adding lime to soil w/ plants already in.(help needed)

[headshake]

i will test the run off again after the last gallon and see where im at...but what i want to know is, is giving them water with a ph of 6.8 a permanent solution? does it hurt the plants?and if i got the hydrated lime(which im more then willing to get) would that be permanent as well? or would i have to keep adding it over the course of the grow?

giving them a higher pH water/nute solution will slowly raise your soil pH. nothing is ever "permanent" as we are creating an artificial environment with micro environments contained within (your pot/soil is a micro environment; microbes in the soil break down the salts and make them available for your plant to uptake).

hydrated lime is fast acting, and like most fast acting substances does were off relatively fast. it's more of a quick fix.

day 1 Transplanted clones 9/27 10pm...first watering at 1030pm
w/ 1/2 tsp of cal mag
1/2 tsp liquid karma
1 tsp grow
total ppm 275 ph of water 6.6

day 2 1tsp cal mag
2 tsp grow
1 tsp LK
475!!!! ppm 6.5 ph

(day 3 i had a 510 ppm) (day 4 515 ppm- still looked healthy too)
I should probly menion that i was only using 1 gallon of water for all 12 plants

(day5 550 ppm (thought i noticed yellowing...but couldnt tell)

Day 6 550 ppm (very very slight yellowing on 1-2 plants)

day 7 (monday 10/4)600 ppm definate curling of leaves upward(taco) but not much more yellowing...

day 8 (tues- did what i thought would be a decent flush to clear out all the excess nutrients i gave them)

day 9(wednes - did nothing )

i haven't even looked at the chart yet but i can already tell that you over fed them. your pH is off, but in this case lime isn't going to fix it. i mean you will be able to raise it with the hydrated lime but you will always be "chasing" your pH. (i can't get the pdf to pull up.)

like i said the sunshine no.4 has dolomitic lime in it. this is a time tested, stable method of maintaining pH and is use by virtually all manufacturers of potting mixes. there is no way yours has wore off already.

the mass amount of nutes are causing some type of lockout. flush like a mad-man and watch your new growth. (by the way, hydrated lime is easy to flush out, dolotmitic not so much.)

keep in mind that it takes a bit of time to see change in plants in soil. 7-10 days is a good range. (remember those microbes i mentioned earlier? it takes time to break those salts down and make them available to your ladies.) it's not like hydro where sometimes you can see changes over night.

when looking at the chart i gave the link too, I realized way to many nutes...correct? when i do resume feeding say friday...is 250-350 about the right ppm like chart says?

thanks a lot man....huge help

correctomundo! (like i said, i can't pull up the chart). you should only be feeding once to twice a week depending on how heavy/light. use properly pH'd water in-between. with the calmag for RO of course. if you are using mineral salt based (non-organic) ferts then you need to flush about once a month!

and you are welcome! good growing.


-shake

headshake Reviewed by headshake on 10-07-2010. adding lime to soil w/ plants already in.(help needed) ok so Im using sunshine no.4 soil less mix(no nutrients in soil) and i tested my runoff after the first week of veg and the ph is 5.7-6.0...I would like it 6.3-6.6 but i didnt mix any dolomite lime into my soil like i probably should have...So what should I do to raise the ph? i know giving it higher ph'd water is a quick fix, but that doesnt seem the way to go, can i put some lime just at the top of soil?maybe 2 inches deep or so in certain parts and just continue to water? any advice would Rating: 5