I have some arctic humic acid(looks like castings or compost) but i didn't use it. Would this help with my pH problem? How would you use humic acid to help? I have a bottle of Ful Power too.
Hey, I missed your post about cutting the FF with rice hulls. Take care with that, they will drive pH up. It's a myth that you don't need to pay attention or manage pH in organic. I've seen plenty of times where this is simply not the case, and I've done it myself once or twice. Ok.. maybe three times.
The oyster shell flour, just like dolomitic lime, will buffer pH up. Again, take care with it. Also, you can use citric acid as a pH down but it's also known to kill microbes. I myself like phosphoric acid. Vinegar is a waste of time unless you concentrate it.
That makes two of us! I didn't notice you had responded to this thread again haha I did a quick google search and it seems rice hulls are pH neutral but that could be my problem. I'm not sure what else would drive the pH of my soil up since I only used distilled water to cook the soil. Did you notice the rice hulls adjusting the pH more up front or over time?
I did add an EWC tea(pH 6.5 ish) to the rest of my soil the other day, then mixed with pH 6.8 water and after 30 mins the water was at 7.1. Maybe I can just make sure to water it with water with a pH of 6-6.3 and hopefully that would keep it in the correct range.
I see what you are taking about with the pH bounce, my water definitely goes back up several points after being adjusted with vinegar. I'll try to adjust it a couple times before using it and see if it will stay st a given pH after dosing with vinegar a couple times.
Dang the seedling looks bone dry. I think you need to cook the coots mix for months not weeks.prob still way too hot for seedlings.grab some seed starter soil like seamaiden said.use this stuff in another month or so.
I overwatered many of them so I've been making sure the soil is very dry, though the seedlings haven't wilted badly yet. What is so hot in my soil that I need months of cooking?
Your soil mix is to hot man! start seedlings in jiffy pellets, cubes or just the base part of coots soil with the oyster shell flour. No offense to the above posters but you are just gonna create headaches if you follow there advice to ph anything. Get the seedlings in a lighter mix, compost has more than enough food for them till they need to be transplanted. Don't worry about teas or anything at this point, once the cups are rooted good transplant to your final container with coots mix and start hitting them with compost/botanical teas and foliars.
Don't complicate it KISS!
So far it's been tough to KISS lol what is so hot in my mix? I don't have any bone/blood meal or any guanos.
