PH question

[Xena]

I saw a post, from I believe rwise, about using pelleted lime and dolemite to self ph. My question is why isn’t that the standard for soil growing? With my limited knowledge it seems like if that actually works and the plant will automatically do what it needs as opposed to you phing your water and hoping the meter is calibrated right and you have what the plant needs.

[CaptainWiese91]

Standard for soil growing .. I think it’s hard to make a “standard” when we all have a different growing method.
And different approach to growing.
me myself I don’t have a problem with Ph my water. Doesn’t take more than 5 min. And I know my Ph is calibrated.

[Xena]

I realize that everyone has their own way of doing things and technically there is no “standard” but phing water is what I would call a standard and I misunderstood what rwise meant. I thought it was something you premixed into the soil before the grow and it automatically took what was required to get the correct ph.

[Rwise]

The plants will move elements around to adjust the soil, yes added to the soil. My tap water is 7.0, IDK what the rain water is.

[Rwise]

That would be pelleted sulfur (PH down), and pelleted dolomite (PH UP), I grew up doing these things the way my parents did. I took a soil sample to my local Ag center 2 years ago, had them do their thing, my PH was 8.4 (the white widow looked good anyway), and they recommended sulfur to bring it down. Both are natural, the sulfur works with water and slowly creates sulfuric acid. Pelleted is for a slower release, powdered water soluble sulfur is good too, but cation with perlite it will make acid fast! And our plants do use sulfur!
Terpinator(SP) is nothing more than sulfur(-) and potash(+) blended to come out at around 6.5 PH

[9fingerleafs]

If you make a very acidic hot soil with lots of manure and meals then you may need to add some dolomite to rise ph as nutrients are released, but you could easily overdo it and end up with a unusable soil. Best to stick to premixed soils until you are confident enough to tweak each element and the interactions between the soil components and the life within.

[Rwise]

LOL, BTDT years ago I had some "soil" tested, the results were spread it over x amount its a good fertilizer. One can certainly make the soil to hot!