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Trying Something New- Lime PH Question

Today I thought I would experiment with a new potting soil mix and give the 511 Pine Fine mix a try. I figured I am always having problems with my City's Water PH with it being extremely Alkaline, so what better than a naturally acidic soil like pine fines so I can continue to use City Water without treating and doing the old water-can watering.  
 
I was lucky enough to find a large landscape place in Riverside that carried an abundance pine fines for playgrounds. Of course I had to buy a yard of it. I brought it home and tested the PH. Even after running my 8+ City Water through it I was getting 4s, but that is what the Domolite Lime is for right. I'm using the Espoma Garden Pelletized Lime. So I added the recommended 1 Tablespoon per Gallon to my mix. That brought me in the 5s.
 
So my question is this, should I keep adding the lime until I hit the 6s, or should I wait some to see if the lime will dissolve more? I don’t want to hit 6 only to find tomorrow I over limed and I’m back in the 8s again.
 
 
 
you could try waiting a day or so to see what the sample does, but in my experience its not much.
 
its runoff and the plants themselves that effect the soil ph the most. your organic material is also going to decompose altering the ph as well. 
 
you are probably thinking that carbonate will slowly dissolve into the water further increasing the ph over time, but this does not take very long provided you have sufficient surface area. the solution of water will also saturate with other common ions in your soil further inhibiting the carbonates ability to disassociate.
 
you should be doing these ph tests with distilled water.
 
queequeg152 said:
you could try waiting a day or so to see what the sample does, but in my experience its not much.
 
its runoff and the plants themselves that effect the soil ph the most. your organic material is also going to decompose altering the ph as well. 
 
you are probably thinking that carbonate will slowly dissolve into the water further increasing the ph over time, but this does not take very long provided you have sufficient surface area. the solution of water will also saturate with other common ions in your soil further inhibiting the carbonates ability to disassociate.
 
you should be doing these ph tests with distilled water.
another idea you can do to help the cause hook up 2 55 gal. drums to the garage gutter and save you some rain water . it rained so hard in half hour yesterday it filled up 2 of mine in about 20 min. got lots or water the plants love !     :onfire:
 
yea ive had to use rain water as the water here has heinous amounts of sodium in it.
 
just make sure you are not ranching mosquito's without knowing it. rain gutters are usually filthy, and depending on the time of year, the water running off your house might have loads of pollen and dust leading to turbid water.
 
those mosquito dunks supposedly work well, though i just super chlorinate the water when i see those wriggly things.
 
I use the dunks to kill fungus gnats when I need to... Coming from an [newly reformed] organic grower, chlorine kills beneficial bacteria and mycorrhizae. I would recommend to stick with the dunks if you get mosquitoes.
 
I only say this because it takes a lot of work to get balanced levels of beneficials.
 
I am only a year in [to organics] and just now getting my living soil under steady control, so I am no expert, but chlorine is bad for organics. Just a word from the un-wise.
 
meinchoh said:
Another question to ask is, is your ph measuring device accurate?
Just using the drops from the Hydro Store. A lot more accurate than the strips that caused a serious error in PH earlier in the season. I was able to correct the problem with these drops and get the water back to 6.5, and the plants pretty much recovered. That was of course before the hot Santa Ana winds came through a couple of days back and fried a bunch of plants. 
 
 
moruga welder said:
another idea you can do to help the cause hook up 2 55 gal. drums to the garage gutter and save you some rain water . it rained so hard in half hour yesterday it filled up 2 of mine in about 20 min. got lots or water the plants love !     :onfire:
That's exactly what I'm trying to get away from. I have two 55 gallon drums filled and treated. Without getting into the whole treat soil or water debate I just want to know should I be adding more lime to the soil until I reach the desired PH level. Experimenting with a 3 gallon pot it took 8 tablespoons to get it to 6.5. That seems like a lot compared to the 1 per gallon of the 511 recipe. Did not know pine was this acidic. All check it again in the morning. I took a couple of days off so I could pot my last batch of plants, so I guess I can wait another day.  
 
don't add more, in the 5s will be ok.
lime takes a while to break down so you won't get a good ph reading for a while.
 
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