Organic Soil Mix Has a PH OF 4

Discussion in 'Growing Organic Marijuana' started by ottafish, May 10, 2015.

  1. #1 ottafish, May 10, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: May 10, 2015
       I mixed up a batch of soil in January and have been letting it sit in 20 gallon smart pots until now. I have watered it every now and then to keep it wet when it hasn't rained. I recently made a fish fertilizer from a salmon I caught by letting it rot away in water and poured that into the soil to add nutrients to It. I used a soil recipe very similar to the soil recipe from the organic soil thread. The recipe is in my avatar in one of my previous posts some have you may have seen it. I've read that in organics PH doesn't matter but I think that means the water you use which mine is a good PH anyways. It seems like my soil should be around 7 like the soil in my raised beds. I'm kind of baffled. I added some more lime to try and nuetralize the soil but from what I read it seems lime takes a lot of time to work into the soil. I'm wondering if there just isn't any soil life yet therefore nothing in the soil to keep the PH in check. I 'd love to hear any opinions on PH of organic soil. Thanks.

     
  2. SIGH.....

    I think I could cheerfully strangle whoever started that "in organics pH doesn't matter" bullshit. It doesn't matter so much ONCE the soil is limed and buffered, but that little bit got left off andd the lime frequently gets left out. You see the results.

    With the pH that low simply top dressing with lime isn't going to cut it. I think you're going to have to mix it in to get to all the mix.Hope there aren't too many of those 20 gal smarties. You'll want to add 1 cup/cf (7.5 gallons), perhaps even a bit more. That's really a low pH.

    With your raised bed around 7.0, I'm guessing it's well limed?

    Maybe someone will have a solution with less shovel work, but I don't see it.

    Good luck!

    Wet
     
  3. Ok... sigh... LOL
     
       After taking the PH reading I have added 1 cup of lime to each 20 gallon smart pot. So far with what I put in originally it puts me at 10 cups lime for ten cubic feet of soil which is what I read as the recommended rate. I can remix the soil if needed I only have four pots as I just worked it into the top six inches of the soil. I did mix it up in a jug as best as I could and watered it in.. Do you think I should add more lime? Or wait and see if the soil nuetralizes as the lime seeps in? I kind of want to bury the pots now because I wonder with them being above ground if they get too hot and dry too quick and its hard for any soil life to thrive. Plus I don't think any microbial life would be able to get into the pots with them sitting on top of the soil but possibly they could if the pots were burried from the surrounding soil. I've read that microbes will not live in a PH in this range. I watered in some molasses and humic acids to try and boost the microbes and hopefully they can help fix the issue. At first I thought it was my PH probe but it seems spot on from testing some fox farm soil with a PH of 6.7. I've been reading about peat moss and it seems there are 3 different varieties depending on the depth harvest with PH ranging from 3.5 to 5. It seems with peat lime or oyster flour is always needed to correct ph until the peat breaks down. I'm kind of thinking I got some really fresh peat with a low PH.
     
  4. Ain't it the truth Wet!  Preach it man!

    pH always matters.
     
  5. Oh and my raised beds have only had minimal lime over the years. Their soil is a mix of a local 3 way soil mix and many additions of manures, minerals, and other leftover potting soil from over the years. But around here soil typically has a good PH level naturally. You just have to tweak it a little depending on what plants your growing.
     
  6. I wouldn't worry all that much about microbes till you get the soil pH up enough for them to survive in it.

    Lime needs to be in proximity to what it's buffering. Like touching or almost touching. I think you're going to need to dump the smarties and mix the lime throughout the mix. If the pH was close, you could wait for the lime to work its way down. you are nowhere near close. It's going to need to be evenly mixed, top to bottom.

    I'd stop adding stuff for the moment, not really doing anything with your pH so out of wack. Adding microbes is easy once you get this fixed.

    Wet
     
  7. Have you tried planting into this soil yet?

    Did you use decent worm castings and compost in this mix?

    How, exactly did you measure the pH of this soil?

    If be interested in seeing you plant into some of this soil that you didn't add more lime to.

    J
     
  8. Simple solution.......follow the soil mix with no adjustments.

    If the wheel isn't broken..........
     
  9.  
     
    A voice of reason....
     
  10. This may also be driving your pH down or a misreading if you tested close after application. I'd give it a few weeks then check again before adding anymore liming agents.

    My 2 pennies...
     
