Lowering Soil Ph

I recently switched back to organica from coco DTW. The cost and time involved were a bit much. Went to organic for the ease of use.
I made coots formula and added all the amendments. Everything was going good. Until I misdiagnosed a nute deficiency/toxicity when I believe now I was overwatering. In coco you can overwater and have no serious consequences to a degree. Soil not so much, lesson learned. But I made the dumb mistake of adding baking soda at 1tbsp/gal thinking my ph was low and the stunted growth was due to calmag not being available. Well needless to say that was before I bought a soil ph meter or did any research. How do I fix this guys. It’s been ten days and the plants are not looking well. The meter is still reading over 8. Cannot water it out as the plants aren’t drinking a drop. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Pics would help

I agree pics would help. Overwatering can take a loooong time to recover, especially with small plants in a big container.

I'm sure you just learned this, but soil is not like any form of hydroponics where you can just add something and quickly change the medium. If high pH is the problem (which I sort of doubt tbh) there's not a whole lot you can do that will work quickly in organic soil, short of transplanting to fresh medium. But don't rush to do that, let's see some pics and get more information about the grow first (what size pots and plants, what soil and fertilizers you're using, how much baking soda you actually added (you said 1 tbsp per gallon, but did you water with 0.1 gallons of that mixture, 10 gallons?), etc).

Thanks for the replies.
I added a few pics so you guys can see what I am talking about.

I transplanted into coots recipe. The only deviation being that I miscalculated how much kelp meal I needed and ended up running out. So instead of one cup kelp it’s really half kelp and half alfalfa meal. Could this be an issue? I doubt this though.
The baking soda fiasco was at 1tbsp/gallon and I feed them until runoff like an idiot. I got a bad feeling about it as soon as I did it and now I’m paying for it. The ph meter is on the 8 when I go into every pot.
I actually transplanted into the pots from 2 gals a week ago. Now I did water heavy when I transplanted and I think that’s the mistake. Everyday after I’ve watered at 5% by volume.
There’s four 15 gallons 6 or 7 7 gallons and the rest are 5 gallons. All have the same soil formula.

LilT211 said:

Thanks for the replies.
I added a few pics so you guys can see what I am talking about.

I transplanted into coots recipe. The only deviation being that I miscalculated how much kelp meal I needed and ended up running out. So instead of one cup kelp it’s really half kelp and half alfalfa meal. Could this be an issue? I doubt this though.
The baking soda fiasco was at 1tbsp/gallon and I feed them until runoff like an idiot. I got a bad feeling about it as soon as I did it and now I’m paying for it. The ph meter is on the 8 when I go into every pot.
I actually transplanted into the pots from 2 gals a week ago. Now I did water heavy when I transplanted and I think that’s the mistake. Everyday after I’ve watered at 5% by volume.
There’s four 15 gallons 6 or 7 7 gallons and the rest are 5 gallons. All have the same soil formula.

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Some growers will say those meters are useless. Some like me find the moisture meter useful. No one that I know of on riu considers the PH readings on those meters useful. Ways to check soil PH. (1) Learn how to do a soil slurry test. (2) Buy a low end $200 soil testing probe. (3) Send in a soil sample for testing. You are not seeing an accurate reading with that tool.

Kushash said:

Some growers will say those meters are useless. Some like me find the moisture meter useful. No one that I know of on riu considers the PH readings on those meters useful. Ways to check soil PH. (1) Learn how to do a soil slurry test. (2) Buy a low end $200 soil testing probe. (3) Send in a soil sample for testing. You are not seeing an accurate reading with that tool.

Click to expand...

Got it. I had that thought in my head that I was wasting my time with the meter.

I agree on not relying on that soil pH meter. However, they do seem to be a bit more reliable in the moisture meter mode, have you checked that?

I'd probably just leave them alone for the next few days, not adding anything including water, and let them dry out a bit. Sometimes with soil it's amazing what can happen when you just leave it alone...

weedstoner420 said:

I agree pics would help. Overwatering can take a loooong time to recover, especially with small plants in a big container.

I'm sure you just learned this, but soil is not like any form of hydroponics where you can just add something and quickly change the medium. If high pH is the problem (which I sort of doubt tbh) there's not a whole lot you can do that will work quickly in organic soil, short of transplanting to fresh medium. But don't rush to do that, let's see some pics and get more information about the grow first (what size pots and plants, what soil and fertilizers you're using, how much baking soda you actually added (you said 1 tbsp per gallon, but did you water with 0.1 gallons of that mixture, 10 gallons?), etc).

Click to expand...

Fish hydrolysate will bring it down.

Obepawn said:

Fish hydrolysate will bring it down.

Click to expand...

Thanks all for the input. I definitely will be waiting for a while before I water. Now as far as the ph goes how will I know if that was the issue? Any signs to be on the look out for? If it is high how much fish hydrolysate do you recommend? All those plants are under leds and 18/6.

best way to drop ph is to get somthing like biobizz 3 part tester pack , this when added to water gives a ph of around 6, this will restore it lower

If you just want ph down theres no reason to add nitrogen too. Theres already a bit of nitrogen toxicity on a couple of them as i see it. Ph down with vinegar or lemon. Up with bak soda.

Citric acid kreb cycle much much better and any high ph ca gets removed by conversion