I got rid of the perlite which I think may have been causing the stress on the plant and transplanted into bigger containers. I'm going to continue just feeding ph'd water. My question is my soil mix I added dolomite lime to it among other things so I would figure that the dolomite lime would balance out any ph problems would it not? I thought organics you didn't need to worry about ph.
so why are you worrying? I think in relative terms pH is not important, if you understand plants and microbes and chemistry.
However, for the sake of clarity, There are elements in the world, all of these have a charge, positive or negative. Alongside this simple reality, there are systems and there is balance. There is a plant system, a water system a soil system and so on. These systems work independently, but they are interlinked, in so much as what happens in one, impacts the others. All of these systems seek a balance of charged ions in themselves
Our plant nutrients are listed in terms of their charge, eg Positive ions = cations and Negative ions, Anions.
Our plants, when feeding release corresponding ions in to the soil, around the roots, in exchange for a required ion. So lets say our plant eats some Phosphate, like a Pentoxide P2O5- (an anion, a negative ion) in exchange, the plant issues a H+ ion (a cation) in to the root zone in order to retain a balance. Each time our plants feed, this happens. cations lead to OH- ions and Anions lead to H+ ions, these are called free radicals, eg they arent required by our plants, but they stress out the system if we get too many.
Ok so now we have the soil, this system can hold on to all the elements which it will exchange with our plants in the right conditions. Soil depending on the base has a certain amount of charge it can hold. Beyond the capacity of our soils means problems. Soils are complex systems of all elements, balanced in ratios which change depending on where you are and the base content, water etc.
So go back to the feeding plant, I am going to pick one side to help explain, but this works in reverse of course....currently our plant is releasing H+ ions all day as it chomps your phosphates. Each time it spits a H+ in to the root zone. Over time these ions accumulate on the surface of the soils/ media, and it is this that changes the pH, but pH is a symptom not a root problem. Once we have loads of Cations by way of H+ ions on our clays for example, we have no room for other more useful cations, eg calcium, Potassium and so on. Our plants dont need the H+ so they build up and up, repelling all other + ions from anchoring to the soil, in turn our plant cant access them and problems begin. We as growers feed in more Potassium juice to resolve the problems, but this merely compounds the matter, remember, our soils are repelling additional cations and they are saturating the media unused as charged salts.
As we increase the + ions free ranging in the soils, our system begins to collapse. Soil is negative in most cases, so flooding it with positives fundamentally changes it and it collapses in on itself, driving out air and leading to increasing problems and plant death. Remember basic science from school, like poles repel, unlike poles attract.
Find out which elements our plants use are positive and which are negative. know what your adding 1st.
Soil as we say is a balance, there are some guides for how much of each element should be on/in our soils, eg location is different, some systems hold more calcium, for example.
I dont use Lime to control pH its not a sustainable solution, it causes soil compaction and has no long term restoration impact. it might be necessary if you simply have to plant, but i would restore the soil biology based on the target crop requirement and not add lime or sulfur.
Hope this helps