  11. #11 ottafish, May 10, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: May 10, 2015
    My Base soil is a third peat, ewc/humus, pumice. Plus 1 CU FT bio char. 10 CU FT Of Base Soil Total
     
    24 cups of Nutrient ammendments
     
    2 parts kelp, 1 part alfalfa, 1 part crab meal, 1 part fish meal, 1 part fish bone meal, 1 part linseed meal, 1 part neem meal.
     
    my mineral mix includes
     
    10 cups dolomite lime, 20 cups gaia green glacial rock dust, 4 cups green sand, 4.5 cups basalt, 2 cups azomite, 4 cups gypsum.
     
    I believe I have followed the soil mix properly. I think that the fish fertilizer may have thrown the PH off so I will wait a week or so and see if it changes. I have nothing growing in these pots but I do have some tomatoes, and comfrey growing in some other pots reading the same PH which is the same soil. Although they are seedlings and not needing much nutrients yet. They may show problems as they get larger needing more nutrients.
        I'm using a cheap PH probe to measure PH directly in the soil. I first thought it must be broken but I measured some test soil with a known PH and it was withing a tenth. I will probably buy another one today just to double check. I realize these are not known for being super accurate but they should get me in the ball park.
      My ewc and humus are a high quality local brand named plan b organics. The castings from them are pure castings there's no soil in with them like from some places and they aren't cheap.
       It's been about a week since watering the fish in the pots but the smaller pots I have with plants are reading close to 4 as well.
     
  12. imo there is too much in both the amendments and mineral mixes


    Why the linseed?

    Green sand, Azomite and 'cough, cough' dolomite.

    That might be the problem
     
  13. Have you considered starting over?
     
  14. #14 ottafish, May 10, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: May 10, 2015
      Not really wanting to start over if I can help it I have quite a bit of time and money invested. I thought this soil was pretty close to the recipe I read. Except I used lime instead of oyster flour, which is recommended when using peat because peat is very acidic. What's wrong with dolomite lime its a natural product? I used linseed because It's a good addition to the soil. How do you figure there's too many mineral and nutrient additives. 2-3 cups per CU FT is recommended for mineral, and 2-4 cups rock dust per CU FT. Greensand, azomite, basalt, gypsum, and lime are all rock dust. lime is recommended at a different rate which is what I went by.
      Anyhow after soaking the pots really well last night my PH is at 4.7. I'm getting there. I bought a new PH meter which had a wide swing at first but finally settled at 4.7 as did my other meter. I will remix them when they dry, and then keep soaking them and see what happens. I have a month and a half before I will use them. I figured with letting this soil compost for six months it would not be hot at all so I wasn't worried if it was originally mixed a little on the hot side. It may make a difference when composting if your soil is in a pot. It would probably have been better to let it compost on the ground where worms, microbes, and fungi would have had more direct contact IDK.
     
  15. #15 ottafish, May 10, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: May 10, 2015
    Buckwheat,
                        If you don't use dolomite then what do you use to nuetralize your peat and how much per CU FT. Thanks.
     
  16. IMO -

    The fish probably threw the pH out of whack a little but would have settled down after breaking down a little more.

    I think you might continue to get unnecessarily concerned if you continue to monitor your soils pH. Can you return the probe you bought this morning?

    J
     
  17.    I probably could return the meter but I'll keep it anyway for a back up. I just flushed the crap out of them and the water was foaming up. The soil still reeks like fish and I think adding the molasses/humic/fulvic may have jump started something. It looks like a compost tea in a pot LOL. Yeah I'm thinking when the decomposition finishes the PH will hopefully stabilize. I kept the probes in the pots and the PH came up to 5.7 but that's probably the water throwing it off. I guess I'll just kick back for awhile, keep soaking the soil and see what happens. Maybe I'll plant some clover in the pots in the meantime and see how it grows.
     
  18. ^^^^^REALLY^^^^^

    Didn't realize the fish was *that* recent. It will break down and the heavy waterings will help. No big deal since there is nothing in there anyway.

    Your mix is fine, the amounts are fine and there is nothing wrong with the dolomite.

    Next time, smoke the Salmon and send me some. I love it.

    Wet
     
  19. #19 ottafish, May 10, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: May 10, 2015
       I thought it may have been the rotten fish water... Hopefully it all settles out in a few weeks. I update when it does. Thanks for the help guys. There's a lot to learn when playing around with this stuff. I have learned quite a bit, I've spent hundreds of hours reading about organic soils but I have barely scraped the iceberg of all the knowledge that is out there.
       Next time I smoke some salmon I'd be happy to send you some Wetdog.
     

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