how much lime to add to soil?

I bet you are reading your meter wrong. MJ likes acidic soil but usually no lower then 5 so if you are at 4 for wsph and the plants look good you are not reading the right meter or reading the meter wrong is my bet. Lime will stabilize Ph and actually keep it from creeping up. If you want higher Ph ammend with a little baking soda in the water. What kind of guage or meter are you using? And for what application?

I use drops. the ph of the water (plain water) is around 7 (deep lime green). the runoff from the bottom is around 4 (deep pink). the problem is that the plants are NOT doing ok. each try i always lose almost a third of my seedlings to what i have finally determined are ph issues. here are some pics of my latest crop. they are only 16 days old from seed, red diesel and satori. even the ones that look like they will make it are showing signs of nute def. only explaination
is this ph. it can fluxuate like crazy and i can't seem to rein it in over the course of a grow. since this happens every single crop no matter what soil i use (when i get to the nute stage shit really can go south) and i can't afford any other kind of water, I am going to amend the soil before I transplant these young'ns into their final pots. I guess a better question for the pros would be whether i should mix the lime in to the soil or sprinkle it on top before I water like with a lawn. My whole thing is that I don't want the ph to go up then down then up then down. thats what i always do and the plants suffer for it. in the pics remember that ALL the plants are the same age. the green pots are barneys farm red diesel and the orange pots are mandala satori (which is amazingly resiliant so far but is still suffering). they are all either stunted, spotted, or have yellow or brown dead tips.

anyone use lime in their soil that can give me a general idea of what proportions to use? i'm using dolomite lime with oceanforest and perlite.

I use a mixture of Fox Farms Happy Frog, Ocean Forest, Light Warrior, Perlite and its a very acidic mix so about 2 tablespoons of lime for every 5 gallons of soil works for me brings it from 4.5-5.0 up to 6.5-6.6.

Originally Posted by Total Head

I guess a better question for the pros would be whether i should mix the lime in to the soil or sprinkle it on top before I water like with a lawn.

Far from a "pro" but I read a lot .

From what I've read in other posts, it seems to be more effective mixing it in the soil. There are some posts saying that top dressing may help a bit though. I kinda screwed up and have my conversions all screwed up but I added 2 cups lime to (about) 85lbs of my soil mix, which I think is ~5Tbls per 5 gallons. I've grown tomatoes in pots in a similar mix and they did considerably better than other soils I've used.

Not hijacking your thread but is it possible to o.d. on lime?

Sorry, I'm done taking up space on your thread here but I hope you get it figured out, and good luck.

I bump this thread because I want to know the same thing.

bump for the same reason ^^^^

Originally Posted by jamboss

I bump this thread because I want to know the same thing.

Originally Posted by drolove

bump for the same reason ^^^^

well it should delight you both to know that i have a complete grasp of this whole lime proportion thing at this point (notice the date of the first post).

due to my semi-perpetual cycle and limited living space i find myself needing to mix up soil on a per-pot basis. long story short i use around 3 tablespoons per 3 gallon pot (ish). i see some people use less and some people use more, but i find this amount to work for me. i should point out that i use pulverized (powdered) dolomite and not the kind in chunks or pellets. i also no longer bother with ffof soil or chemical nutrients, so ph is pretty much a concern of the past, but the lime is still important in my mix.

as far as after-the-fact liming goes, i highly recommend liquid lime. i find 1-2 tablespoons per gallon of water makes a bigger impact than top dressing with dry lime and watering. it goes to work a lot faster than dry lime and water. i think it has to do with the particles having been run through a finer mesh than the dry lime but i lost the link with the only study i found of liquid lime and potted plants.

as far as ODing on lime, i've never done it with a weed plant but i've seen it on lawns. you can burn the hell out of a lawn if you use way too much, but the amount i saw used was absurd, so i don't know what the threshold is.