Dolomite Lime Question, If my soil is naturally 6.5/6.6 and I had to add dolomite lime.. would i lower the PH of my water?

[J1XD]

Im growing a plant in living soil and it started to show signs of a calcium deficiency, so I got some dolomite lime. but the living soil has a PH of 6.5 and adding dolomite lime leads me to believe that it will increase the PH balance of the soil.. so in this case. would I water with normal 6.6-6.8 PH balanced water?. or would I lower the PH of the water to match the Dolomite lime that would increase the soils PH levels?

 

[ComfortablyNumb]

6.5 is perfect in living soil.
What's the problem? Pix?

 

[J1XD]

6.5 is perfect in living soil.
What's the problem? Pix?

Give me a hour for the pics, but if the soil is 6.5 already... will dolomite lime make it higher?? when I want to keep it at 6.5

 

[ComfortablyNumb]

Do not add lime. It will change the pH.

 

[ComfortablyNumb]

Are you feeding the plant or letting the soil do it?

 

[J1XD]

Are you feeding the plant or letting the soil do it?

I added some to the top of the soil because everything pointed to a cal issue.

 

[J1XD]

Are you feeding the plant or letting the soil do it?

Pics, rest of the plant nice and green but these bottom leaves. And they are in living soil/organic soil. Everything.i read told me to add dolomite lime

 

[ComfortablyNumb]

What is in your soil? How is it living?

 

[J1XD]

What is in your soil? How is it living?

All that organic stuff. I bought the soil premixed locally and it's prebaked. The brand is Kingman. It has the peat and bat ish and all those meals and minerals in it. I did add mycorrhizae and extra earth worm castings. And added some all purpose 4-4-4 as a top spread and dolomite lime. But I'm just did this yesterday. The issues been a few days now

 

[ComfortablyNumb]

Stop adding anything. It takes 2 weeks for soil to come alive. How have you been raising it so far?

 

[ComfortablyNumb]

I would transplant to a good clean soil without the extra lime. It's going to throw it all off.
It seems you've never grown organic before. You can not just drop ingredients and seeds and expect it all to work.
You have to bring the soil to life and that takes at least 2 weeks to properly get it going.

By adding the lime, you are messing up the grow. In a week or so you will be battling the effects of the lime and your plant will be in lockout.

 

[MIGrampaUSA]

Gypsum would have been a better choice than the dolomite lime. However, neither one would have immediate benefit to your plants as they can be slow release especially if it's not ground into a powder. Even if you're trying your best to grow organically, it's better to reach for the cal-mag than to leave the problem untreated ... or over treated.

 

[ComfortablyNumb]

I don't know where you were getting your info, but you have misdiagnosed this. It looks like calcium, but in soil correctly made you would never see this unless there is something wrong in the root zone. The majority of what you read online is for hydroponic growers. 90% of that does not apply to organics.

 

[J1XD]

Stop adding anything. It takes 2 weeks for soil to come alive. How have you been raising it so far?

Its week 4 for the plant. there is another plant in living soil as well but no D.lime in it because it's healthy. just giving it PH balanced water and sometimes with unsulphered molasses

 

[J1XD]

I don't know where you were getting your info, but you have misdiagnosed this. It looks like calcium, but in soil correctly made you would never see this unless there is something wrong in the root zone. The majority of what you read online is for hydroponic growers. 90% of that does not apply to organics.

so is the plant ruined? or as you mentioned above just transplant to fresh soil and no dolomite lime?

 

[MIGrampaUSA]

It's not ruined, but you'll have a struggle keeping it healthy if left in the over-treated mix. Transplanting would be your best option at this point.

 

[ComfortablyNumb]

Quit adding Molasses. It deters nematodes. Nematodes are on your side. It (molasses) attracts fungus gnats, aphids and thrips all of which feed on the sugars in the plants, by eating the plants.
Quality living soil already has all the "extras" that molasses is supposed to add, but without attracting other problems. It has also been anecdotally reported that it alters pH, but I have no studies on that. Either way, it's not helping. If it's not helping, don't add it.

 

[ComfortablyNumb]

so is the plant ruined? or as you mentioned above just transplant to fresh soil and no dolomite lime?

Transplant. No question.

 

[J1XD]

Transplant. No question.

Damn I'm scared. I'm assuming I'm removing as much soil as I can and just replant. Or transplant to a bigger pot.. currently it's a 3 gal.

 

[ComfortablyNumb]

Damn I'm scared. I'm assuming I'm removing as much soil as I can and just replant. Or transplant to a bigger pot.. currently it's a 3 gal.

No worries man. Calm down. You didn't kill it. You're going to save it here. Get it out and rinse the roots clean and check their color at the same time. Take a couple of pix for us.

In the same 3 gal, hang the plant over the pot so that the roots are hanging down into the pot. Slowly fill the pot, keeping the roots spread as much as possible. Fill it right to a finger width of the brim. Put a finger width of stem into the pot hanging down.