hydrated lime necessary in coco mix?

[anti]

making my own mix from burpee seed starting mix coco bricks and some perlite. should I add any hydrated lime to the mix for seedlings?

 

[Seamaiden]

No.

 

[mrbong73]

making my own mix from burpee seed starting mix coco bricks and some perlite. should I add any hydrated lime to the mix for seedlings?

Your seed mix and coco should be in a good pH zone as it is. Adding any liming agent at this point would probably raise the pH too high.
re: hydrated lime. you would be well advised to leave that out altogether. It is not a good liming agent or calcium source. I have read (in a book) that hydrated lime will raise pH very quickly and only temporarily and is harmful to microbes.
For a quality calcium component that will not affect pH and also supply sulfur, you could consider gypsum. Usually available at home improvement stores in the garden section.

mrb

 

[Playmo]

It is not necessary,only if your soil needs it buddy.

 

[MIway]

I actually used to like to add a bit of Dolomite Lime with my first nute feeds after the preflush of the coir... felt it helped establish one's cation balance w/in fresh coir + did stabilize the pH during the first week. Good stuff. & caps out at 7.0.


BUT, the Hydrated Lime... that be some touchy stuff... can toss your pH well over 10.0... and really fast. This is generally reserved for... 'break glass in case of emergency'... ;-)

 

[billoddy66]

Do you guys have any tips on how to remove lime from Coco?

Just got a batch that keeps pulling pH up to over 7. Run off after lots of low pH flushing got down to 5.6 where I wanted and it's gone up .1 a day to sit over 7

 

[hoobastank_enthusiast]

assuming it's correctly prepared, trying to adjust or maintain the pH of the coco itself is a fool's errand. pH naturally fluctuates during grow and there is no reason or point in trying to control it. you should be far more worried about the pH and EC of the nutrient solution you're putting in. After which if you're having problems then you should care about the ***EC*** of the run-off water coming out.

 

[billoddy66]

Thanks mate

The ppm is sweet coming out no problem on that but yeah huge problems with the plant that seem textbook high pH issues

The run off from 5.6 in 2 weeks ago after buffering and rinsing X2 was 5.6 out

Now after a few feed of 5.6/5.7 about 2 weeks later it's reading 7.3 run off

Any ideas welcome