Soil PH Problems

[Freespirit01]

How do you solve soil PH problems?
Ive checked the PH of my water before and after adding nutrients and its holding 6.5

However some of the soil in my pots is reading as high as 7.5 on my 3 way PH/Light/Moisture Rod.

What can I do about this?
It is bad enough that it seems to be causing lockout.

 

[Beachwalker]

How do you solve soil PH problems?
Ive checked the PH of my water before and after adding nutrients and its holding 6.5

However some of the soil in my pots is reading as high as 7.5 on my 3 way PH/Light/Moisture Rod.

What can I do about this?
It is bad enough that it seems to be causing lockout.

Add one level tablespoon of lime per gallon of pot size, work it into the top two inches of soil, sometimes I water it in seems to work fine either way good luck

 

[MIMedGrower]

Before you add lime (which raises ph) those probe ph meters are not accurate. Mine always reads 7. The moisture setting works well and the light meter is good to see if bulbs are getting old but thats all.

Potting soil is already buffered with lime or oyster shell usually to 6.3-6.5 ph.

Better to give pics and all grow info for a good helpful response.

 

[Beachwalker]

Before you add lime (which raises ph) those probe ph meters are not accurate. Mine always reads 7. The moisture setting works well and the light meter is good to see if bulbs are getting old but thats all.

Potting soil is already buffered with lime or oyster shell usually to 6.3-6.5 ph.

Better to give pics and all grow info for a good helpful response.

Good catch! (I didn't read past the headline) LOL I add lime to foxfarm and my runoff is never below 6.0 Agree on those meters, won't trust one for checking anything in my garden, even though I do have one leftover from my grows in the last century somewhere in a draw

 

[Freespirit01]

Heres some pics to illustrate the problem..
As you can see not all plants are affected even though most of them are in similar soil mixes.
Some of them need to be repotted so when i do that i will put them in a potting soil, coco and seasoil mix. Instead of continuing to xperiment with my farm compost.
I am also feeding with liquid fish fert 5-2-2 only now. I was using a general hydroponics veg nute but its levels were 7-4-10 or something similar.

 

[oldskol4evr]

Heres some pics to illustrate the problem..
As you can see not all plants are affected even though most of them are in similar soil mixes.
Some of them need to be repotted so when i do that i will put them in a potting soil, coco and seasoil mix. Instead of continuing to xperiment with my farm compost.
I am also feeding with liquid fish fert 5-2-2 only now. I was using a general hydroponics veg nute but its levels were 7-4-10 or something similar.
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id say throw that probe out to trash ,i can see them plants are dry and hungry,no offense friend,but keep them pots moist not wet,they all are pulled away from edge of pots,keep them pot moist not wet be a start,any soil no matter maker will grow plants ,feed your soil instead,you ever seen ironite? if you was to take a tbsp of of the granular them plants would green up over night,stressing im going with also,try leaning the plants towards you to get the feel of when they need moisture,best to run 45 to 55% moisture,the probe might give you that,but it is man made if you dig,just lean a few toward yourself and you will feel the difrence,dont water all when only 2 need feed if you dig,you can also foiler feed 1 tbsp of epsome salt every couple days to it straightens out,least your leaves will feed while the rest get in check,just a few tips and just my opinion,hope it helps

 

[MooseFarts]

I would think that the plants just look hungry. Even if the soil was sitting at a ph of 7.0 I don’t think you would be seeing the problems That are occuring here. Yellowing leaves, especially on the bottoms. And that one browning is probably a phosphorus deficiency.

If you take a look at one of those nutrient absorption rate vs ph charts you’ll see that all of these are absorbed okay at a ph 7.0. A little higher and you’d see maybe iron or boron which isn’t apparent here. I’m starting with some fresh soil which isn’t ph perfect and I’ve tested it to be 7.3. I’ve noticed a boron deficiency in some of my plants which is seen as really odd discolouration in the newer leaves.

Looks like it could also be from nutrient lockout from overwatering.

