PH Down Soil

[Mr.Clean]

well I'm not a dirt farmer but this year I have to do a grow outside.. I need to Know how you lower the ph of potting soil.. I have heard of people using lime, does that raise or lower the PH ? any info on the would be great.. Thanks Guys.. :(

oh and one more thing.. in my hydro I keep the PH at about 5.5 what should soil be??

[Mr.Clean]

well I found out that lime is not what I want.. what I found said to use aluminum sulfate or sulfur..But I'm not sure if I should use this on something I want to smoke..:eek:

[Cranky]

just adjust to 6.5 after you've added your nutes using Ph up or down.(after adding nutes to my water its normally ph up i have to use to take it to 6.5.

so say ya water is 7.0 and it gos down to 6.0 after adding nutes then ya need to add Ph up to take it to 6.5.if you were to add to much Ph up and say ya sent it back up to far and ended up around 7.0 again then ya cant add Ph down...

either dump it and start over or dump half the feed and top up with water and see where that leaves ya.the 2 mixed together(Ph up and down)concentrated or not will cause the quick shift in Ph level and reaction causes polarization.
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hers a chart for yas.
http://www.homegrownbud.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=2595&d=1142260665
hope this helps

cranky

[Mr.Clean]

so it's just about the water? I was under the assumption that if I take a pot of soil and dump 7.0 PHed water in it. Then I check the water that drains and the PH has gone up that the soil needs to be amended to adjust it to the proper PH.. what I think you are saying is that all I have to do is adjust the PH of the water down till it comes out the drain in the proper range.. Is this right??

[Cranky]

always check ya Ph AFTER adding nutes.and always water with solution at 6.5.ya not in control of the Ph as you are in hydro.i mean..if your Ph gos all funky in soil the its a case of a flush.

basically,when ya goto feed..have it at 6.5;)

I'm no master on Ph side of things.I'm a soil man and never had to check Ph as the nutes i used would end up about 6.4.6.5 when a feed was made up.Ive only just started to check my Ph when feeding my soil plants as Ive just started hydro....if it weren't for that then i guess i still wouldn't even have bothered checking my Ph as me plants have always said their fine.

perhaps somebody else can jump into explain:)

if ya used ff nutes or bio bizz nutes then ya wouldn't have to worry about Ph.although the root juice by bio bizz will send it down.the rest are Ph friendly

cranky

[Mr.Clean]

well something doesn't seem right about this..this is what I'm thinking. If I have a pot of soil that is reading 8.0 PH and I add PH lowered water that drains out at 6.5. what stops the soil from going right back to 8.0? Seems to me that 5 minutes later your plants will be right back in the alkaline soil and would stay that way till you added more PHed water.


Sorry I don't mean to be a pain in the ass over this. I just don't understand it..:o

[Cranky]

ph everything to 6.5 mate and all will be happy happy joy joy like;)

if ya flush soil with 6.5 then that soils gonna be 6.5 or there abouts...same when feeding.


cranky

[Mr.Clean]

I can do Hydro in my sleep but this dirt just messes me up.. LOL

I thank you for all your help kind sir..;)

[Cranky]

no worries bro..its the other way round with me:rolleyes:

live and learn and all that aye;)

take care pal

cranky

[Roger Ramjet]

This may be my first post...but I am experienced in dirt and soiless. If you want to have no worries about your ph in soil...then just add dolomite lime at a rate of 2tbs per gal of medium. Soil or soiless. Regular garden lime they sell at walfart and nurseries will also work fine, and it has calcium and MG in it, which is good for MJ. Just stay away from hydrated lime, as it's really too strong to work with safely.

The lime will buffer your ph, not just raise it. Even better yet...try and stick with organic feeds, the addition of lime, and you can throw your ph meter away.

Cheers,
RR

[bald1]

^^^^ My thoughts exactly :share:

Here's my method on testing the pH of your soil, hope it helps ya ;)

How to test the pH of your soil mix

Measuring the pH of soil is just as important as with hydro applications, but few people know how to test soil pH to see if it is within the optimum range for growing robust healthy plants. Here I will try to explain my method of testing any soil / soilless mix, enabling me to spot any problems and correct them if necessary.

