Indoor Slight PH adjustment

[BurtMaclin]

Hey again everyone, I just finished my grow tent and I'm now putting the finishing touches on my organic soil.

My soil testing units came in today. Both the same brand called RAPITEST.

One is a digital reader which only works when supplying test tubes with chemical capsules they supply you with and then inserting the tube into what I think is a color reader of some sort. It messures N,P, and K while also having a setting for reading P.H of the soil.

The other soil reader is a digital probe reader. It analyzes P.H, Fertility, and Tempature after sticking the probe in the soil for a minute or so.

The readings of the first chemical capsule meter were as follows:

N: Surplus (Highest Mesurment)
P: Surplus (Highest Measurment)
K: Surplus (Highest Measurment)

P.H: 7.5+

Now at this point I was worried because the P.H is reading really high, I also am not sure if a surplus is a negative when dealing with an organic grow.

So I decided to use the other tester. The results are as follows:

Fertility- 3 or "Ideal" (The chart that came with this tester put the "Ideal" range at a numeric mesurment of 3-7 and is based on the total value of Potash, Nitrogen, and Phosphorus combined.)

P.H- 7.0 or "Neutral"

So you can see my issue. I have one reader telling me my P.H is at 7.5 or higher, and the other telling me it's at a neutral 7.

I also have one meter telling me there is an "Abundance" of N,P,K while the other is telling me I'm barely making the "Ideal" scale with a 3 out of 7.

Both are the same company, RAPITEST. So first, which one do I trust? I'm leaning highly towards the probe as my soil was made from scratch and has been completely organic and only fed with distilled water.

Also, I have no clue what those little capsules contain for mesuring N,P,K with that first tube kit. They could contain something that is tainting those soil readings. So what's the best organic material I can use to bring the P.H down to 6.5-6.8? I was reading sulfur so I'm just looking for other suggestions before I make the plunge. Thanks ahead of time guys.

 

[talkative]

The problems when you apply to much lime can make it harder to correct your ph than what you would have when you didn’t add as much lime. You can always add more lime, but if you add to much you can’t remove it if you put to much lime in the soil. With great soil moisture, lime will work immediately and pH will start to change over a few months. However, it can take up to a year for the real benefit of lime to work. As the soil pH rises, the time it takes for lime to react decreases due to lower levels of soil acids. If you need to change your ph when its to high, if you choose to use lime it will not help as much as you think in lowering your ph, it would need alot of lime to lower your ph to a point where it would cause a toxcicity to the plants so look else where to use something to lower your ph rather than using lime.

So here at the bottom is a list of some buffers that are good to go with when raising and lowering ph!

Here are some ph buffers when your ph is too high: Use these SOIL PH Adjustments to lower your ph: sawdust, composted leaves, wood chips, cottonseed meal, leaf mold and peat moss. Sawdust, composted leaves, woodchips and, lemon juice, PH DOWN.
from another afn thread. I would not just go adding something to lower ph since you aren't 100% and nobody ever is exactly what the soil ph actually is. If the water is 6.5 going in, all the nutrients in your soil may be available without adding anything.