Soil pH

[Ambitious Intentions]

Sorry to be a pain, but what PH should my soil be? Ive been on the problems and pictorial on this site but am told my PH should be around 6.5. by others, such as the guy from the grow shop in town.What do you recomend I have it at, and best way to get it there. Ive currently got PH at 7. I still have yellowing and spotting of leaves so somethings up. Please advise,im desperate not to lose this one. thanks

 

[Steve McStoferson]

ph of 7 is neutral. Since you're in soil, the recommended range to aim for is 6.3-6.8 I like to get mine somewhere in that range and have no problems with it

 

[Tweaks51]

Learn to read your plant! I myself am a first time grower and had burned my plant in beginning so I backed off and make solution with less nutes. So if it's like leaves going light green need more nutes and if burned which you know what it looks like back off a bit.

 

[Hogdady]

First question is how are you checking soil ph? You should be checking soil ph by measuring the runoff ph.

The runoff ph should be very close the ph of the mix you are watering with. Your water/nute mix just prior to watering should be 6.3-6.8 ph.

Did you amend the soil prior to planting with dolomite? Dolomite acts as a ph stabilizer and is a must on soil grows.

 

[Ambitious Intentions]

I use a PH soil tester, with a needle indicato rfrom B&Q and have checked run off and its about 6, to 6.5,the same ph I watered it with. Its definitely not nute burn. I added lime later,didnt really prepare soil with anything

 

[Hogdady]

throw that soil tester away! If your runoff is within .5 from your feed water, your soil ph is fine...

Are you suplementing with nitrogen and cal/mag?

 

[Ambitious Intentions]

No,im not,just giving it ionic bloom feed. Whats wrong with meter?

 

[Giantsfan24]

No,im not,just giving it ionic bloom feed. Whats wrong with meter?

Ph soil testers can be horribly inaccurate. Hog is dead on...get some dolomite lime and topdress with it.

That will stabilize your ph at about 7 but not over that, I think you said that you're already there, then go with some cal/mag.

That and nitrogen are the two most common deficiencies. Course a pic or two of your grow might help to determine what's up.

 

[Ambitious Intentions]

Ive added some lime mixed with water this morning. I used the ph meter and the soil was alkaline,,8,8.5. never had that before. I tested the run off from yesterday and it came out green,7 PH. Cant post pics as I havent installed software yet. Will do this week. The leaves ,some of them,are brown spotting and yellowing.

 

[Ambitious Intentions]

PS,where do I get cal/mag? How do I apply it,etc? Isnt it already in my ionic plant food?

 

[Giantsfan24]

Ive added some lime mixed with water this morning. I used the ph meter and the soil was alkaline,,8,8.5. never had that before. I tested the run off from yesterday and it came out green,7 PH. Cant post pics as I havent installed software yet. Will do this week. The leaves ,some of them,are brown spotting and yellowing.

PS,where do I get cal/mag? How do I apply it,etc? Isnt it already in my ionic plant food?

That's what we mean..the soil tester comes out with one thing and your runoff is something else. I'd trust the runoff an dump the soil meter. You said the water is green @ 7.0. I assume that's with a manual ph water tester correct?

If you go to any grow store/hydro shop they will have a plethora of cal/mag products to choose from. That said, the dolomite lime is a good source of both. That's why it so highly recommended.

It does a lot of things in one shot. Google it..

 

[Droopy Dog]

Test strips will be better than that soil meter, or a $20 digital pH pen off ebay.

They are so inaccurate it will be causing more problems because you will be trying to adjust a wrong pH.

How much and what type of lime did you apply? It takes awhile to work, so don't expect immediate results.

DD

 

[Ambitious Intentions]

I think ive found the cause of the yellowing of my leaves.I believe it to be nutrient deficiency and have remedied that. Thx for replies

 

[LaVerde4:20]

How did you remedy? I am having the same issue. My plants are two weeks old and yellowed and the bottom leafs burnt edges. We have them on 3G geo-pots. We used 5 L per plant to flush them with ph 6 water and we read the runoff and it was 6.9 on almost all of them. I am growing in super soil. Dolomite lime? How do I fix this? Waiting for them to dry to flush them again with lower ph water? What should I do?