jumpincactus
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Uh ok, this makes sense.
I used to keep a reef tank also which is why I'm concerned with these chemicals destroying the 'life' in my soil, assuming I've done it correctly to get the life there in the first place. I found a filter that removes nearly all of the chlorine and chloamine for about $100 with no waste water. I'll probably just grab one of those so I don't have to worry about it.
The argument was that organics take longer to become available to the plant and thus a larger volume of soil will give the plant more area to collect needed nutrients from versus being in a small container (with plenty of nutrients in the soil) and the plant having to wait for more nutrients to become available.
Yep I got you shit I could never afford that I'm going to get my wife to order and have sent some Fox farm growing media she is in the states at the moment we can't get it over here heard great things about it .
Thanks for the response. Nice and simple I like this. How long should I let it ride before using?
If you have high pH issues, adding something like oyster shell flour will only make things worse. Look for and avoid anything that has CO3 (carbonate) as part of the molecule, this is where the issues arise. You need some, but not a lot. Based on the issues you're having, I think you may be doing yourself a favor if you go with RO water instead of tap (can't recall which you're using). This will reduce the issue of pH bounce due to alkalinity.
IME with California's hard water, trying to push pH down with vinegar is about as effective as pissing in the ocean. You have to use a LOT. I have gone back to good old phosphoric acid, it's what I use in my aquaponics system, so I know for a fact it's safe. I don't believe it's approved for organic use, but you're growing in pots. When it breaks down you'll get some extra P in the deal.
I would add 100% peat to bring down your pH. Ussually has a pH of 5.4-5.6. If your pH is 7.2 then add a healthy amount then go nuts with oyster shell if you want.
home depot or lowes spaghnum peat? should be easy to find. I wouldn't use Pro mix to bring the pH down but its up to you. It would help with the pH but may require much more and dilute your amendments of your original soil too much.
Ph your water down with vinegar
It'll bounce back though. Especially if the pH is coming up to 9, that's some hard, alkaline water. He'll have to dump a qualified metric shit-ton of vinegar in there unless he has concentrated vinegar. If he can get it pushed down to about 4 or so, then the bounce should take him to an acceptable range, but when I did it with my well water I had to use a LOT of vinegar and my plants didn't like it. Dry citric acid is more effective, but if he's using live microbes it'll kill them.
Last ditch effort to soften and acidify water without the waste of RO is to filter it through peat moss. IME this takes a while, like days to weeks. You can see if you can speed up the process by first determining if your water hardness is permanent or temporary. Temporary can be boiled out, about 10mins or so, then pour off the water at the top and leave all the mulm behind, THEN filter that through the peat moss.
Yes you need very little to do the job or use lemon juice as well .Ok I'll look around and see what I can find. Any idea though if it was my soil mix or just the fact that I was using such high ph water?
That worked, 5ml took 3 gallons to about 6.5.
lol luckily it didn't take much white kitchen vinegar to neutralize my water and get it into the normal range ~6.5. I've never had to PH down my water to 4 but will that kill my all ready weakened plants if I make it that extreme? I can go with that on the rest of the soil and try to balance that before using it. I'm still not sure if it was just my soil mix or using the high ph water that did it but I'll get a ph'd microbe tea going and pour that into the bucket of soil I have left to hopefully balance what's left.
Pushing the pH down that hard is what I've found is necessary in very hard, alkaline (resistant to pH shift) water. If you didn't need much vinegar then that suggests your water isn't very hard at all. Pushing down to 4 accounts for the bounce I was talking about (resistance to pH shift). Typically what I've observed, specifically with my California hard water (I've done So and Nor Cal) is that if you pH it to where you want, it'll bounce back up, often 2pts+. Then you have to add more acid, then it bounces, then add more, bounces, you get the picture. I've found that if I pH to 4, when it bounces I get it to where I want it.lol luckily it didn't take much white kitchen vinegar to neutralize my water and get it into the normal range ~6.5. I've never had to PH down my water to 4 but will that kill my all ready weakened plants if I make it that extreme? I can go with that on the rest of the soil and try to balance that before using it. I'm still not sure if it was just my soil mix or using the high ph water that did it but I'll get a ph'd microbe tea going and pour that into the bucket of soil I have left to hopefully balance what's left.
Pushing the pH down that hard is what I've found is necessary in very hard, alkaline (resistant to pH shift) water. If you didn't need much vinegar then that suggests your water isn't very hard at all. Pushing down to 4 accounts for the bounce I was talking about (resistance to pH shift). Typically what I've observed, specifically with my California hard water (I've done So and Nor Cal) is that if you pH it to where you want, it'll bounce back up, often 2pts+. Then you have to add more acid, then it bounces, then add more, bounces, you get the picture. I've found that if I pH to 4, when it bounces I get it to where I want it.
So, yes, giving your plants water at a pH of 4 will kill them.
If you only needed 5mls to push it down to 6.5, then IMO you have very soft water.
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