i followed the organics for beginners recipe, number 2, with fox farm (i used ocean forest and light warrior), earthworm castings and perlite. i transplanted from a half gallon pot to 3 gallon pot but i forgot to add the lime to the soil. i top dressed 2 teaspoons (i should have used 2.5 tablespoons) and was hoping i could slowly top dress on lime, i am going to use a guano tea and want a correct ph. please give me your thoughts
Advice Please! lime missing from mix!
- Thread starter wonderful
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Top dressing won't do a thing. The dolomite has to be mixed in thoroughly with the soil and remain damp to work.
Your pH should be buffered by the humates in the peat and worm castings. However, you still need calcium and magnesium. Epsom salts will provide magnesium but that leaves out the calcium.
Cal-Mag plus is a good option. I order stuff like that online at wormsway.
Burn1
Your pH should be buffered by the humates in the peat and worm castings. However, you still need calcium and magnesium. Epsom salts will provide magnesium but that leaves out the calcium.
Cal-Mag plus is a good option. I order stuff like that online at wormsway.
Burn1
S
SeaMaiden
IME, you can top-dress, or you can water it in. If you have prilled dolomite lime and use very soft, slightly acidic water, within about 10mins or so you can get most of the CaCO3 and MgCO3 (calcium and magnesium carbonate, respectively) into solution, which can then be watered in.
But, what's just as important is to watch the plants, not just worry about a particular ingredient. It has a role, definitely, but part of the goal is to learn how it works within that role.
Go ahead and top-dress.
O
OrganicOzarks
Throw some oyster shell flour on your soil, and you will have calcium, and a ph buffer.
Welcome to organics; A world where problems like this are inconvenient not tragic....
I've also forgotten lime in my soil, but I use a very diverse set of materials to comprise my soil. Did it cause problems? Oh yeah, but it didn't need to. My micro herd got sick from heat and other problems, and suddenly I started having pH type problems. From my experience, if you keep your microbes happy and health, the pH range can be way wider than with chemicals. On the other hand, if you let your microbes get sick, die off, or let the wrong kind grow, the pH of the soil can suddenly matter. So it's GOOD to have the lime there to help stabilize the mix(Gypsum too!), but if you've got your environment dialed in and are an attentive grower you won't need it.
I've also forgotten lime in my soil, but I use a very diverse set of materials to comprise my soil. Did it cause problems? Oh yeah, but it didn't need to. My micro herd got sick from heat and other problems, and suddenly I started having pH type problems. From my experience, if you keep your microbes happy and health, the pH range can be way wider than with chemicals. On the other hand, if you let your microbes get sick, die off, or let the wrong kind grow, the pH of the soil can suddenly matter. So it's GOOD to have the lime there to help stabilize the mix(Gypsum too!), but if you've got your environment dialed in and are an attentive grower you won't need it.
molasses has a reasonable amount of cal/mag 1 teaspoon per gallon.
not much else you can do so dont sweat it and keep an eye on your plants. some peeps dont use lime and are fine. there may be some in your ffof anyway
VG
not much else you can do so dont sweat it and keep an eye on your plants. some peeps dont use lime and are fine. there may be some in your ffof anyway
VG
theres liquid lime and hydrated too. hydrated is fast acting i believe but strong
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SeaMaiden
This is simply not true, and I've performed the (incredibly simple!) tests myself. If you don't believe me then go and get yourself a Tetra Laborett Fresh and Saltwater Aquarium Test Kit. It tests for; pH, NH3/NH4, general hardness, carbonate hardness (kH, German degrees of hardness), NO2 (no NO3 test, unfortunately, big oversight IMO), and via a simple mathematical equation CO2.
Simply not true.
You need to make a mixture (chemistry) for the ingredient to be transported by the liquid. Dolomite is not dispersed in cold or hot water. Dolomite is insoluble.
Google MSDS dolomite for some truth.
Burn1
Now, get some very clean water, RO, RO/DI, or even distilled. Test it with the pH, general and carbonate hardness tests, note these parameters.
