pH up or pH down using commonly found household chemical
richardwkf
19 years ago
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KanakaNui
19 years agopepperbox
19 years agoRelated Discussions
pH range
Comments (8)A few comments: if you decide to make the plaster-of-paris pills or tablets be sure that you are buying POP that is made with calcium carbonate. Some versions of POP are made from silicates, won't dissolve worth a hoot and will have no impact on your buffering, pH and little on your calcium concentrations. How to know? A. Check the ingredients if listed. B. Use a small vial of vinegar and place a drop or two on a little bit of the POP...if it fizzes then it has carbonates in it. The DAP stands for the company that makes the POP and is not some weird acronym for it's contents. Sodium bicarbonate is used by many to adjust pH and more importantly, alkalinity, commonly referred to as KH. The strips used for testing, as Sandy has mentioned, tend to be inaccurate and have a bigger problem in that their shelf-life is rather limited compared to the liquid test kits. I've benchmarked both against the gold-standard titrimetric method in a lab and found the liquid ones to be more accurate. The primary advantage of sodium bicarbonate is that it is one of those chemicals that relatively benign in terms of potential problems of putting in too much....once your water pH is at 8.3-8.4 whether you dump in a cup or 10 cups will have no further impact on pH although it will increase the alkalinity. This is NOT true for pH PLUS from swimming pool stores. This product is typically sodium carbonate, not sodium bicarbonate. As you add this stuff and happen to over dose you WILL raise your pH. In fact, it is possible to raise the pH as high as 11 by adding just sodium carbonate...you can use it but be careful. Same goes for using muriatic acid...it can be diluted and used as need be but I think you would be far better off leaving the pH at a stable level rather than trying to chase it around. You will probably find that your pH will vary significantly during the day...low in the morning, higher in the afternoon...just due to the influence of algae in your pond. Bring the algae under better control, plus keep your alkalinity levels above 80 mg/L and you'll have less fluctuation in your pH. You'll probably find that many folks...here in this forum or elsewhere...routinely keep their ponds in the pH range of 8.3 - 8.8 with no major effects on fish, plants, tadpoles, birds, etc. Not true if you're trying to grow fish that enjoy a more acid pH (some African types, if I recall correctly) or plants that are very pH sensitive...I believe there are some native orchid species that may fall into this category, for example. I used to make the POP tabs but kept running into more frequent problems of locating manufacturers whose products which contained carbonate-versions. Now all I do is throw in a handful or two of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) once in awhile. Specially add it in the late fall headed into cold weather when things begin to freeze ... want everything well buffered at that point. Hope all this stuff helps. ---David...See MoreAnybody use pH Meters to Test Soil
Comments (8)Raspberryflyer, I will be more polite and diplomatic in my answer... I just bought a PH meter for my daughter who is doing a science project concerning the acidity of soil. It's not an expensive model ($15.00 Canadian) and we were told it may not be accurate, but so far it's giving the readings which I expected. Dipped in vinegar which is highly acidic, the meter registers in the deep of the lower PH levels, and dipped in mucky ashes from the wood stove, the meter goes straight to the higher PH levels. So far we've tested potting soil, forest soil, garden soil, lawn soil, etc. and the readings are what I expected them to be. It appears to be working well. It's a simple meter with two prongs which are inserted into the muddy soil. In essence, you place the soil in a bottle, add water to make it muddy, then insert the meter and wait about 60 seconds. We kept the receipt just in case it didn't work, so you might want to do the same. It was bought at a garden center. Since the ground has started to freeze here, we were out on Sunday with a pick axe digging. You have to get soil from about 5 inches down. I am actually glad she chose this as her project this year. I have been wanting to buy such a meter for some time, and this gave me the right excuse. I have places on the property where blueberries grow and so I wish to keep the acidity at a high level. In the ornamental gardens, I'm looking for neutral soil. This meter will help me in achieving these goals. I truly hope I've helped in answering your question, and that you will not be discouraged from posting at this forum in the future due to the above response. Most folks here are kind in nature and quite helpful and do actually focus on the question at hand. Sincerely, Nicole....See MoreEgg Shells in Nutrient Solution?
