water Well Water pH

I just recently had my well water tested again and its at a stable 5.2pH. Should I worry about raising the pH or would I be safe with what I have?
 
If I do need to raise it, whats the best approach as I will need to do this alot?
 
I've thought about using a 55gal trash can and using pH up to get it to a better 5.5+pH but itd be so much more work than just watering with the hose.
 
Thanks.
 
How And What Do You Intend To Feed Them with? Any additives my bring pH up. My RO pH runs 7.4-7.9 but the nutrient line I used brings it down a bit. I just add hades down to get it at 6.4.
 
Water PH isn't quite as important for soil growing as it is for hydroponics. Your ph should be absolutely fine for watering plants. You aren't that far off from the 5.5-6.5 I've seen posted many times
 
CAPCOM said:
How And What Do You Intend To Feed Them with? Any additives my bring pH up. My RO pH runs 7.4-7.9 but the nutrient line I used brings it down a bit. I just add hades down to get it at 6.4.
I've just been using liquid ferts lately. Mostly Neptunes Harvest, DynaGro Grow, and Foxfarm Big Bloom, but I dont use them every watering. I usually use ferts once a week. Will those raise the pH? I've also heard leaving water out will neutralize the pH a bit more, but itd be hard to leave enough water out once summer hits.
 
Wicked Mike said:
Agreed. You should be fine as long as you don't go adding elemental sulphur or something to the mix.
Just when I uppot I am going to mix 4:1 Promix:Happy frog or something similiar. I may add mushroom compost or some seaweed/crab shell compost. Havent decided on all I want to mix yet, or even what is available to me.
 
Finely crushed egg shells if you have them, or another source of calcium carbonate. Mixed into the soil they'll raise pH and provide a source of available calcium in doing so. Other raw materials used for their fertilizer properties work too but commercial fertilizers tend to be neutral unless designed and marketed otherwise.
 
Brocoli said:
I've just been using liquid ferts lately. Mostly Neptunes Harvest, DynaGro Grow, and Foxfarm Big Bloom, but I dont use them every watering. I usually use ferts once a week. Will those raise the pH? I've also heard leaving water out will neutralize the pH a bit more, but itd be hard to leave enough water out once summer hits.
 
Just when I uppot I am going to mix 4:1 Promix:Happy frog or something similiar. I may add mushroom compost or some seaweed/crab shell compost. Havent decided on all I want to mix yet, or even what is available to me.
 I am not going to directly disagree with Tony and Mike that you should be fine, as you probably will.
But I am a big advocate of balanced pH in both the media the pepper plant is grown and anything that is added to it. If your soil has a pH of 6.5 and you water with nuts is 8.0 your food will be a shock to the plant and it throws the harmony of the grow out of balance for some time. I am not saying that that will cause your plant to wither and die, it is a discomfort at least.
In growing peppers, there is enough to worry about, and eliminating pH issues leaves you in a far better position than if you didn't.
pH issue also tend to lead to other problems if you do not stay on top of it.
 
I never paid any attention to pH until I started using NOTG nutrient line and though it is a constant learning experience, my grow is fast becoming superb to any before it.
 
All in all, I would love to have water with your pH. My only other concern is the EC or PPM  your water contains. another big issue unless you flush your soil religiously.
 
My RO water is 0 ppm. when I add the hades down it goes up to 20 ppm, still very very manageable. After adding all my nuts for feeding I am at pH 6.4 and 480 ppm.
 
Dave2000 said:
Finely crushed egg shells if you have them, or another source of calcium carbonate. Mixed into the soil they'll raise pH and provide a source of available calcium in doing so.
It takes way way too long for the calcium from egg shells to be readily available for the plant to use and uptake.
The following will really help explain it far better than I ever could and add to what I have been attempting to explain. I am sold on this product line and this year you will see the results.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZg1KaWwIfs
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BjbW2KPbTw
 
What is the PH of your soil? Are you watering containers, or patches of earth? Do you have any compost in your garden?

Well water has a lot (relatively speaking) of suspended solids, (particulate) compared to your drinking water. You can see fairly significant swings in PH, just by letting the water sit, and testing it from day to day. From my own testing - I used to catch rainwater for hydroponics, and use well water when rain was unavailable - the PH of well water tends to move towards neutral. Presumably, as solids settle out. Might be worth a test. But I honestly don't think you'll have a problem. If your well water is acidic, most likely, it's a function of the geology of your soil, and you'll be correcting for it, anyway.
 
