worried. So I'm setting pH with 1/4 tsp per gallon Epsom Salt and a Citric Acid Powder but it's a pain in the butt. Also Citric Acid Powder isn't too stable I have to do this right before watering.

I have done a lot of research and I don't think I want to use this bag of Dolomite AG 10 that I purchased, I instead am using 1 cup Oyster Shell Flour per cubic foot of compost pile. I pretty much just follow what you say on your compost pile thread but I don't remember you giving real amounts just mostly eye balling it. I would really love to drop all the weights/measurements and pH drama in favor of what seems to be about right. Anyway you've helped me a lot in my journey I certainly can get through this part on my own. But if you have time to talk a little on this subject, or possibly link me to a place you've already spoke on these topics, I would love to soak that knowledge up.

By the way I'm not layering my soil anymore but before very recently I was doing layers. I think part of my concerns regarding signs of pH stress were actually the layering and I may be over solving a nonproblem here.

MeJuana said:

greasemonkeymann do you have a complete list of what you put into your compost pile from A to Z so that I could just mimic you down to the last ingredient? I would gladly buy a book from you sir. I like experimenting with 1 or 2 plants but when I am playing fast and free with 30 plants I get a little worried. So I'm setting pH with 1/4 tsp per gallon Epsom Salt and a Citric Acid Powder but it's a pain in the butt. Also Citric Acid Powder isn't too stable I have to do this right before watering.

I have done a lot of research and I don't think I want to use this bag of Dolomite AG 10 that I purchased, I instead am using 1 cup Oyster Shell Flour per cubic foot of compost pile. I pretty much just follow what you say on your compost pile thread but I don't remember you giving real amounts just mostly eye balling it. I would really love to drop all the weights/measurements and pH drama in favor of what seems to be about right. Anyway you've helped me a lot in my journey I certainly can get through this part on my own. But if you have time to talk a little on this subject, or possibly link me to a place you've already spoke on these topics, I would love to soak that knowledge up.

By the way I'm not layering my soil anymore but before very recently I was doing layers. I think part of my concerns regarding signs of pH stress were actually the layering and I may be over solving a nonproblem here.

Click to expand...

Why are you hesitant to use the dolomite lime? Stuff is great, makes PH a non-factor pretty much.

I just like the idea of a small amount of wood ashes + oyster shell flour better for buffering acidic compost. I don't really have a no no statement to make about dolomite but when researching materials I liked this solution better. Partly I grow OG dominantly and my strains like Calcium so I really want a well mixed quantity of Ca and the P/K from wood ashes also interests me a lot more than CaMg, which I am not opposed to adding later as needed.

edit:
By the way I did a search of greasemonkeymann posts and I have all the answers I need on pH and also ingredients I need. Glad I did a search because I was shopping for manures but I think I will pass now on adding manure to my compost after reading some of gmm's posts. I used Google to narrow down what I was looking for try this for pH to read lots...
site:rollitup.org greasemonkeymann "liming agent"
Here's the meals research google
site:rollitup.org greasemonkeymann meal
(and so on)

purplehays1 said:

Why are you hesitant to use the dolomite lime? Stuff is great, makes PH a non-factor pretty much.

Click to expand...

The problem with Dolomite lime is that it carries in a lot of Mag to the party!
When you build your own soils, many of the things you use already have an amount of mag available.

By the time your done with everything else. You really have enough mag already. Using Dolo for your liming agent is now giving you too much Mag......depending on what you used, it could cause a problem.

This is why most of us rely on Oyster shell or some other Ca source.

Some times Dolo is a plus and is great to use in bagged soils - Fox farm Ocean Forest is notorious for being low on Ca and Mag!

I like Dolo for recharging soils as needed for a Ca/Mg source....Sometimes not. It has it's place but, there are better things for the original build

MeJuana said:

greasemonkeymann do you have a complete list of what you put into your compost pile from A to Z so that I could just mimic you down to the last ingredient? I would gladly buy a book from you sir. I like experimenting with 1 or 2 plants but when I am playing fast and free with 30 plants I get a little worried. So I'm setting pH with 1/4 tsp per gallon Epsom Salt and a Citric Acid Powder but it's a pain in the butt. Also Citric Acid Powder isn't too stable I have to do this right before watering.

