Organically, lol, is that a word I was wondering if anyone knew of an organic way to lower soil PH? I could use sulfur but I was just wondering if there were more natural means to lower it.
Thanks man I appreciate it. I've tried citric acid and vinegar and they lower the ph of the water, but not the soil, ie., 6.0 ph going in and 7.2 comin out. If I run more water through the ph goes up. Crazy
Do you guys think if I put on a thick top dressing of peat moss and watered through it, it would lower PH? It's too late to dig it in.
Have you tried a full soil flush just like you would at the end of the grow and then test the run off? You might just have a build up in the soild and a simple flush could solve it or with the help of lemon juice could keep it under control for the rest...
I can second the peat moss. Depending of the buffer capacity of your water, it doesn't take much at all to lower the PH. Lowes sells peat moss bales for about $5. I use R/O water with a small bit of peat mixed into it to lower and stabilize the PH of cultilene cubes for cloning and starting seeds. I have left the cubes soaking in the peat-R/O mixture for days and have never seen mold. This also introduces a tiny bit of nutrient to the cubes which helps reduce yellowing leaves during rooting.
powdered dolomitic limestone will buffer you ph, you gotta mix it in the soil, dont know if topping the soil off with it will produce the same effect
lime, eggshells, cinders raise the pH (= more alkaline). To lower it (=more acidic), use lemon juice, vinegar, sulphur but I'm not sure in what proportions.
be mindful when using citrus fruits to lower your ph levels. they will do the trick but their ph levels can fluctuate as well. a lemon grown in a backyard in california will have a different ph then one grown in florida for example. you just need to make sure to monitor your ph levels regularly. i would flush with ph'd or distilled water until it runs clear then watch it carefully.
OK, admittedly I am very new to organic gardening, so please excuse me if this is an ignorant statement. I was reviewing the ingredients in a bag of FF OF I have and it says it uses oyster shell for PH adjustment???????? Dunno if they mean up or down or even what mixture, but it is interesting.......
Vinegar is not long lasting. Lemon juice is better. Not sure if sulphur is a good idea. Phosphoric acid works very well, but I don't know if that's considered organic. To lower soil pH you're going to have to use water with a pH lower than your target (think back to chem class - doing the math to figure out the pH of the resulting combination of 2 liquids with differant pHs). For example, I recently flushed one of my girls (with a bit more volume of water than the soil in the pot) with pH 5-5.5 water. The runnoff was originally over 8 and I got it down to about 7. Flushing is stressfull and leeches nutrients from the soil so I'll try to get her the rest of the way with regular watering using ph 6 water, but I may have to flush again.
Distilled water is ph 7 and won't lower the pH (unless it's really high) so much as rinse nutrients and salts out of the soil (the first being bad, and the second not). Distilled water, having no disolved elements in it, will leech more from your soil.
Smoove, your the man.....that's some good info bro. I have some fulvic acid on the way, how do you use it and apply it? I've read that it's some great food for the microbes in teas, and a little goes a long way. I've also got some liquid kelp and fish hydrolysate fertilizer coming with it. I don't have pH issues with my soil mixes, but know how much the micro-herd loves all of these goodies. Looking forward to hearing how you use it. Take care, chunk
means to raise the pH. not sure what FFOF has in it, but most potting mixes are based on peat which is too acidic for proper nutrient uptake. the lime or oyster shells in this case counter (buffer) the pH to bring it back up into an optimal level.
