first time organic "diy cook" soil

lol
lol j.k. dont drink compost tea people, you'll die! ..maybe.
lol

if I don't need to brew teas and my plants grew great without them I can see myself not bothering if I new I had lots og biology already

but, im thinking since my cook was short and the cook piles relatively small (they cooked in the pots #20) not creating as much heat a large pile would make....
the added biology from tea might help accelerate all things lime to bring up the ph

im go to do a watering with some silicate1x tonight hoping to bump it at least 0.5 and follow it with a tea on my next watering

im getting more frequent readings at 5.8 than anything

im going to attempt at seeing if the silicate will raise it to 6.3

so tonight they get 1 grams per gallon and maybe 1.5 gallons per pot

then in 2 or 3 days I will dump a strong tea with some added mycos and BB powder on top of the poop and molasses and a pinch of P guano

last grow I used the guano in my tea at a rate of 1/2 cup per 16 gallons finished tea
and all went well, so im going add the guano this one tea and then leave it be until it asks for something more

You try spreading some fine dolomite powder on top the soil and water it in? and every watering thereafter will slowly raise the concentration down below and start to help maybe? (I don't know oyster shell as much as dolomite, so maybe oyster also, i know the dolomite with a ph sitting at 5.8 in the medium will not do anything bad or overdose because you already have some in there. Maybe will make higher pH uptake nutrients be available almost right away as supplement this way until its built up enough for no more top dressing it. Cations will exchange as dolomite does its thing?)

(I write program using speech synthesizer, and auto reload web page on timer, and run script to check certain x,y location on screen for change, so when alert comes top right, I have computer scream at me through speakers..lol.. in case you wonder, how i always here after you post. LOL)

im thinking the silicate will have a quicker response and be more controllable to prevent over shooting

im not looking to raise it much just a little to get closer and let the lime that's in it do its thing

there not really drinking much at the moment ...

Johnei said:

(I write program using speech synthesizer, and auto reload web page on timer, and run script to check certain x,y location on screen for change, so when alert comes top right, I have computer scream at me through speakers..lol.. in case you wonder, how i always here after you post. LOL)

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hadn't thought about it

but I think you just admitted your stalking me ...lol...just kidding

Just remember dolomite reacts when it touches anything below pH 7 and starts changing the chemistry in it's emediate facinity, raising pH nuetralizing acids. Just a thought, bro.

not you, all alerts..lol.. dont misunderstand. LOL

as to the magnesium/Epsom salt inputs

adding low EC Epsom salt to the soil shouldn't have a drastically negative effect on biology as long as the total salinity in the medium isn't building

as long as the total salinity is low its irrelevant

otherwise using tap water with a EC of 0.2 would kill your biology ... not really
I believe the issue is about high salinity

Epsom salt is more of a mineral not a "salt"
well technically its a salt mineral but like he said not like sodium

there might be some debate as to if top dressing could affect the biology that come in contact with the Epsom prior to dilution or it being dissolved to reduce the salinity so it might be safer to pre-dissolve it and water it in

I think id use less thou... ive always gotten good response with 1/2 tsp per gallon max
(at least in hydro)

First quick thought.. chelate epsom salts for packing into fulvic smaller molecule and go into plant not burn.

Johnei said:

Epsom is pure salt. Do you want salt in your soil. What other ingredients that ever are added to soil resemble salt. Think a

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Johnei said:

You try spreading some fine dolomite powder on top the soil and water it in? and every watering thereafter will slowly raise the concentration down below and start to help maybe? (I don't know oyster shell as much as dolomite, so maybe oyster also, i know the dolomite with a ph sitting at 5.8 in the medium will not do anything bad or overdose because you already have some in there. Maybe will make higher pH uptake nutrients be available almost right away as supplement this way until its built up enough for no more top dressing it. Cations will exchange as dolomite does its thing?)

Click to expand...

Johnei said:

Just remember dolomite reacts when it touches anything below pH 7 and starts changing the chemistry in it's emediate facinity, raising pH nuetralizing acids. Just a thought, bro.

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Johnei is totally spot on with both of these replys and I agree 420%.