Comments (24)Miracle grow has a tomato plant nutrient with calcium, but will only sell it in Australia. I called them and they said they only supply soil based products in US. I asked them futher if I could order from Australia and they stated that I could order, but they probaly would not ship it into US. The MG with calcium in Australia is all that is needed according to their write up.(below) Miracle-Gro® Water Soluble Tomato Plant Food This fertiliser is especially suitable for growing tomatoes and all vegetables. High in nutrients Miracle-Gro® Water Soluble Tomato Plant Food is formulated to promote crops of hearty, healthy vegetables. The NPK is 20:2.2:9. This product is unique among water-soluble fertilisers because it contains high levels of calcium which are essential for preventing blossom end rot in tomatoes and help all vegetables to resist diseases. The product also contains iron, magnesium and essential trace elements such as copper, zinc, boron, manganese and molybdenum. The unique wetting agents help to maximise foliar feeding as well as to ensure that the fertiliser is readily absorbed into the soil to reach the roots quickly. Hydroponics Because of the revolutionary new technology used in this fertiliser, the added calcium does not settle out. This allows Miracle-Gro® Water Soluble Tomato Plant Food to be used in hydroponics alone, not as a mixture of an A & B solution. Application rate A measuring scoop with a large and a small end is provided. Dissolve 1 level large scoop in 4 litres of water and apply the product every 7 to 14 days to the leaves and to the soil surrounding the plants. When planting tomatoes use approximately 1 cupful (250ml) of the solution for each plant. Increase the amount as the tomato plants grow until you are applying 4 litres per plant per feeding. Here is a link that might be useful: /miracle-gro.htm...See MoreHigh pH
Comments (21)Somehow or other, my pH came back as 8.8. All I can say is, "Welcome to Texas!" We have cockroaches too. I thought everyone knew that we gardened in pure limestone rubble and dust. That is what we have so all you have to do is buy plants that are adapted to the soil and lack of rain. If you are unhappy about that, then don't check your water. It has lots of dissolved calcium in it too. Of all the replies I seen here, bpgreen has done the most homework. If you are worried about iron, the only product that works is greensand. It seems to me you already mentioned where you live on another post. Would you mind supplementing your member page with your location so we don't have to continue asking? I could probably direct you to a garden shop that carried greensand if I remembered where you were. The application rate is 40 pounds per 1,000 square feet. Here's how this gardening on limestone soil works: First you fertilize with organic fertilizer to feed the soil microbes. Generally it is the bacteria that exude acidic goo. You may have heard of humic acid (also called humates) and fulvic acid. These are not acids in the sense of vinegar or sulfuric acid, but more like buffering agents that are slightly to the acidic side of 7.0 on the pH scale. These acids will tend to pull your soil pH toward neutral, release the bound up iron, and allow you to garden with some success. While the acidic buffering agents work well in normal conditions, the time they let you down is when you get a rainstorm that lasts several days. When you get enough water, the rain will wash the acidic buffering agents out of the soil surface and reset your soil pH to 8.8 again. The very first thing that happens next is the iron binds up and becomes "unavailable" to your plants. You can fertilize daily from then on and you will not restore your color until the following spring. However, if you recognize the rainstorm as it happens, you can rush out and get some greensand and apply it even while it is still raining. With that one application you can forestall the entire chlorosis event and have the ONLY green lawn on the block for the rest of the summer. Ironite will not touch our limestone soils. It's been tried many times. If you wait until the grass turns yellow to use the glauconite, you will have to wait the traditional 3 full weeks before you see the green return. Using greensand during the rain prevents the chlorosis altogether. Greensand is damp and feels like sand. If you let it dry out it forms hard clumps. Thus it does not go through a spreader very well. I scatter it like I'm feeding chickens. Oh and you went to the wrong place to get your soil test. As you already know, TAMU is very NPK oriented. If you wanted answers with respect to an organic program, they are absolutely the last place on earth to go. If you want more testing, better testing, more answers, better answers, and real customer services, next time go to the Texas Plant and Soil Lab. For $35 their regular test and results will knock your socks off. TSPL does their testing based on calibrated plant uptake technology. While TAMU and every other land grant college/university tests soil using hydrochloric acid to dissolve everything in the soil, TPSL uses carbonic acid (also known as carbonated soda water available in every soft drink) because that is what the plants use. The plants release CO2 into the soil via their roots. When the CO2 hits moisture, dilute carbonic acid forms and dissolves the minerals in the soil. Thus there is a huge difference between what is "available" to the plants and what can be dissolved in hydrochloric acid. TPSL's tests are really calibrated to plant uptake. When they tell you something is in the soil, they mean that it is available to the plants right away. So chlorosis would show up in a TPSL test but not in a TAMU test....See Morehank_mili
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