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i was just wondering if there is anything that can be done to a pre-mixed soil that is too hot for most plants to lower the "hotness" of it and how to go about lowering the ph of it
also ive heard that putting your dirt in the oven for a little bit kills any bugs/bacteria that might hurt your plants. ture ? or a waste of time ?
hot like heat?..?... ph,
can use some ph down, like $29/gal
Mix up some 7 PH water and run it through your dry soil. Catch the first run off. It should be 6.5 to 6.8. If your soil is "hot" I assume you mean it has too much fertilizer in it. In that case you flush your plants with PH 6.8 water. Do it over and over as much as you can stand, let the soil dry out as much as possible, then start feeding at about 1/4 strength and work your way up to full, or one step below whatever caused the hot soil. There are also cheap soil PH test kits, but I've never used them. People tell me the soil run off test is more accurate.
Never heard of baking your soil.
baking your soil will only sterilize it, this will have nothing to do with the ability of the medium to hold a certain pH. You can bake your soil if you want to re-use the medium, but if you do this, make sure you open some windows in your house cause it will STINK!!! The oven has to be around 450 and the stench is nasty. The pH will be controlled held by something like Peat, humus, etc. If your using a pre-mix soil like the MG brand your soil will be considered 'hot' due to the peat that is in it. Best thing you can do for your medium is to go out and look for one that has manuare/humus mix and add some perilite to it for drainage. Some of the farmers here like to use the Fox Farm soilless mix, just be careful when looking for a medium because they all do act different. You need to find on that fits you, not anyone else. If you do use a medium that has nutes in it your going to be fighting that for a long long time during your grow and your plants will have issues right from the start.
Hope that helps.
yeah that helps, i had trouble finding fox farm soils in canada so i went with a pre-mixed one that i thought looked good but the peat content is too high and the ferts in it are too strong and i think that is what has been hurting my plants
and baking your soil allows you to re-use it ? will it get rid of all the salts in it ?
doesnt 'allow' you to reuse it, just kills the bateria that could have been in the soil. The salt has to be removed via flushing.
Yes it will kill bad bacteria as well as good. It will also kill many other microorganisms that are essential to healthy soil. An oven full of new potting soil costs $4. Search mycileum.
use powdered hydrated lime to raise the ph make it more alkaline
use powdered sulfer to lower the ph, more acidity to it
can usually get both at local garden center for a few bucks a small bag
using peat type mix has given me problems in the recent past and have recently changed to a humus/pearlite mixture(far superior imho). using a peat mixture you will most likely want to make the soil more alkaline