Ordered.
Here’s what I’m getting
And summit mosquito bits again
I’ll get them all tonight.
Finally slowly improving my setup
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Mail came.
Next step is to find out what I need to add if anything other than perlite. The jar seems to still be settling.
I need to find my ruler or measuring tape now.
Should I keep waiting for the clay to settle? It’s still supersaturated with clay based on the color.
I need a strong light to even see the layers. The water is almost the same color as the clay itself. My overhead LED lights couldn’t help me see it. My phone flashlight helps a little, but I still can’t see the different layers without squinting.
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I think you just mark the last layer you can see after 24 hours and use that in the calculation
MOTR marked hers at 15min, 1 hour then 24 hours
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5cm in height exactly. Sand settled on 1cm, silt settled on 4cm, and clay settled on 5cm.
The Bottom of the jar should be 6mm
That makes the sand 4mm, silt is 30mm, and clay is 10mm.
22.7272727273% clay
9.09090909% sand
68.18181818% silt
For the life of me this chart is confusing for me rn. It seems drawn backwards
The sand doesn’t start it’s lines at 10% and instead is at 100-95%
I’m testing pH now, buts it’s very unstable. 8.33 pH ATM. I’ve been testing the pH for 30 minutes now and it’s been climbing from 8.23.
I have some coffee grounds I never brewed. Should I brew them first before using as a amendment to lower pH?
Also should I use dolomite lime? It does seem like my soil is missing a pH stabilizer. That is very alkaline 
8.32 pH is where it stays until the pen times out. Regardless I see that I have to work on my soil structure desperately before I grow anything else
It’s finally stable without fluctuating for the whole duration at 8.32 pH
It smells exactly like beets too. The exact alkaline range they fall in with the greens at 8-9 pH, so yeah I’ll need to do something here
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Silt/loam soil it says… use the arrows It’s in the green if you did the math right. Just add sand and you are good
You testing that same jar? You put soap in it. I’m sure that fucks with the ph. Also, did you test it with distilled water for a neutral start?
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I didn’t use soap in this other than borax. I followed the guide @MomOnTheRun posted that followed motr’s triangle.
Should I dump that water out, fill it up, and test it again?
I used my tap water at 7.3 pH. Distilled water almost always tests at about 5.5 pH for me
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The ph? Yes. I don’t know what part your tap water and borax are playing in your reading
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7.85 pH is today’s pH of my tap water.
7.85 was the starting pH and currently I see it climbing to 7.96 pH and sticking there in the jar
Not the worst pH, but I want it lower for sure. I poured the water on top off and filled it with fresh tap water, shook, and the test says 7.96 pH of the mix
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I don’t know. I always test my soil ph with distilled water for a neutral. I may be wrong, but I thought you had to compost coffee grounds as opposed to just throwing them in. That’s a GTS (google that shit) lol
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I tested my soil in august for my veggie patch. Started with distilled water, my ph was like 6.3. So I’m not sure how it works when you don’t start neutral because points of ph are exponential I believe. Even as an accountant, I don’t know what math to use.
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@Meesh will sand buffer pH at all? I have 8 quarts of coarse perlite now. Perlite doesn’t effect pH at all, so I’m thinking about my options to naturally have my soil pH without microbes at 7 max preferably in the 6.5-6.8 range.
Would gypsum be a bad amendment? Also I’ll try to get builders sand tomorrow when I’m out
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gypsum has some sulfer in it. It’s still not gonna bring it down fast. I’ve been lowering my ph on my blueberry bush for 6 weeks with sulfer and it’s only dropped 1/2 a point. It’s a very slow acting amendment. Not sure about sand buffering it. Try sand first and just test soil again. I think perlite breaks down as a sandy element eventually though, but you’d be long done growing before it did
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I’ll say when I smell the water from my soil if I make a compost tea smells like fresh beets exactly. It’s definitely near 8 for sure. I trust my natural pH sense here now that I’m learning how to apply my overdeveloped sense of taste and smell with a 0.3 accuracy window. With a little training let’s see if I can’t get better LoL. Gotta nurture any special skills I have if it helps me here for sure
I can try to get some builders sand tomorrow.
Dumb question though: wouldn’t adding sulfuric acid directly in the soil work faster than sulfur that has to be broken down into it to lower pH? Maybe I just don’t understand why we can’t dilute and mix it with the soil or if it comes in dry form why not amend it in like Bone meal?
I do have some organic flaxseed meal I found in my pantry. IDK if I can use it for an amendment, but from my research it seems to be 5% nitrogen and people seem to say it’s the same as using cottonseed meal. It seems I don’t have enough to make any difference though as I have a small pouch of it about 8" tall
Here’s today’s pics. Still don’t have to water. The center of the pot is retaining water 1cm down still.
Despite it all growth has picked up nicely
Overhead shots
Hygrometer
Humidity is a bit low, but I’m definitely seeing improvement after adding humidity.
I might be able to grab some vermicompost from the worm bin at home tomorrow to add to the mix if that’s suggested by anyone. Depending on the compost situation out back i may have some leaf mold to add too, but I’m not expecting much out of the black bin TBH without having seen it in over a year personally.
I’ll do my best to grab some sand tomorrow and then I can mix my new and improved soil. If it works as well as I hope I’ll see some better growth rates and hopefully less deficiency issues as they struggle to get through the soil like now.
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OMG I’m a dumbass I scrolled up. The silt settled at the 6oz line last night. The clay is only at 4mm like the sand. This is a almost pure silt soil:man_facepalming:t2:
Game plan?
New ratios with proper math after I caught my mistake:
79% silt
10.5% sand
10.5% clay
That says I have silt loam/silt borderline RN without doing anything and that’s still way too much silt to anything else ratio. Also with the clay that stayed suspended in the water trapped I’m wondering if sand alone might fix this ratio
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Any organic sulfur applications are slow release. Don’t add anymore compost, vermicompost or otherwise as your loam is already too much. Just try sand for now.
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Ammonium sulfate is quickest but not organic. Adding peat moss will acidity pretty quick too
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Grass Hopper!
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