Firstly, wait till your soil has dried out and is due for its next watering schedule. Then take some plain water that you usually water your garden with, and adjust the pH to 7.0. You must make sure that you know the exact pH of the water going into your soil, and the neutral 7.0 is best, but anywhere from 6.5 – 7.0 will suffice.

Then place your pot into a bowl of some sort to catch the runoff water, and then start to water your soil slowly (with your pH- corrected plain water) till the water starts to drip from the bottom.
It’s the first drops of water that will give you the best reading of your soil, so make sure to water slowly till you see the first droplets. Then remove the pot from the bowl to eliminate excess water entering the bowl. Then perform the pH test on the runoff and compare it too your initial test.
The results of the runoff test will likely be lower than your starting value of 7.0. If this is the case, a small drop of 0.5 pH to 6.5 pH (example) would be ok and your soil needs no further alterations at the moment. But that’s not to say that it won’t need any future tests at all, just not at this time.

What if the pH is off?
If your results prove to have dropped considerably, say to around 5.5 (which can happen in late stages of flowering), you will need to add some lime into your soil to help buffer the pH back up again.

Remove the first inch or so of soil, taking care not to damage any roots whilst performing this task. Then sprinkle the lime into the pot, nice and evenly at a rate of 1 teaspoon (5 ml) of lime per gallon of soil. Then replace the soil you removed earlier, and saturate the soil good to wash in the lime.

Do the same test next time your plants need watering just to check that everything is fine, if more lime needs to be added then just repeat the process again till you reach close to 6.5 – 7.0 with the runoff.

Ensuring that your pH is correct should be done throughout the life cycle; this will help eliminate any nutrient lockout that may occur. I recommend doing this once a month just to keep the PH in check, and you should never have a problem with deficiencies caused by pH lockout.

[high2dsky]

im absorbing all this information and it will come in handy . thanks all.

[smokebeare]

I use Fulvic Acid as my Ph down ,it's cheap and good for the plants cell growth, i also use it with Humic Acid, found in large bottles very cheap , but be carful it can drop Ph fast, i use a ph meter after i mix nutrients in water then use Fulvic and Humic Acid to decrease Ph level Smokebeare

[AzGrowa]

In the past I have started with soil in the 6.2-6.8 pH range. African Violet potting soil is a good choice, then mixed that with SuperSoil (pH 6.5-7.0) and used the commercial pH testing kits to check the soil pH after letting it sit for a week or so. Soil sulfur will decrease the pH level but it's usually a slow release granular additive that will generally maintain the 6.2-6.8 pH range during veg.
Checking your water after adding nutes is best as well. I used pH Down I purchased in a local pet store to adjust after nutes, because the water in the southwest is pretty hard(alkaline, pH8.0 or better).
Getting a handle on pH before dropping yer beans in the soil will save ya some headaches of chasing pH during the grow.
While I've never checked pH after watering, I don't see where this would be wrong either.
Starting with the correct soil pH and adusting your water after adding nutes seems the easiest way of keeping your pH in the ideal range.

[Cakes]

Adjusting potting soil is best done by adding other soil to it. Growing in straight potting soil usually isn't all that good anyway although there are some soil mixes that are okay on their own. It is good to use just 1/3 potting soil and then add two other ingredients like 1/3 compost and 1/3 topsoil. You can use worm castings or manure or such too.

and then you can add stuff like rock fertilizers or kelp or bonemeal or even lime.

Using lime on soil that already has a high pH is a very bad idea.

If a plant is already growing in the alkaline potting soil then yes, we can use "pH Down" to adjust the water but yes, the soil may revert to alkalinity after the water has been applied. "Ironite" is another choice for adding acidity to soil.

if the plant is growing in the alkaline potting soil and is about to be planted outside, then the outside soil may add plenty of acidity. Some outside soils are alkaline though so it is good to test the soil.

Soil can be tested with meters that have prongs to stick in the soil or they can be tested by applying litmus paper to moist soil or there are tests which use a teaspoon or pinch of soil placed in liquid..