My trip to the garden center

[Uncle_Al]

I am at a big box store looking for amendments, there has been some talk about pH up and pH down these are two products for those purposes:

Garden lime from dolomitic lime:

Dolomitic lime is used to raise low pH but another use is to buffet swinging pH, it has a natural pH of 7 if your pH is over 7 it will help lower your pH to 7 . It is chock full of calcium and magnesium and will help you with those deficiencies.

This product is a soil acidifier, it is for lowering pH values in soil

It is largely made of sulfur and gypsum

The labelling is inconclusive compared to the previous product as to how much product will lower pH by volume used v.s. amount of pH change. It comes at twice the price.
More than likely your plants are not living if they are in soil over 8pH if most of the plants in your grow are ok you are probably close to home for pH value and only need the decrease to 7pH and some buffering and the benefits of the calcium and magnesium, where as the second product may be indicated when a greater pH decrease is requiered

[Muleskinner]

Love Espoma! that’s what I use for lime. I’ve used the pH-down on my outdoor Rhodies and Azalea.

Espoma makes a lot of good stuff, I’ve noticed they’re even selling bat guano and some other high-end nutes. I use their blood meal too. They were hardcore organic long before it became “cool”

[Uncle_Al]

For indoor growing use you will find that both products are much too coarse, you will have to crush or grind the pellets in the bag for use and ease of dissolution in water, tonight I am purchasing the first product and processing with a coffee grinder.

[Muleskinner]

I use the lime as-is, it’s somewhat pelletized but dissolves quickly in water.

[Uncle_Al]

I’m a control freak, at least that’s what my ex wife says,
Speaking of which, sometimes I still miss my ex wife…
But one day my aim will improve!

[Uncle_Al]

@MadScientist, are you paying attention?

[Muleskinner]

good one! I’m using a Pro-mix based mix so it’s supposed to have lime already, doesn’t matter if the Espoma takes a while to get going. How much do you add? I usually add about 1 TBLSP/gallon of mix.

[Uncle_Al]

@MadScientist I will send you a bag if you like then I am returning the favor I promised

[Uncle_Al]

Uncle practices what he preaches.
Having returned from the garden center,I have mixed up four gallons of very warm water to which I have added four tablespoons of ground up pellets. They are very small to begin with and it is said they will dissolve in water by themselves. But I like to work with a touch of consistency. There is more material in the teaspoon when ground,there are fewer varying air spaces between the pellets when ground up.
Do not and any other nutrients or solution to the liked water.
Nutrients mixed in have the potential to react chemically.
The instructions call for 2-4 tablespoons per plant but that is for use on top of the soil, we do not want to create a problem with excessive uptake so we are only going to use 1 tablespoon per gallon of water. The results should not happen overnight but instead in about a week visibly by next watering.
I have 5 to 10 plants out of 35 that are displaying some form of nutrient/pH problem I have been chasing

I trimmed lots of burned tips and ugly leaves from this one.
I trim the ugly off so I can gauge changes in both directions or no change. Lol

A little bit curled a little yellowy

I’ll be cutting the really ugly leaves off, it will also improve light penetration

[lotus710]

I basicly put this up for everyone thinking about using dolomite lime https://www.smilinggardener.com/organic-soil-management/dolomite-lime/

Better options are crab shell, oyster shell, egg shell, whatever kinda shell you can find. Dolomite is one of the things I try to get people to stay away from. If you have a problem you should fix your soil instead of pumping it full of calcium and magnesium. Thats the thought process of a hydro grower not us organic folk.

[Muleskinner]

interesting, some people seemed to be contesting the author’s data sources. Indoor soilless mix is different from real outdoor soil, isn’t it really an imitation of actual living soil? Most soilless mix is just peat and perlite.

Companies like Pro-Mix and Sungro (Sunshine mixes) add dolomite to the peat mix to balance the acidic pH of peat. They add gypsum as well. So you shouldn’t have to add much dolomite lime unless other amendments are acidic.

[Uncle_Al]

_thank you for the no tiller perpsective _
Now if we may return to the program already in progress

On this one there is some light green happening but recovery using pH adjusted water with mg from Epsom has been very slow

See it has leaves curling to the sky, a little taco happening,and some cooked tips. The lighter green really stands out among the rest of the dark rich green of the other plants, and a touch of claw in a few other fans

[Uncle_Al]

During the trim up I discovered the nanners, this one goes to the garage to die

Well I hope it’s not too late but Mr Hermie leaves us now

[Kalgrae]

@Uncle_Al

Well I hope it’s not too late but Mr Hermie leaves us now

Looks too late to me from that second shot. Two opened flowers??? That shits tiny and once they be poppin…

Crossed fingers for you. Put that punk in the backyard with some gasoline.

[Uncle_Al]

Well that was a disappoinment, a herm.
This one however has the same light green problem and shares the same body phenotypes of the first plant. It has some crunchy, some claw and some taco.

But has no nanners, thank you deity of choice.
I will again trim up the cooked tips, burned leaves,those that are just ugly and any extra that will improve light penetration

[Uncle_Al]

I’m afraid that may be the case, all I can do is cross my fingers and hope for minimum damage

[MadScientist]

@Uncle_Al

@MadScientist, are you paying attention?

Always bro, some tmes more than others tho… LOOOL

[Uncle_Al]

Ok that’s all I have on this topic for a few days we will just have to stand by and wait for some results, thanks for watching.

[Meesh]

I just acidified my blueberry bush with epsoma sulfur the other day. Heard it takes 6 weeks to drop the ph a full point. I’ll let ya know