Ah..
Well I know you know your stuff DutchPimp, and that makes sense. I am pretty sure I have read that before too. PH runoff that high in soil just caught me a little off guard, my Amish buddies limited experience has only been with soil that had significantly dropped ph. I bet you and veggi have already answered my question then. Just for shits and giggles I am going to test runoff with just perlite thought to see tomorrow, I will post my unspectacular findings.
Assuming it is the soil, then the soil ph is sitting at about 7 even? (Water in @ 6.75, runoff out @ 7.25?) Is that right? If true then the water needs to be going in @ 6.5 then, assuming the runoff comes out at that point @ 7.0, then my soil would be at 6.8ish? Is that reasonable, and ok with very young plants? Thanks again for the input.