Liming

[somerandom]

If I'm adding powdered dolomite to my soil , should i stop adding liquid cal/mag in the feeding ? I wonder what cal/mag toxicity looks like . i have had some yellow turning leaves with blue spots .

 

[Midnight Tokar]

That kind of depends on what your soil consists of. I use about 1/2 the recommended amount of Lime but I also use Crab Meal, Fish Bone Meal with the rest of my amendments. I only use RO water with the occasional molasses tea. I have never had the need to use a cal/mag supplement with that soil.

 

[somerandom]

I basically use 1/2 sunshine #4 and 1/2 happy frog with added perlite and EWC , and powered dolomite 2 tbs per gallon . I guess i'll just back off adding it to the food and see what happens.

 

[tokersmoke]

what nutes are you using?

 

[Midnight Tokar]

2 Tbs. per gallon sounds really high, most mixes call for just one.

 

[h.h.]

You don't need it at all with the HF and the castings. Sunshine mix #4 already has lime.

http://sunshineadvanced.com/products

 

[somerandom]

i mostly used technaflora recipe for success + or -,Si ,LK , and ii use molasses instead of sugar daddy . and good EWC .

 

[h.h.]

Look up chlorosis and high pH.

 

[EclipseFour20]

Hmmm, soil test? What is the grow medium's PH? Meters, test strips or liquid vials & the color chart--lots of ways to find out.

BTW, dolomite is not the only liming agent available--oyster/crab shells, wood ash, calcite, hydrated dolomite...are a few, but they are not created equal. The CCE (Calcium Carbonate Equivalent)--or acid neutralizing capacities for liming agents are all different. Calcite (the baseline for all liming agents) is 100, dolomite is 109, wood ash is 80 or less, hydrated dolomite is 166, and most shells range between 75-90. Sooo...it not always "how much to add", but "what to add"...in addition to how fine/coarse the liming material is (fine material neutralizes faster than coarse material).

Me...I jack up the PH to 6.5-7 when I make my soil, and by the time the plants are harvested the PH will range 6.0-6.5...got to allow the natural PH decline for expired/spent grow mediums. I don't use Cal-Mag, rather my magnesium supplements are magnesium sulfate (epsom salts) and food grade DE (Fossil Shell Flour)...my custom grow medium is already rich in calcium.


Cheers!

 

[somerandom]

I 'm going to lay off on the cal/mag , and the dolomite , and the silicone .

I'd like to get an EC meter but i don't understand how to calibrate it .
Seems there's different ranges you can adjust it to . I don't quite get it .

I now believe it's silicone toxicity that turns my leafs yellow and leaves blue spots .

 

[rives]

Regarding the EC meter, there is only one calibration, but to get to PPM (parts per million) there are various scales that apply a factor to the EC reading. There is .5, .64, and .7. All of the meters actually read EC in their internal circuitry, but the readout may have one of the factors applied to arrive at whatever the "local" standard is for PPM, or whatever scale that particular manufacturer likes to use in their instruments. It is easier to simply use EC.

For example, an EC reading of 1.0 will be multiplied by 1000 and then the factor is applied. So if you are in Europe, an EC of 1.0=1000*.64=640ppm. If you are using a US-made meter, .7 is the most common factor, so the EC of 1.0=1000*.7=700ppm, and if the meter happens to use the .5 scale then the EC of 1.0=1000*.5=500ppm.

If you aren't thoroughly lost by now, the EC of 1.0 which the meter actually read was converted to 640, 700, or 500. To avoid the confusion of trying to figure out which scale your meter is, or what scale the fellow's meter is that you are asking questions, it is a lot simpler if everyone just uses EC.

 

[JediMasterVon]

Dolomite lime, ph, EC, PPM???????????? WTF happened to my forum?

Did we go back to the stone ages here?

Geez!

V

 

[h.h.]

