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newbiegrow123 · Apr 3, 2025

Ok so everything's been going great until now I tried adding mg and phosphorus but I'm not sure what else to do 5.3 ph I know it's low. Added some ph up. I'm using living soil and fox farm ocean mix plus some general hydro nutes I have like I said have been growing great. Don't really have a schedule to feed and haven't been watering to run off. Just me thinking I would run thing out of my live soil please help me ojtView attachment 2407416

User2 · Apr 3, 2025

Ever grown any plant before?

mancorn · Apr 3, 2025

You won’t have much luck changing your soil ph with water (even if you ph the hell out of the water). Soil has a buffering capacity which keeps the ph from bouncing around. You can use a wood ash or a calcium carbonate (lime). It’s more challenging to adjust in the middle of a grow (as you don’t want to change ph rapidly). Down to Earth sells a lime called DTE Solution Grade Calcium 96, which provides immediate availability as opposed to most lime products which take weeks/months to have an effect.

RoadKillSkunkHunt · Apr 3, 2025

mancorn said:
You won’t have much luck changing your soil ph with water (even if you ph the hell out of the water). Soil has a buffering capacity which keeps the ph from bouncing around. You can use a wood ash or a calcium carbonate (lime). It’s more challenging to adjust in the middle of a grow (as you don’t want to change ph rapidly). Down to Earth sells a lime called DTE Solution Grade Calcium 96, which provides immediate availability as opposed to most lime products which take weeks/months to have an effect.

Other than starting over, your only choice is to try to adjust it on the fly. Just be careful using lime in the middle of a run. This would not be the time to add more than what is called for in the directions for the mix.

Next time, just use the Ocean Forest. It comes out of the bag prebuffered to around 6.5 pH. It's also fairly hot and not that far off a living mix. There's no need to add anything extra to it other than a bit more perlite. Beyond that, for a new grower, there's no need to add anything else to it to get started. It should have enough nutrients to get you 4 weeks or more into the grow before you have to start feeding your plants.

User2 · Apr 3, 2025

mancorn said:
You won’t have much luck changing your soil ph with water (even if you ph the hell out of the water). Soil has a buffering capacity which keeps the ph from bouncing around. You can use a wood ash or a calcium carbonate (lime). It’s more challenging to adjust in the middle of a grow (as you don’t want to change ph rapidly). Down to Earth sells a lime called DTE Solution Grade Calcium 96, which provides immediate availability as opposed to most lime products which take weeks/months to have an effect.

That's true but it can take 12 to 24 hours for the soil to buffer and in the meantime the plant is still trying to do what it does. So it does have an effect but like you said it isn't a lasting adjustment with water alone. I had to repot some plants recently to deal with a soil problem. Usually I dont have problems but that one time you compromise... watch out!

fishmon · Apr 3, 2025

Fox farms happy frog and ocean forest were my go to choices for awhile with mostly great results but seems their ph has gotten horribly inconsistent. Nearly killed more than one of my grows. I don't really wish to become a soil scientist. I just want to open a bag and have some level of confidence it's not going to kill my plants. Maybe try a 1:1 soil/distilled water slurry test. Mix well let stand for a day stir again. Strain and test the leachate for ph and ec/ppm. I've found it to be in the low 4s ph more than once. Dolomite lime will raise it but easy to overshoot and go high. After a week or two and a few waterings the lime in FF should have kicked in and done all its going to. Anybody know of a ph stable mix that doesn't break the bank (hot or not) I'm all ears.

fishmon · Apr 3, 2025

Fox farms happy frog and ocean forest were my go to choices for awhile with mostly great results but seems their ph has gotten horribly inconsistent. Nearly killed more than one of my grows. I don't really wish to become a soil scientist. I just want to open a bag and have some level of confidence it's not going to kill my plants. Maybe try a 1:1 soil/distilled water slurry test. Mix well let stand for a day stir again. Strain and test the leachate for ph and ec/ppm. I've found it to be in the low 4s ph more than once. Dolomite lime will raise it but easy to overshoot and go high. After a week or two and a few waterings the lime in FF should have kicked in and done all its going to.
Anybody know of a ph stable mix that doesn't break the bank (hot or not) I'm all ears.

RoadKillSkunkHunt · Apr 3, 2025

fishmon said:
Fox farms happy frog and ocean forest were my go to choices for awhile with mostly great results but seems their ph has gotten horribly inconsistent. Nearly killed more than one of my grows. I don't really wish to become a soil scientist. I just want to open a bag and have some level of confidence it's not going to kill my plants. Maybe try a 1:1 soil/distilled water slurry test. Mix well let stand for a day stir again. Strain and test the leachate for ph and ec/ppm. I've found it to be in the low 4s ph more than once. Dolomite lime will raise it but easy to overshoot and go high. After a week or two and a few waterings the lime in FF should have kicked in and done all its going to.
Anybody know of a ph stable mix that doesn't break the bank (hot or not) I'm all ears.

You're supposed to "cook" your soil mix for a couple of weeks regardless of what brand you buy. Fox Farm uses oyster shell calcium for buffering, and that needs the extra time to "cook" before use.

Cooking the soil in this reference means pre-watering the mix to "field capacity" and then let it sit for a few weeks minimum before using it.

mazar1 · Apr 3, 2025

Try using nectar for the gods Olympus Up it’s formulated for soil and it’s a good option.

Need help asap please lockout?

Need help asap please lockout?

newbiegrow123

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mancorn

RoadKillSkunkHunt

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fishmon

fishmon

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