Pretty much liquid anything isn't going to do squat for pH except very temporarily. The soil will just buffer it to the soils pH. That's why pHing irrigation water is kinda a useless excercise. The soils pH counts for everything and any liquid inputs count little. I'm sure there is an exception to the rule, but I can't think of one.

If you're constantly getting a 5.8 reading, a top dress of lime might really be called for.

Before all that, what kind of probe did you pick up? A real deal pH meter or one of those cheapies sold in the garden shop? The cheapies are less than useless because they give such inaccurate readings. Worse than not knowing is trying to correct a incorrect pH. The Bluelab probe is decent and lives in the ~$200 neighborhood to give you an example.

Wetdog said:

Johnei is totally spot on with both of these replys and I agree 420%.

Pretty much liquid anything isn't going to do squat for pH except very temporarily. The soil will just buffer it to the soils pH. That's why pHing irrigation water is kinda a useless excercise. The soils pH counts for everything and any liquid inputs count little. I'm sure there is an exception to the rule, but I can't think of one.

If you're constantly getting a 5.8 reading, a top dress of lime might really be called for.

Before all that, what kind of probe did you pick up? A real deal pH meter or one of those cheapies sold in the garden shop? The cheapies are less than useless because they give such inaccurate readings. Worse than not knowing is trying to correct a incorrect pH. The Bluelab probe is decent and lives in the ~$200 neighborhood to give you an example.

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$75

but I took reafings from the fresh bagg FFOF as a base

6.8 every time

would a temp rise in ph be a good thing

as the silicate becomes depleted the existing lime would ve in full effect?

my concern with thte lime is I don't want to end up adding too much and end up high down the road

ive been scouting non-pot grow searches for raising ph in soil and much of the content states is very difficult and slow to raise soil ph and that often times several approaches are needed

I also noticed looking at one of the soil amnedments recipeis ive come across theyre using K-silica to ph adjust instead of lime

im4satori said:

would a temp rise in ph be a good thing

as the silicate becomes depleted the existing lime would ve in full effect?

my concern with thte lime is I don't want to end up adding too much and end up high down the road

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can't go high, it can't go higher than what it is, what it's constituants are made of. it will only react in the presence of acid, therefore when things are acidic will bring up to around or below nuetral, when things are nuetral, it will do absolutely nothing. it cant go higher out of pH plant uptake range due to the dolomite lime.

Feels like dejavu, like I wrote EXACT same thing before, not here, but I think we covered this brother. You are overthinking just a touch I think. Silica comes from rock dusts and makes plants robus alreadyt, by the way.

edit-Not only contains, is High in silica.

Be back tomorrow, gotta go but last thing to tell you...

If you top dress with a full light dusting of dolomite covering entire pot, very light dusting, but full coverage, that's your measurement, and scratch it in, then pump simple worm castings teas a few watering in a row, cannot burn if you dont add all the other things, just worm castings, rock dust, little bit kelp, and molasses... i'm almost possitive if you check pH after these things will not be 5.8 anymore but higher into proper plant uptake range for soil.
cu tomorrow.

-the silica would be a temporary and more harsh treatment that may not even work, pH adjustment has to be worked from wiithin the soil, adding things from the top like that wont do shit I think, to be honest. it'll just be that one watering that is proper ph and nothing changed.

im4satori said:

$75

but I took reafings from the fresh bagg FFOF as a base

6.8 every time

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Just for S & G why don't you test the pH of the dolo? Like, whatever the pH is, it won't raise it beyond that point. Doing the same for the oyster shell might be informative also.

well

I already gave them a heavy watering with the silica added

the one plant was reading ph 5.5 and all the others 5.8
it takes about ten minutes before the probe settles

after watering in the potassium silicate at 1 gram per gallon and 30 minutes later theyre now reading ph 6.2 to 6.4

next watering I will water in the tea

I will keep you posted on what the ph does over then next week or so

so 24 hours later and the ph slid down to ph 6.0

im going to add top dress 1/2 cup dolomite lime (for 20 gallons soil 2 + cubic ft) and water it in with tea on the next watering Friday or saturday