Dolomite is listed in the recipes. That confusion is where it started. Too much dolomite then you do have to start worrying about pH or too much dolomite anyway, whichever way you want to address it. The plant won't like it.

 

[somerandom]

2 Tbs. per gallon sounds really high, most mixes call for just one.

This is the amount recommended in the soils thread a good hundred times .

Look up chlorosis and high pH.

Will do , I'll also check the run off PH next time i water . I water/feed @ 6.5 . I'm not so much worried about the PH , it's my understanding that the dolomite won't allow it to raise above 7.0 . I'm just wondering if they are getting to much cal/mag .

Hmmm, soil test? What is the grow medium's PH? Meters, test strips or liquid vials & the color chart--lots of ways to find out.

BTW, dolomite is not the only liming agent available--oyster/crab shells, wood ash, calcite, hydrated dolomite...are a few, but they are not created equal. The CCE (Calcium Carbonate Equivalent)--or acid neutralizing capacities for liming agents are all different. Calcite (the baseline for all liming agents) is 100, dolomite is 109, wood ash is 80 or less, hydrated dolomite is 166, and most shells range between 75-90. Sooo...it not always "how much to add", but "what to add"...in addition to how fine/coarse the liming material is (fine material neutralizes faster than coarse material).

Me...I jack up the PH to 6.5-7 when I make my soil, and by the time the plants are harvested the PH will range 6.0-6.5...got to allow the natural PH decline for expired/spent grow mediums. I don't use Cal-Mag, rather my magnesium supplements are magnesium sulfate (epsom salts) and food grade DE (Fossil Shell Flour)...my custom grow medium is already rich in calcium.


Cheers!

Thanks for that . I will check run off PH next time i water . I use dolomite because it's cheap and readily available . Seems i may not have to be using it at all .

Regarding the EC meter, there is only one calibration, but to get to PPM (parts per million) there are various scales that apply a factor to the EC reading. There is .5, .64, and .7. All of the meters actually read EC in their internal circuitry, but the readout may have one of the factors applied to arrive at whatever the "local" standard is for PPM, or whatever scale that particular manufacturer likes to use in their instruments. It is easier to simply use EC.

For example, an EC reading of 1.0 will be multiplied by 1000 and then the factor is applied. So if you are in Europe, an EC of 1.0=1000*.64=640ppm. If you are using a US-made meter, .7 is the most common factor, so the EC of 1.0=1000*.7=700ppm, and if the meter happens to use the .5 scale then the EC of 1.0=1000*.5=500ppm.

If you aren't thoroughly lost by now, the EC of 1.0 which the meter actually read was converted to 640, 700, or 500. To avoid the confusion of trying to figure out which scale your meter is, or what scale the fellow's meter is that you are asking questions, it is a lot simpler if everyone just uses EC.

PM Sent.

Dolomite lime, ph, EC, PPM???????????? WTF happened to my forum?

Did we go back to the stone ages here?

Geez!

V

Sorry we don't all start out as JediMasters . I see this is getting off track , I'm just trying to figure out what's right.
Some of the best / most informative reading i have done on here has had nothing to do with the OP or thread starter .

Thanks everyone

 

[h.h.]

Will do , I'll also check the run off PH next time i water . I water/feed @ 6.5 . I'm not so much worried about the PH , it's my understanding that the dolomite won't allow it to raise above 7.0 . I'm just wondering if they are getting to much cal/mag .

I wouldn't worry about checking pH. You're right about the dolomite, I was thinking garden lime. I am wondering about too much dolomite though.
Don't know if it would cause that sort of damage. I played around with it a little bit and just figured that I didn't need it. I was using HF mixed with Roots at the time. Never did a find use for it. I think it's mostly used with peat.
Look at chlorosis though. You're not producing chlorophyll. There's a number of different reasons.

I think what Jedi was referring to was that none of that stuff is relative to anything here. You want to go organics, forget about all that. Forget I said anything about it. Me bad. that belongs in the other forums period.