Lower soil ph

What’s the best way to lower my soil ph in my grow tent? I have a few ideas but I wanted to get everyone’s input. I’m using fox farm but I doubt that matters. Its soil. Let me know what yall think.

@Nitrous any ideas or know someone that knows?

1 Like

Dolomite Lime is normally used to buffer the pH to 7.0. If you want a faster acting release rate, you’d need to use the powdered grind instead of granular. When I mix soil, I initially use 1 cup per 7 gallons of soil and when I need to top-dress, I normally use about 1/2 cup. I always thought Fox Farm was pH adjusted.

1 Like


I ended up getting this. It will work fine right?

1 Like

I believe FFOF is ph at 5.8 - 6.2, which is too low. All my grows have had brown spots on them. I finally figured out why and added some Encap Fast Acting Lime, which brought my run off water to 6.7 for one plant and 6.8 for the other, which is acceptable. I found this out just in time for my outdoor plants and mix in the lime when I made my super soil. They look awesome.

2 Likes

I’ve tested it. It’s around 8

That is too high. The soil should be around 7 and your feed water between 6.4 - 6.7.

Bro I know that’s why I got the bag in the picture to lower the ph…

3 Likes

Did you buy a potting mix or make your own soil? I wonder how it got so high. Do you know?

1 Like

I imagine it was me not ph my water as a seedling and without me doing that it’s around 8 ph . Unless the meter is trash idk

1 Like

Have you calibrated the meter? They say you should do that once a week. I check mine every couple of weeks. Id calibrate it and check the soil again before amending your soil.

I mean its brand new how am I supposed to calibrate it?

I Googled videos on how to calibrate my specific brand. You will need calibration solution. Some calibrate at 7 and some calibrate both 7 and 4 (2 step). Mine is a 2 step which I think makes the pen more accurate. Mine is an HM Digital. I bought a different one first, which turned out to be junk. I like the HM Digital.

2 Likes

Even when brand new, meters need to be calibrated. Are you using bottled nutrients? It is possible your soil has accumulated these at the bottom without really ever getting used up. How are you testing for pH, run-off or slurry test or what? You may want to try and flush your soil first before adding anything else to it. And to properly flush your soil, you’d need to run 3X the pot size through or until you can see runoff pH near the same level as what you pour in. Once done, feed at half strength.

2 Likes

I couldn’t say tbh… I never did it :confused:

1 Like

I’m using fox farm bottle nutrients but I’ve only used 2 times at this point and not even a qtr of the amount. I bought a meter that’s tests soil ph, the moisture in the soil and the light.




This was a cpl days ago. They look great, I’m not real worried about anything more of just trying to learn as much as possible

2 Likes

Ok, I thought you were experiencing issues. But I keep a small tub of Epsom Salts and CalPhos in case I do run into issues. The Epsom Salts contain Calcium and Magnesium while the CalPhos contains Calcium and Phosphoruos. It’s good to be thinking ahead. A better use of Dolomite Lime is when you mix it into your soil rather than a simple top-dress. It has a medium release rate so it takes a while to breakdown.

1 Like

Well I did test the soil and the ph was high but the plants themselves arent showing any problems.

Yeah, those look great

1 Like