I have done a lot of research and I don't think I want to use this bag of Dolomite AG 10 that I purchased, I instead am using 1 cup Oyster Shell Flour per cubic foot of compost pile. I pretty much just follow what you say on your compost pile thread but I don't remember you giving real amounts just mostly eye balling it. I would really love to drop all the weights/measurements and pH drama in favor of what seems to be about right. Anyway you've helped me a lot in my journey I certainly can get through this part on my own. But if you have time to talk a little on this subject, or possibly link me to a place you've already spoke on these topics, I would love to soak that knowledge up.

By the way I'm not layering my soil anymore but before very recently I was doing layers. I think part of my concerns regarding signs of pH stress were actually the layering and I may be over solving a nonproblem here.

Click to expand...

sorry I didn't see your question
I've made compost piles from damn near everything, even pine needles and such.
I LOVE using shrimp meal, crab meal, biochar, oyster flour as well as oyster shells for the ph, but honestly i'm not even convinced I need it, considering I have very very little peat in my mix now, over the course of years it seems to almost disappear, either that or it further degrades into humus, i'm not sure.
the plants have an odd way of almost consuming the compost/humus.
I do a top dress and it literally seems to be gone in about a month, the roots sorta grow UP into it, especially if you use cardboard on top of your soil, which i'm convinced EVERYBODY in hot areas should do.

but honestly if you made a compost out of the bare essentials you'd be blown away on how much superior it is to a bagged soil.
just grass and leaves will make a HELL of a compost.
but if you can pimp it up a lil with super slow nutrients inputs it is by far the best way I've ever grown.
and past the compost making it's the easiest too.
if possible the only ingredients that in my mind are MUST haves are neem meal (amazing for terpines and smells), kelp meal, and if it's outside? cow manure.
Inside i'd go with fishmeal.
and anytime you have any questions you can PM me, in fact anyone is welcome to.

MeJuana said:

I just like the idea of a small amount of wood ashes + oyster shell flour better for buffering acidic compost. I don't really have a no no statement to make about dolomite but when researching materials I liked this solution better. Partly I grow OG dominantly and my strains like Calcium so I really want a well mixed quantity of Ca and the P/K from wood ashes also interests me a lot more than CaMg, which I am not opposed to adding later as needed.

edit:
By the way I did a search of greasemonkeymann posts and I have all the answers I need on pH and also ingredients I need. Glad I did a search because I was shopping for manures but I think I will pass now on adding manure to my compost after reading some of gmm's posts. I used Google to narrow down what I was looking for try this for pH to read lots...
site:rollitup.org greasemonkeymann "liming agent"
Here's the meals research google
site:rollitup.org greasemonkeymann meal
(and so on)

Click to expand...

and you are correct, I eyeballed it for sure, the challenge is it's virtually impossible to see how much leaves and grass is going to make after it composts, it melts and degrades so much that I usually make a "soil mix" for 2 cubic feet when I make the compost. Tends to work out just fine.
So, meaning the typical 2-4 cups of nutrients per cubic foot, and a cup of oyster flour, etc.
in hindsight, and after putting it into a big smartpot, I got about 60 gallons of compost.

you can ALWAYS go light, remember that the compost itself is loaded with pretty much everything the plant needs, hence the ability of trees to grow on their own yearly detritus, which is the whole goal here. A leaf compost is higher in macro value than cow manure is.
organics in it's barest form.
---edit---
It's important to note that 2 cubic feet of compost will make probably at least 4-6 cubic feet of soil, mixed with aeration and such, if you are bumping up your existing soil mix you need even less.
When I re-amend (usually after two or three runs)all I do is add about 25-33% to the mix, and that's it.
For the record I have many plants right now, that have NO peat in the mix at all, no coco either.
Just slowly over the course of time, reamend your existing soil mixes with compost.

also why I prefer as much cannabis detritus as possible, in my mind evolution has tweaked it over the course of millions of years, to be perfect, so why re-invent it?
as much cannabis leaves as you can put in the mix, the better, but don't worry, grass clipping is badass too.
I don't adjust my water at all, it's HARD well water, but it's fine.
I LOVE manure though, it's reaaaally a great source of slow nitrogen, and it's so low in it's content that you can make a large portion of the soil itself with it, it also degrades into pure humus as well, and that's awesome too.
if you are outside, manure is possibly the BEST nutrient to have.
but outside you need tons of nitrogen, especially in cali.