adjust pH with fish hyrolysate?

NewEnglandFarmer

Well-Known Member
I've been feeding my plants occasional snacks of diluted fish hydrolysate which they seem to really enjoy.

The first few times I didn't check pH, just added the prescribed amount (4T/gallon) and drenched roots (also tried a foliar spray).

Today I did another root drench but figured I should check pH. It was way low, 4.8. Figuring I didn't want me root zone acidic, I added 1/2 t potassium silica per gallon to raise the pH back up to 6.

Does this seem like the right approach? When feeding liquid nutrients or compost teas, do you check and adjust pH?
 

Richard Drysift

Well-Known Member
No because it is the mix itself that sets ph. The composition of the soil itself buffers the ph. It can fluctuate from one area of a container to another but as long as there is plenty of organic material along with the proper mix of minerals the ph should always be in range for absorption. Adding ph adjusted water should not affect the actual ph in the root zone. Feeding synthetic nutes with high NPK values can throw off the ph by upsetting the fungi that absorbs nutrients from the soil naturally.
Liquid fish is fine, has very low npk value. No need to ph anything. Ever. In organic soil anyway. If you use clean water and never give them anything with a npk value higher than 5 you should never have to worry about ph.
 

PadawanWarrior

Well-Known Member
I've been feeding my plants occasional snacks of diluted fish hydrolysate which they seem to really enjoy.

The first few times I didn't check pH, just added the prescribed amount (4T/gallon) and drenched roots (also tried a foliar spray).

Today I did another root drench but figured I should check pH. It was way low, 4.8. Figuring I didn't want me root zone acidic, I added 1/2 t potassium silica per gallon to raise the pH back up to 6.

Does this seem like the right approach? When feeding liquid nutrients or compost teas, do you check and adjust pH?
That's good shit, literally. When I add bottled nutes I try not to add too much. I try to keep the pH going in between 5-8 max just so I don't piss off any microbes or worms. I'd love to put in 6.5 everytime, but it's not really needed. They usually just get plain well water that's around 7.2-7.8 depending. Lately it's been closer to 7.7.

It's not so much the high pH from the water that I need to worry about, it's the calcium content. Once in awhile it's good for me to feed citric acid to flush out some of the extra Ca. I use a lot of Ca based amendments though.

@Richard Drysift is someone whose words I'd listen to.
 
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