ph issue...need professional help

[h=2]ph issue...need professional help[/h]

LMAO...pH is of almost no concern in soil if you are growing in good soil...

also what is gb?

runoff is a terrible measurement of soil pH...the pH in your soil is changing every second...so what is runoff going to tell you? nothing...

you're fine in my book...keep watering, don't adjust pH. topdress with earthworm castings if you have them - this will be your best move.

Run off will tell a grower the way nutrients are reacting. Obviously if you pour in water with a ph of 7 and it comes out 7.5 then your medium is buffering high. If you pour in 7 and it comes out 5 then your medium is buffering correctly and your ph is a number between 5 and 7 which is what you want. Its true that it will not tell you the soil ph it will only give a general idea.

You are good. Worm casting are a good idea becuase they are organic ph buffering fiends. Top dressing with them can cause hard soil though. I would just brew em and slew em.

pH is not changed or much affected as it passes thru the soil. It takes at a minimum 35 to 40 min for the lime (or whatever you use to buffer) to start buffering the solution that sits in contact with the soil. Don't obsess over pH in soil, ESPECIALLY if you are organic. The only pH value you need concern yourself with is the pH of the soil itself, not what gets put in or what comes out. If the soil pH was properly set at the beginning (with lime, dolomite, oyster shell, whatever you use) then it will not change for the duration of your grow. This is why I suggest people build their own soils, and set that pH at the onset, that way you KNOW whats up, not guessing. There is a tutorial on pH, and how to check it in soil in my journals. Check it out.
Nothing you put into the soil will change the pH value. If it DOES effect it, it will be temporary at best. The lime in the soil will change the pH of anything in contact with it and bring it to that value. After you add the lime, the only way that pH will change permanently is to dissolve out all the added lime. Hope this makes sense.

In a nutshell, as Cann said, don't obsess over pH in soil.

Jack Harer said:

Nothing you put into the soil will change the pH value. If it DOES effect it, it will be temporary at best.

Click to expand...

I respectfully disagree. Many things can change the ph of your soil. The amount of peat moss in your mix determines how acidic it will become over time. Even having too many worm castings in your mix can cause your ph to become too high. Humic acid applications, uncomposted material, fungi. It all has an effect. We use dolomite lime to counterbalance this effect. Whether or not it matters when growing organic is a different story. As long as your between 5 and 7 with organics your plants should be happy.

We're together here on the main issue, it's in the details where it only appears we're different. Yes, I agree in the most part with everything you said, I just try and keep things simple in replying to a question until I can ascertain the OPs level of education and what they'll comprehend. pH is a cock-sucker to get your mind around, so I try and explain in terms most folks can grasp. It took me forever to understand the basics of pH and how it effects ion exchange. STILL get hung up on the more in depth concepts though.........
After everything is mixed together in the soil mix, ie: peat, EWC, nutes etc, the last step I do is set the pH of the entire mix, which will then remain stable. Bacterial action and a host of other things will attempt to change the pH, but the action of calcium carbonate will always return it to the value set. Unless acted upon by a stronger buffer. It's the fact that calcium carbonate is a very strong, stable buffer that will eventually return pH of any liquid it contacts to the value set in the soil mix. For that to change, all the C Carbonate would have to dissolve out.

JH