Now get the dolomite lime, I use prilled pretty much always, but for aquaria I would also use crushed coral substrata as well as dolomitic lime itself (to keep water column both alkaline and well-mineralized with Ca). Mix it into the water sample and agitate until you get as much dissolved as possible. There is going to be a slurry at the bottom--if you're using prilled dolomite it is the clay, primarily.
Let the sample sit for approximately 5-10mins, and test. You will pretty much always find that if the water is clean enough and acidic enough, the lime IS going to drive pH UP as well as at least the carbonate, if not general, hardness levels up.
I've done this kind of water column manipulation thing for too long to be convinced that what I'm saying isn't the truth. As I qualified my statement before, if the water is slightly (sufficiently) acidic and very soft, the carbonates WILL dissolve into the water column. If that didn't occur, then why are wells that occur under limestone so alkaline and of such a high pH?
And IIRC Verdant Green has already posted a paper that clearly states that using alkaline water can lead to high alkalinity in soils, so I don't know where the argument is there. You should try it for yourself since you don't believe me.
^^^ But we're not talking about pH here. pH is buffered with the humates in the soil. Powdered dolomite lime for our purpose if for calcium and magnesium.
We use dolomite here on our soil to grow crops and lawns. After an application of dolomite, it takes about six months before it fully takes affect. It takes that long for it to wash down into the soil and mix with it. We don't have that long with our plants.
And we've been over this here hundreds of times before. pH is not a big issue with a properly amended organic soil mix.
Burn1
We use dolomite here on our soil to grow crops and lawns. After an application of dolomite, it takes about six months before it fully takes affect. It takes that long for it to wash down into the soil and mix with it. We don't have that long with our plants.
And we've been over this here hundreds of times before. pH is not a big issue with a properly amended organic soil mix.
Burn1
thamk you all for your quick respnces. i am very releived to find out that this isnt tragic. and they still have 1 more transplant to go (from 3 gallon to 3.9 gallons). i didnt know that the lime was for calcium and magnesium.
does everyone agree that mollases has appropriate amounts of calcium and magnesium to solely relie on it? i was planing to use it with a guano teat that i was going to feed it once of twice a week, would this be sufficient? i was told 3 table spoons per 5 gallons of tea, but with someone saying 1 teaspoon per gallon so i am now unsure.
or if that isnt sufficient how much epsom salt should i use and in what type of application? will i need repeated applications?
does everyone agree that mollases has appropriate amounts of calcium and magnesium to solely relie on it? i was planing to use it with a guano teat that i was going to feed it once of twice a week, would this be sufficient? i was told 3 table spoons per 5 gallons of tea, but with someone saying 1 teaspoon per gallon so i am now unsure.
or if that isnt sufficient how much epsom salt should i use and in what type of application? will i need repeated applications?
If your only wanting cal and mag there are plenty of choices. Gypsum and Epsom salt are certainly faster. Oyster shell, crab shells or meal, have to be mentioned along with ewc. And they also will buffer Ph. A lot of botanicals also are rich in both or at least cal, being that cal is one of the most abundant elements on earth. And if you use a diverse mix you get different break down rates and more diverse trace elements. Good old dolomite might be easy or cheap but I don't think it's best...."..scrappy
I just eyeball the molasses, but probably about 1 tbsp per gallon at most. You want to keep the amounts low if you use it every time you water. If you overdo it, your herd might go a bit crazy. More food than oxygen can make too much co2 output, which can starve some of the good things of o2. In my experience though, you really have to go bonkers with it to really do harm. I've used as much as 5 tbsp per gallon without hurting the plants. It just wasn't necessary to use that much, and it's probably bad for keeping fungus healthy in your soil versus bacteria.
If you just transplanted within the last week to ten days, just pull the plant and root ball up. Pour out the mix without the lime in it into something you can get a close measurement in. Mix in the proper amount of powdered dolomite lime and put the plants back in. The root balls are very robust in our plants.
Burn1
Burn1
