PH issues

[Kapncannabis]

how are you testing your soil pH?

Unless its lab tested your results are NOT accurate.

pH is a logarithmic scale = a little off is way off.

That and plants have the ability to change the pH at the Rhizosphere and how they uptake nutrients by regulating the pH in the root zone/Rhizosphere in harmony with microbes and fungi.

You well water pH is high. I have the same issue - its actually alkaline. pH and alkalinity are related but not the same. It's complicated but the reason for your high pH in your well water is from the rocks the water percolates thru and is likely limestone.

I decided long time ago to use an RO filtration system as the ppms and pH of our well water fluctuate hourly... and it can go way up to 10pH. This will kill plants IN CONTAINERS regardless of your soil pH in about 2-3 weeks you will see signs of plant issues.

For soil pH - you can do a slurry test - look up how to do it and that test is not accurate enough to do something or make changes.

You cannot add lime to soil with a plant in the container and expect any changes other than possibly killing your plants. Farmers lime fallow fields in late fall or early spring. That should be a clue that adding lime to a potted plant with a plant in there is bad practice and wont do what you want it to do as you have already found out.

So do nothing - pH adjust your water if you need to bring it down and you should - try getting some Vitamin C (ascorbic ACID) powder - a jar will last several years and cost WAY less than a chemical in a bottle.

As an aside to above:

I use peat moss in my soil mix. When I mix my soil several weeks before planting in it I add oyster shell flour ( 96% calcium carbonate) - this will offset the acidity of the peat moss. Then I add more Ca in the form of Gypsum - which will not change the soil pH over time. As a liming agent you can use gypsum with a growing plant to add Ca not to change soil pH.

Soil you should look at it as a living organism. A natural balance of all your amendments in a living soil. I mix my soil and let it grow. I grow micro-organisms and fungi..they in turn grow the plants. So I'm very mindful of what I add to soil in containers. Outside in the ground its still living but you can mess up BAD and its buffered so you have a lot more leeway. In a container a very small amount of anything can be detrimental.

Hope that helps

Thanks Bo. That sheds a little light. The last grow I tested run off with strips,pool test kit and cheap pen. It indicated 5-5.5 and I thought it was low. I was skeptical about the runnoff being concentrated so Purchased blue lab pen to confirm my previous results. It did. I have tested everything around here since The pen appears spot on in both liquid and soils. My soil mix is definitely lower than my vegetable pots. My well water is pushed through limestone but religiously stays at 8.2. Giving me a sort of calibration check before my testing. Oyster shell,maybe the ticket. Yea

 

[Kapncannabis]

yes... Microbes exist in the deepest ocean, in volcanoes... they can evolve into some pretty tough critters. When we are long gone, microbes will remain. They can handle a little bit of non neutral pH, without huge extremes of course. In an organic minerally enriched soil, there are plenty of spots around the organics where the local pH will soar, in either extreme... imagine the pH right near a chunk of dolomite lime, or some potassium phosphate as it is breaking down. It certainly isn't neutral. The roots simply adapt and deal with it, their choice to go into that region or not... same with the microbes.

Ph is way way down there on my list of things to worry about in my organic gardens. That is one of the main reasons I moved away from synthetic nutes into organic gardening... so I no longer have to worry about pH. I basically apply only water, so that is in range, and I know that years from now my soil eventually will acidify and go flat on me. When I see my soil change its character and I start losing plants, I will check it's pH to confirm what conditions are already telling me, and I will replace it. I think maybe it is the soil manufacturers who make such a deal out of soil and pH so that people will experiment and jack up their soils, so they need to buy more soil... who knows?

Anyway... wean yourself from your pH meter... just keep it handy in case some day for some odd reason, you need or want to use it.

Thanks Em, with support from good peeps at 420 I will figure it out

 

[Kapncannabis]

Like @Emilia said - soil can work with a very large pH range. As long as its not changing with a big swing like adding lime in the middle of a grow.

Same if you're using fertilizers - follow label with regard to pH and your golden.

If you worry about soil pH, its nothing that you can change with plants growing and even without plants say 1 season you lime your soil its only a temporary change.

I'm good with soil at 5.5pH specially if my water is alkaline.

The reason for adding lime without plants is so the micro-organisms can break down the lime that changes the pH. It's best to let the roots interact with the microbes via root exudate - let the plant regulate the pH. That's how it happens naturally.

We hoo-mans tried to get smarter and use synthetic chemicals to bypass this interaction with roots and soil microbes. It's not going very well.... things like pandemics and disease which are rampant around the world are the result of our superior intelligence.

Go figure.

I really love growing without synthetics now, seems so much less complicated and less work. I will get it dialed in

 

[Kapncannabis]

Update. She is on the mend now, getting back her color. Feeding some nutes and Mn. Been on 12/12 for 13 days now. Her companion is looking pretty good also. The girls in veg are about to start getting moved into flowering room very soon.