CAPCOM said:
It takes way way too long for the calcium from egg shells to be readily available for the plant to use and uptake.
This is a very oft repeated phrase, but it's not true, and research says otherwise. The effectivity of ANY calcium source is dependent on the particle size. And a coffee grinder will definitely produce a fine enough particle. A mortar and pestle even better.

http://www.aces.edu/timelyinfo/Ag%20Soil/2005/November/s-05-05.pdf
 
CAPCOM said:
It takes way way too long for the calcium from egg shells to be readily available for the plant to use and uptake.
The following will really help explain it far better than I ever could and add to what I have been attempting to explain. I am sold on this product line and this year you will see the results.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZg1KaWwIfs
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BjbW2KPbTw
Nope, doesn't take too long, lots of organic growers use them without a calcium deficiency to prove it. Calcium carbonate sources like egg shells are superior.

It's supposed to break down slow. Slow release continues to give plants calcium they need instead of an overdose then running out then overdose again, or the grower watering too much or it raining too much and money is washed out of the pot, or did you propose that a grower has to measure out a tiny bit and use it frequently, even every single day and time they water? What a huge burden that would be! Do it once at beginning of season, or end of prior season, and then forget about it.

If you don't have access to sources of calcium, sure you'll then have to pay for some special thing after that already in the soil is depleted, but don't for a second believe the marketing bullshit that egg shells don't work because I've been using them effectively for decades. That's how the industry works, they twist the truth implying that you NEED them, when the truth is, people were effectively growing plants, even nature by itself did, long before and long after they're around.

Now about what I wrote. Egg shells can even break down TOO FAST if the soil is too acidic. They should not be used exclusively to fix a severe/low pH because it could be a detrimental excess of calcium salts but the situation in this topic is only a small pH change which makes them ideal.

You don't even have to try to get a tiny particle size. I dump mine in an old plastic coffee container and stomp them down with a piece of 2x4 wood only enough to compact them and make room for the next wave of shells. They end up about half the size of a BB-gun, BB by the time the container is nearly full, except a larger particle size for the top layer. It is not theory that this works. It has worked for me for many years reusing the same soil in pots. I do add other compost to those pots, but the rest is very low calcium relative to egg shells.

Calcium is way too easy to come by to be spending money for it, IMO. You don't need to make anything in your soil a small particle size if you just calm down and give it time. Forget about a week from now and think this season about what your soil will be like NEXT season, or else you're forever chasing your own tail. However in the case of egg shells, even if you don't crush them, unlike say twigs, they are thin and have a large surface area even if left mostly whole.

The only reason I crush mine as much as I do is the practicality of storage space. They take up less than 1/20th the space when crushed and it's just a few seconds to do every time more are added, to break down the top you added and the bottom just compacts due to being at the bottom. There is no need to go to excessive measures to do what nature will do for you, unless you're just a glutton for punishment.
 
Nope, doesn't take too long, lots of organic growers use them without a calcium deficiency to prove it. Calcium carbonate sources like egg shells are superior.

It's supposed to break down slow.
FACT

 
You don't even have to try to get a tiny particle size. I dump mine in an old plastic coffee container and stomp them down with a piece of 2x4 wood only enough to compact them and make room for the next wave of shells. They end up about half the size of a BB-gun, BB by the time the container is nearly full, except a larger particle size for the top layer.
It has been scientifically proven that coarse ground eggshells add absolutely NOTHING to the soil, for any foreseeable amount of time. In fact, well crushed shells - until you start getting down to powder, don't even really start to show benefit for several months. Fine ground and powdered, have immediate effect. And coffee grinder eggshells have a composite particulate size that meet right in the middle. Fine dust-like particles that work immediately, and slightly larger particles, which are still serving their purpose 18 months from time of application.

There are several published studies on the use of eggshells for liming. I believe the University of Iowa published the one that I paraphrased from. Their overall conclusion was that eggshells are a very effective liming source - equal to agricultural lime - but that the particle size made the difference in effectiveness.
 
