if my runoff from my soil is 5.5 ish at seedling stage is that bad? i tried to raise it with higher ph water but it stays at 5.5ish ill be trying again my next watering. ive only done it once.and any tips on raising my ph soil runoff? ive thrown in 8 ph water but the run off was still at 5.5. pumrice/washed sand/perlite/peatmoss. is my current soilstarter im using.
5.5 isn't too too bad, but the plants are MOST susceptible to pH changes while they are small. I don't know how you could fix your problem.. Are you using actual pH up from a hydro store, or the stuff for a hot tub/spa? I've found that the spa variety doesn't have the same ability to move the pH when it is stuck as the actual pH up from GH.. I assume you know what you're doing and are using the right stuff.. Are you flushing or just watering with high pH water? Peat holds water very well so it would probably be most effective to flush with ~6.5 pH water.. Best of luck!
Yes im using Ph UP. Ive gotten the water that I water them with to 7.5 Ph and then run off is still 5.5. No ive only done it during waterings. im also using a digital ph pen. So maybe if I kept doing it every watering it would eventually work its self up to 6.0 ish?
Watering it with water thats ~.5 pH higher than your target pH should eventually raise the pH. I don't know why you're having difficulty doing so..