The best thing to do is just to mix your own soil. I believe your just better off doing things yourself. I think I'd rather mix my own soil and try to just use teas.
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Adding dolomite lime to soil.
- Thread starter FadedMalone
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The best thing to do is just to mix your own soil. I believe your just better off doing things yourself. I think I'd rather mix my own soil and try to just use teas.
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Faded- :smoke: I hear ya mate!...but it's real skill,--and art-- ...there's a lot of knowledge to gain about components, balancing, soil bio-dynamics, reactions over time, etc.,....and testing, and tweaking,... for example, TLO has intrigued me for a while now as well, but the learning curve, and initial resource investment, and time, and.... Well, you can see why quality premade soils are so popular!
I feel ya Waira. I've mixed my own from using a recipe from icmag and kept trying to build it but had to shut things down and just never picked it back up. I'm about to get back on it tho. I've seen some soil recipes on here that I liked.
A4
11th Year Anniversary
Like Waira said, hydrated lime works quickly but can be overdone if not careful. Add some compost and check it again Sunday. I don't know how much 
you are using but just to save time if you will go to your local Lowes, Home Depot or any other big box store and purchase a bag of mushroom compost or composted manure and add it at 1 part to every 4 parts I would guess your pH would be above 6, probably close to 6.5 in a couple of days. Organic matter is one of the best buffers there is and if you choose to add dolomite lime to it, that will keep the pH in check over time as well. 2 Tblsp is not too much. I would shoot for about 1/4 cup per 20 gallons.
Best of luck bro!
you are using but just to save time if you will go to your local Lowes, Home Depot or any other big box store and purchase a bag of mushroom compost or composted manure and add it at 1 part to every 4 parts I would guess your pH would be above 6, probably close to 6.5 in a couple of days. Organic matter is one of the best buffers there is and if you choose to add dolomite lime to it, that will keep the pH in check over time as well. 2 Tblsp is not too much. I would shoot for about 1/4 cup per 20 gallons. Best of luck bro!
Like Waira said, hydrated lime works quickly but can be overdone if not careful. Add some compost and check it again Sunday. I don't know how much
Best of luck bro!
If I use the compost I really don't need the lime?
A4
11th Year Anniversary
Compost will work pretty quickly but I would add the lime as well. That is just me though, you may could do without it but I am not so sure. It is pretty much common knowledge OF is hot as f**k and if you aren't growing some hungry hungry indica photos I would worry about it dropping again. Here is the thing with hot soil, organic or not. If the plants aren't eating the nutrients in a timely manner then it is going to turn to salt. It doesn't matter whether it is organic or not. It is the breaking down of the nutrients that makes it toxic. There is really nothing wrong with OF if used in a normal garden but, my guess, the reason so many people run into problems with it on AFN is the plants don't grow as vigorous/large as photoperiods and thus all the excess nutrients begin to break down to salt as well as lower the soil pH. A lot of that is just my opinion so take it with a grain of salt but that is my theory on OF and AFN. Honestly, you don't see nearly as many people having problems with it on photo forums.
So, the short answer is I don't think a little extra lime would be a bad thing. And it is cheap insurance just in case. Even dolomite can be overdone though so don't go crazy with it but 1/4 per 20 wouldn't hurt at all. I generally add about that much to my TLO with very good results.
OF is hot as f**k and if you aren't growing some hungry hungry indica photos I would worry about it dropping again. Here is the thing with hot soil, organic or not. If the plants aren't eating the nutrients in a timely manner then it is going to turn to salt. It doesn't matter whether it is organic or not. It is the breaking down of the nutrients that makes it toxic. There is really nothing wrong with OF if used in a normal garden but, my guess, the reason so many people run into problems with it on AFN is the plants don't grow as vigorous/large as photoperiods and thus all the excess nutrients begin to break down to salt as well as lower the soil pH. A lot of that is just my opinion so take it with a grain of salt but that is my theory on OF and AFN. Honestly, you don't see nearly as many people having problems with it on photo forums. So, the short answer is I don't think a little extra lime would be a bad thing. And it is cheap insurance just in case. Even dolomite can be overdone though so don't go crazy with it but 1/4 per 20 wouldn't hurt at all. I generally add about that much to my TLO with very good results.
Compost will work pretty quickly but I would add the lime as well. That is just me though, you may could do without it but I am not so sure. It is pretty much common knowledge
So, the short answer is I don't think a little extra lime would be a bad thing. And it is cheap insurance just in case. Even dolomite can be overdone though so don't go crazy with it but 1/4 per 20 wouldn't hurt at all. I generally add about that much to my TLO with very good results.
Awesome A4. I agree with you on the autos vs photos,never had a problem until I come to this forum and starting running autos. My photos always looked okay. I really never had much of a problem with ff and autos till around flowering and things went waaaaaaay south. I'm going to go get some mushroom compost first thing in the morning. Thanks for explaining things man,very helpful and I would imagine the extra added compost will be a good addition to the soils food web as well.
A4
11th Year Anniversary
Exactly! And it is a good source of Calcium and Potassium, my two favorite nutrients.
and flush foxfarms soil. i put my plants in the shower and run alot , of water through the soil. then i start bloom. flush flush flush.
