Using litmus paper my soil is reading 6.0 to my eye. Maybe 5.8 to anothers. I'm running 65 gal pots. How much would one reccomend to top dress and to raise p.h to a desired 6.5 -7 range.
Yes it is. But you still have to have a balance. My guess it that adding too much organic matter and teas has made my soil p.h drop to the point I'm getting a lock out of N. Although living you still want a neutral more neutral p.h or you will get a lock out.
Plants to the eye are fine. But I'm getting progressive yellowing of fan leaves on a few plants. I need to make sure this p.h issue is adjusted before I come to any other conclusions.
Can someone tag wet? I don't know how. It's been awhile since I've been in here. But a few are familiar with me lol
Nice looking plants man! Top dressing with OSF really won't do much for lowering your soil pH. It's rather insoluble in water, and requires thorough mixing into the soil in order to neutralize soil acidity throughout the rhizosphere. When top-dressed, it's only effective at lowering soil pH in the top ~two inches. And in my estimation, the soil mixes that we make here are really more "soilless" than "soil". Lower pH is actually more advantageous for proper nutrient uptake, as far as those "charts" are concerned. Did you not utilize some form of liming agent when you initially mixed your soil? If you want to get someone's attention, type "@" in front of the users name that you want to contact (no space), like @wetdog...
I added a pinch of OSF to my slurry and tested it again after about 10 min. Sure enough it did make the p.h jump. I'm finding that it's also pretty soluble, I've read that it does provide a fast and long lasting effect in buffing the p.h. I'm not trying to lower the p.h but make it higher as it seems I'm getting a N lockout. But how much I'm not sure to top dress. As of right now I plan on foliar feeding Fish hydroslyate and Espom salt until I can figure out why I'm dropping fan leaves so fast. This seems to be a problem I run into late-mid season. Adding the teas and high volume top dressing really seems to lower the p.h As organic is supposed to. Thanks for stopping by wak. It's been awhile. I've come along ways since newbee_josh lol
Well sure. If your flour is fine enough, it will seem to "dissolve" and certainly have some affect on water pH, but that flour isn't going to wash down through the soil stratum to neutralize soil acidity past the first few inches. Where is this leaf yellowing/loss occurring? What kind of "teas" have you been adding to the soil? I'd expect if you just concentrate on water only, your issues might just disappear. Adding too much of a good thing can lock out nutrients just like pH levels that are "off".
I've been doing alfalfa, crab and kelp teas. Along with compost and ewc teas. Both with molasses and fulvic. I will lay off the teas and top dress and see what happens. My water is about an 8 btw. The fan leaves are yellowing fast and at branch nodes. But faster then I'd ever expect it to. Some branches are young. And I'm too far away from flower for me to be okay with it atm. And im notcing some are also loosing that luscious green color that I had early season.
I wouldn't be opposed to you doing anything to your plants. They're your plants... What I meant by where the yellowing/loss was occurring was where on the plant, as a whole. Is it occurring more on the "inside" of the main foliage growth, where the leaves are getting less light? I really don't like giving people advice when they're experiencing problems anymore, without the results from water and soil tests, because it's just "guessing". I think that I can safely say that you've most likely thrown off the balance of soluble nutrient ions in the soil solution with all those teas that you've been applying. I think you've been adding too much extra to your soil, and should rely upon the nutrients that are in your soil mix, rather than adding any more organic matter in the form of teas or top dressings. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing in organic gardening. I personally would "water only" for the time being. I hope you'll get some more input from blades that grow outdoors in large pots. I'm an indoor grower... Good luck!
I add a half cup of oyster shell flour per cubic ft of soil mix and even at that it takes a few months to really take effect without ph swings according to my ph meter but my soil is mostly peat and organic matter. I think your plants look good, I agree with waktoo that I would just add water and let the soil adjust itself.
Well, here I am and without a clue. LOL I have zero experience with OSF since it would cost me (literally), 10x as much as the pulverized dolomite I do use ($46 vs $4.50 for like amounts). Also, my largest container is a 17gal tub, so, no experience with anything the size of yours. Are those 65's in the pic? If so, those plants have gotta be huge. They look great BTW. A few questions though. I know Wak asked, but never saw an answer. Did you lime the mix when you made it? OSF or anything else? Do you have room for a mulch layer? IDK about OSF, but if you top dress with lime and after wetting is allowed to dry out, it will basically turn into cement. I would imagine OSF would behave similar if allowed to clump up. You either need to scratch into the surface, mix it with something to avoid clumps (like peat moss or compost or similar), and covered with a mulch to keep it moist till it starts working its way down. Wak is mostly correct with the ~2" down bit. It will work it's way deeper, but very slowly and very dependant on how dense or not the mix is. That's why it's so important to add when constructing the mix, or, at least scratching into the surface if you must top dress. CaCO3 must either be in contact with, or in very close proximity to whatever it's affecting the pH of. It's definitely not a stand-off weapon in the pH battle. How much? IDK. *I* add 1cup/cf, same with dolomite or OSF. IDK how much you've added or didn't, or how much you can top dress without it clumping up and becoming useless. How much room do you have to work with from the surface to the top edge of the pot?
Yes I did add 1/2 cup lime 1/2 cup osf to the mix. Soil mix is very spongy/airy. Within maybe 3 seconds water is not visible. I created a thread BTW. In the outdoor grow journals. I'll tag you in it. I did have about a 3-4 inch alfalfa hay mulch layer but now it's dwindled to sticks. I'm top dressing more soil and mulch in week.
I think what he's trying to say is we let the biology and worms make what we call soil. They top dressed and mulches which will compost into soil
"Soil" is what farmers work with. Natural ground. The Earth... What is done indoors (or outdoors) in potted containers is essentially "horticulture". There's an inherent difference...
But doesn't it 'become' soil once it's established with plants in it? We've got humus, minerals, liquids, gases, a variety of organisms...what's missing? Natural formation? Connection to the earth's soil layer? If we were to extract an chunk of soil from the earth, otherwise undisturbed, and plop it in a container, would that count as soil?
Other folks like to call our " Soil" hybrids. I think it's because of use of the peat base. I THINK. Lol
And the fact putting together these soils were not using a top soil like you put it connection with the earth