Dave2000 said:
^ That's just pain stupid. You have no grasp of science at all.
Even a simpleton with a grasp of science realizes that reaction rate is about surface area (and temperature, and other things but we're doing an all else equal scenario). Yes you will reduce the reaction rate having a little less surface area from whole egg shells vs crushed, but to suggest that it's scientifically proven that coarse ground eggshells add absolutely NOTHING ("nothing" is your word used) to the soil, makes me realize that you're just plain stupid. The point is to NOT have immediate breakdown of all calcium, that it's a season long solution, which has proven to be true over many years of growing.
Maybe you can fool simpletons with your nonsense, but nobody that understands chemistry would fall for that nonsense.
Child, it is obvious that you don't know much at all about growing (ANYTHING), that you just stumbled upon random drivel on the internet and regurgitated it hoping (or too vain or ignorant to know the difference) you looked knowledgeable.
Problem is, you happened upon the REAL DEAL. Someone who isn't a noob who just repeats crap on the internet but instead has actually tried, learned, failed, improved, over a very long time.
It's just plain stupid to suggest that coarse ground eggshells add nothing to the soil.
Are you trying for EXTRA STUPID? I really don't understand your agenda of trying to shoot yourself in the foot with ignorance, but that's the problem with idiots, that their agenda is idiotic too. Irony?
I take issue that you would outright call another member stupid. Misinformed may be a better choice of words! But the rant you just excersised is uncalled for.
 
I get 7.4 out of the tap from my well. After adding ferts/nutes it is usually around a 6.. i leave it there usually
 
CAPCOM said:
I take issue that you would outright call another member stupid. Misinformed may be a better choice of words! But the rant you just excersised is uncalled for.
Well, it is just a word. Sticks and stones 'n all, but what is stupid? Everyone including myself is ignorant of a few things, but then to argue in ignorance without checking the info, to promote false information not even caring if you're right, just trying to promote ego and win an argument, IS stupid.

If I'm ever so obviously wrong about something so basic, and push the envelope that far, you're welcome to call me stupid.

Maybe it was stupid to post what I did from a politically correct standpoint instead of a scientific standpoint. I don't mind looking stupid in that regard if good grow information is maintained. On one hand I apologize solid7, but on the other I don't.
 
Get on eBay and get a cheap pH pen. You can find them starting at like 7 or 8 bucks. Then you can adjust properly and don't have to worry
 
Dave2000 said:
^ That's just pain stupid.
Take it up with the people that authorized the studies. You are free to live in ignorance and call it enlightenment, I care not.  But calling ME stupid isn't going to make it go away.

I posted my supporting evidence, you posted that. Pretty much ends the discussion.
 
Coarse, hand-crushed, shells were not much better than nothing at all in raising soil pH (Fig-ure 1).
...
On the other hand, finely ground shells were as effective as pure Ca(OH)2 when applied at equivalent
rates based upon their respective neutralizing values.
Finely ground shells were also very effective at increasing soil test (Mehlich 1) extractable calcium
in the soil but soil treated with the hand-crushed shells had no more extractable Ca than untreated
soil (Table 3).
http://www.aces.edu/timelyinfo/Ag%20Soil/2005/November/s-05-05.pdf


Dave2000 said:
Even a simpleton with a grasp of science realizes that reaction rate is about surface area
Apparently not, because if that were the case, you'd understand that the sum total surface area of any volume, broken down into smaller pieces, is greater than the unbroken surface area of the original volume. Pretty simple to demonstrate. Measure the total surface area of a Rubik's cube. Then disassemble it, measure one individual cube, and multiply it by the number if smaller cubes. The result will be more than original surface area of the cube. I'd do the math, but you wouldn't believe me, anyway.
 
Dave2000 said:
Maybe it was stupid to post what I did from a politically correct standpoint instead of a scientific standpoint. I don't mind looking stupid in that regard if good grow information is maintained. On one hand I apologize solid7, but on the other I don't.
Just stick to your guns. I'll be fine with that. I don't get hurt feelings.

Actually read the study that I posted. I dare you. If it doesn't hurt your pride too much. ;)

I know that that them thar studies is conducted by a bunch a' know nuthin' coluj keds... but the science matches my own experience. Therefore, I suspect that it might be true.  :mouthonfire:
 
CAPCOM said:
I take issue that you would outright call another member stupid. Misinformed may be a better choice of words! But the rant you just excersised is uncalled for.
While I appreciate that you take the high road in a public forum, I'd invite you also to point out where I'm misinformed.

The words I posted are black and white. Somebody needs to tell the Universities of Iowa and Alabama that their data is incorrect, if indeed they've published false findings.

I'm not sure the "real deal" was you or the other guy, but if certain members around here make statements with impunity, and are beyond reproach, somebody forgot to tell me.
 
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