 

[OldManRiver]

How do you solve soil PH problems?
Ive checked the PH of my water before and after adding nutrients and its holding 6.5

However some of the soil in my pots is reading as high as 7.5 on my 3 way PH/Light/Moisture Rod.

What can I do about this?
It is bad enough that it seems to be causing lockout.

7.5 will definitely cause problems. Aluminum sulphate or iron sulphate will fix it. Go easy

 

[SnowshoeJoe]

I had pH problems using Sea Soil. The Sea Soil Container mix is 5.5 pH. I fought pH through the grow. I ditched the Sea Soil and am back on track with Ocean Forest.

 

[Rikismom420]

How do you solve soil PH problems?
Ive checked the PH of my water before and after adding nutrients and its holding 6.5

However some of the soil in my pots is reading as high as 7.5 on my 3 way PH/Light/Moisture Rod.

What can I do about this?
It is bad enough that it seems to be causing lockout.

I am kinda newby but I keep my water and nutrients around 6 and that seems to work for me,but this growing is a science u til u get everything right and then just let them grow..I am sure others have good advice .love this forum
Happy growing

 

[fishbuds]

my rich homeade, soils tend to run high too like 6.6 to 7.0 at times. I just nute it up, tea it up, and flush it out, with a lower ph like 6.2, and ride the swing. Then your plant can absorb at all ph levels. absorbing at 6.8-7 or higher, all the time is not optimal for ur girls. 6.5 is def sweet spot for soils. i use nftg herc harvest to correct soil ph issues with good success. at some point your soil equilibriates if that is even a fricken word, and you got 6.5, then keep varying the ph of ur feed between 6.1 and 6.8 or so. ppms play a role too, so have a clue about them present in soil and volume in feeds :)

i also hate chlorine, jussayin
.02

 

[Jimster]

I find that most soils will self buffer somewhat, especially if it is a higher quality mix with some compost in it. Nutrients are typically acidic, as is a lot of the water that is used for watering. The soil Ph can keep these from making the environment too acidic. Adding stuff like lime or Cal-Mag can increase the buffering, but can also cause the Ph to rise, so caution is recommended. I would recommend a Ph slurry test. It is simply a sample of dirt mixed in a test tube with a few drops of magic liquid, and the Ph will be displayed by a color change in the liquid in the test tube. This is an accurate test as the meters are marginal at best, giving very generalized reading that can be skewed by a bunch of different factors. Checking the runoff after feeding a pure water will give you an idea of the internal condition of the growing medium, but the testing apparatus should be appropriate for checking just the runoff Ph. A swimming pool test kit will suffice for this, or probably the slurry test as well but I'm not certain of the concentrations needed for testing.

 

[oldskol4evr]

I find that most soils will self buffer somewhat, especially if it is a higher quality mix with some compost in it. Nutrients are typically acidic, as is a lot of the water that is used for watering. The soil Ph can keep these from making the environment too acidic. Adding stuff like lime or Cal-Mag can increase the buffering, but can also cause the Ph to rise, so caution is recommended. I would recommend a Ph slurry test. It is simply a sample of dirt mixed in a test tube with a few drops of magic liquid, and the Ph will be displayed by a color change in the liquid in the test tube. This is an accurate test as the meters are marginal at best, giving very generalized reading that can be skewed by a bunch of different factors. Checking the runoff after feeding a pure water will give you an idea of the internal condition of the growing medium, but the testing apparatus should be appropriate for checking just the runoff Ph. A swimming pool test kit will suffice for this, or probably the slurry test as well but I'm not certain of the concentrations needed for testing.

this is sound advice,very important and most to me,the little kits on ebay or amazon work great,but buy no means easy to use with arthur in the fingers and hand plus the pills have a bad packaging design were the pills capsule cant be turn to pour it in, the better kit with drops is more acurite,also if you dont really know what your working with your just guessing trying to fix problems that might not even be there,the plus side to using the drops also is i can detail and dial in each container or raised bed for plants i want to grow,like potato they thrive in soil 5.5 to 6. with the drops you can add peat moss to drop your ph down and if you micro npk are all in adequte range the plant loves it on if you dig