Can I use hydrated lime?

[baxbax]

Hello , I'm going to mix soil with peat moss and 10 percent wormcasting and 5 percent clay and 10 percent perlite .
wondering about low ph of peat moss and may its continue decreasing during grow ? i know peat moss substrate have already lime added to it, company say its ph is 5.5 to 6.5 . should I add lime to it ? I have access to hydrated lime and have question can i add to my soil or not and how much is ideal for gallon of soil ?
( I hear ground lime Is very slow acting and can take a year to be effective ? true ?)

 

[Scientific]

Hi -- First off, I have to ask: Why do you want to add clay to your soil? Is it supposed to have some benefit? I have always thought of clay as a bad thing.

> wondering about low ph of peat moss and may its continue decreasing during grow ?
I don't know if the pH decreases. However, I was amazed last summer at how a tomato that I had potted in peat moss stayed at a low pH all summer long, despite many waterings, some of them pH-adjusted to try to raise the pH of the peat moss.

> i know peat moss substrate have already lime added to it, company say its ph is 5.5 to 6.5 . should I add lime to it ?
If it's already pH-adjusted with lime, why would you want to add more?

> I have access to hydrated lime and have question can i add to my soil or not and how much is ideal for gallon of soil ?
What kind of hydrated lime is it? You would want ideally hydrated dolomitic lime, which has both calcium and magnesium. But again, why add lime if the pH is already correct? To add Ca and Mg?

> ( I hear ground lime Is very slow acting and can take a year to be effective ? true ?)
I don't know about the time span. The acid in the peat moss would have to interact with the carbonates in the lime. In wet soil, with very finely powdered lime, that process should take place quickly.

Here's a question for you: Why not just skip the peat moss entirely? (And the clay too.)

 

[baxbax]

Hi -- First off, I have to ask: Why do you want to add clay to your soil? Is it supposed to have some benefit? I have always thought of clay as a bad thing.

> wondering about low ph of peat moss and may its continue decreasing during grow ?
I don't know if the pH decreases. However, I was amazed last summer at how a tomato that I had potted in peat moss stayed at a low pH all summer long, despite many waterings, some of them pH-adjusted to try to raise the pH of the peat moss.

> i know peat moss substrate have already lime added to it, company say its ph is 5.5 to 6.5 . should I add lime to it ?
If it's already pH-adjusted with lime, why would you want to add more?

> I have access to hydrated lime and have question can i add to my soil or not and how much is ideal for gallon of soil ?
What kind of hydrated lime is it? You would want ideally hydrated dolomitic lime, which has both calcium and magnesium. But again, why add lime if the pH is already correct? To add Ca and Mg?

> ( I hear ground lime Is very slow acting and can take a year to be effective ? true ?)
I don't know about the time span. The acid in the peat moss would have to interact with the carbonates in the lime. In wet soil, with very finely powdered lime, that process should take place quickly.

Here's a question for you: Why not just skip the peat moss entirely? (And the clay too.)

thank you for your time . I heard clay has good cation exchange capacity and some plant react good to it , and its ph is more alkaline to add to peat i think just .
the hydrated lime I have is just lime stone proceed and then reacted with water and result is hydrated lime .

what should I use if i skip peatmoss? most of known soil company base is peat and perlite I think hi prix , biobizz etc .
I have coco coir but its blocked coco and have lots of salt in it poor quality I used once and its not buffered well and I failed all plants.

now just going with some brand of peat moss and worm casting perlite and maybe clay .

 

[Scientific]

> I heard clay has good cation exchange capacity and some plant react good to it , and its ph is more alkaline to add to peat i think just .
Huh. OK. Our "soil" here is a mix of sand, gravel, and clay, so I have always regarded clay as a bad thing, but "cation exchange" sounds good (I guess ).