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Container Gardening

Help! Doubled Lime in 5-1-1 mix

beth-noobfrommd

10 years ago

I used 15 ounces (1.875 cups) of lime for 14 gallons of mix. I now realize this is one cup too much, right?

I've already planted ornamental sweet potato vine into 6 pots. I already killed a black and blue salvia, but I thought it was from too severe bare-rooting. Could the lime have hurt it?

I've spent days and days on this project. How do I save these pots? All help very appreciated!

My mix:
10 milk gallons of pine bark (1/8-1/2)
2 milk gallons of pine bark dust (1/8 and less)
1.5 milk gallons of course perlite (1/8-1/4)
.5 milk gallons of small perlite (1/16-1/8)
15 ounces margarine container of lime

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Comments (6)

edweather USDA 9a, HZ 9, Sunset 28
10 years ago
Not really an expert, but have made several batches of 511. I wouldn't worry too much about it. You could always acidify your water a bit if you need to.
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beth-noobfrommd
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks for the response, Ed.

I'm nervous that the extra lime will hurt the roots of the new plantings or hang up other nutrients somehow?

I was thinking of remixing the pots with equal parts un-limed mix to bring the ratio back in line of 1 tablespoon of lime per gallon of mix. But I'm afraid the recently bare-rooted plants don't want to be disturbed. What do you think? Have you ever added more lime than necessary to the mix?

Thanks again for your input. Others are welcome to chime in too. I'm biting my nails.
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I don't think you should leave the lime out. It has two purposes: 1) to raise the very low pH of the pine bark and peat, and 2) to supply calcium and magnesium that most fertilizers don't provide. Your hard water will take a long time to raise the pH. If you're concerned about it, you can add some white vinegar to the water to bring it down. You would need to test the pH of your water, then add vinegar a tablespoon at a time, and retest until the pH drops below 7. I have very hard water and all my clay pots have those deposits. I add a tablespoon of vinegar to my water when I can. I use a hose in the summer because I have way too many containers to water to do each one from a watering can every time. I really don't think my plants are suffering from the hard water. Check the pH of your rain water. It's likely to be better, but with pollution, it could be too acidic.
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I'm not sure what is best for AV's? I cannot answer most of your questions. But I would not put lime in a soil you are watering with water that has a PH of nine! Holy Moly, that should kill everything! I would skip the lime, and yes use vinegar. I'm not really sure of the range of PH AV's like? But if you know go for the middle of the range. And no, mold is not a good thing. I know Al at one time had AV's and so the info you need might be in old posts. It would really be great for your plants if you could use rainwater.
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Most peat based commercial potting mixes are pH balanced, otherwise they would be excessively acidic due to the peat (pH of 3.5-4.0). They should test out at around 6.0-6.5, which is the preferred range for most plants. So no, I doubt you need to add lime unless you are adding other, highly acidic ingredients.
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If you use foliage pro then it adds both Ca and Mg to the mix. If not you will have to add those separately from time to time. I do fertilize with Epsom Salt since Mg leaches out much faster than Ca. Ca will be held a little longer in the soil. I am not a soil chemistry expert but from what I can gather is that the initial liming is to neutralize the acidity of the 511 mix and bring it more towards neutral. So here goes some of my thoughts on this. Mineral soil (clay based) have a much better buffering capacity and thus resist changes to Ph. Compost/humus also aid in this process. Sandy soils have the least buffering capacity. Bark+peat based soils do not have that buffering capacity and so the initial lime helps. Also residential water tends to be alkaline and so that does some additional help in keeping 511 more towards neutral. Rain, on the other hand, tends to be acidic (dissolved CO2). Gritty mix has lot less bark and no peat and so it is less of a problem. Plus the turface probably increases its buffering capacity. May be granite grit does too to some extent. I always make gritty mix with gypsum and Epsom for the Ca and Mg components whereas my 511 is always with lime. Keeping this thread alive and may be one of the experts on this subject will pipe in.
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edweather USDA 9a, HZ 9, Sunset 28
10 years ago
If you are worried about it, you could re-mix it just to be safe. I'm sure the extra calcium and magnesium in the lime won't do any harm, so I'm guessing you are worried about the pH factor. Maybe someone else will chime in. I use, and re-use, and re-use my 511 two or 3 times, and after a while I really have no clue how much lime is in it, and I'm sure the pH has risen significantly over time. That's why I'm thinking it's not that critical, but hopefully someone else will confirm or deny :-)
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beth-noobfrommd
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks so much for your attention, Ed!! I'm planning on reusing my mixes if possible as well so I'm happy to know it can be done.

I wasn't that worried about pH, since like you said I can add vinegar to my water. And I'm using MG liquid fertilizer for now, which is also acidic. Although my water is alkaline.

I just thought that when you have more nutrients than needed that it got in the way of uptake of other nutrients. But is that not the case when using liquid? I also read that too much lime dust on new roots can be bad. But that was talking about crops so maybe it doesn't apply here... Maybe I'll ask over at Al's long running Fertilization post for confirmation. I'd really hate to disturb those plants if I don't have to. Thanks for giving me so much hope!!
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greenman28 NorCal 7b/8a
10 years ago
I would mix it with fresh 5-1-1 just to be safe.
You could also fill a single container with the rich mix as a comparison.

Josh
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beth-noobfrommd
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks for your input, Josh. I was on the fence and decided to start the repotting/ remix. I'll see tomorrow how badly the plants will suffer from the double handling.

I am keeping two pots with the doubled lime. One has the salvia that's on it's last leg, though actually one stem is showing signs of recovery so I didn't want to disturb it. The other pot is a bunch of butterfly weed seeds. I've never grown from seed so wasn't too worried about them anyway.

Thank you both, Ed and Josh, for responding and helping me decide on a course of action. It makes a new person feel welcomed into the fold. :)
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