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soil Lowering PH in soil.

A quick Google reveals - Two materials commonly used for lowering the soil pH are aluminum sulfate (madhatter has already mentioned this one) and sulfur.
 
Well I was looking for more of a quick home remedy as I dont have aluminum sulphate available here.
Some of my potted plants the PH is around 7.5, I wanted to get it around 6.5.
 
I've used bone meal to stablize the pH of my peat based soil with much success. Definitely using Dolimite Limestone for Ph adjustment this year with the addition of bone meal early on. Until I did some researsh because of this thread I thought I was lowering the pH with lime but is actually the other way around with peat being 3.5 pH with nothing added. I bought a 50 lb. bag of dolomite and about to fill 200 nursery 4 gal containers, how do you add your lime? Don't want to over do it with the lime so how much per 4 gal nursery pot, or do you think I can mix in the whole bag in my pile of used soil with new peat and perlite. Getting this right is so very important.
 
PRF ....... When I grew African Violets I used fine dolomite lime . You really needed to because the pots where so small and for them to bloom super nice they needed to be fairly root bound.

You can make a guess and get close. I used 5 tablespoons per gallon of potting mix . It was a mix I had used for years so I got close. The thing to do if you have time is mix a small batch of soil with the dolomite lime . I added the soil and lime to a plastic bag and shuck it up. Water it good then test the pH in a week or so. It takes a while for the lime to start breaking down and working. The finer the lime the faster it will work. When you get a pH you want in your test batch go from there.

You mainly want to mix everything up. If you think you need more later you can loosen up the top 1" or a little more and mix the lime in to the loose soil. It works better to mix it in than just top dressing.

I hope that helps a little ,

Good luck & Peace,
P. Dreadie
 
Cappy, Patrick and I had some emails regarding this before the growing season started. I've created my own peat based soilless medium, and he'd tried that in the past and had pH issues. The advice he gave me was to add about 1/3 cup per 5 gallon container. I'm using dolomitic lime as well, and so far haven't seen any issues (knock on wood!).
 
Cappy, isn't your used soil composed of Pro Mix BX, which is already PH balanced? If your just adding raw peat to this mix, I'd start with 1 cup of dolomite per 5 gallons of new peat added and adjust from there if necessary. Like P. Dreadie said, you'll need to let the mix sit for a few weeks and test again.
 
Right on you guys that is exactly the info I was looking for and very helpful. My mix started as Pro-Mix 2 years ago and I added peat and compost last season, so now its just used peat based potting mix. If I wasn't filling so many containers I would just go buy new Pro-Mix and not worry about a thing. I dump all my old mix on a huge tarp and mix in what's needed with rakes and shovels then refill. Just eyeballing what I have I think I'll go ahead and mix the whole bag of dolomite, a giant bag of perlite, several fresh bales of peat to start. Last year I did not get the mix right the first time and had to repot all my plants twice, don't want to do that one again. Thanks for the peace of mind.
 
Man you have a great memory NovaHH. I'm happy to hear this is working for you.

Cappy I work on the theory that it's easier to add than remove. Hope you get it perfect the first time, I remember all the repotting you did last year, about wore me out reading about it.
 
PRF ..... From what you say about you mix now I think you should get started soon if you have time. Under add the dolomite lime like patrick said. Wet up the mix and let it sit so the lime has a little time to work. The lime will keep breaking down for a while. Test the pH to see what's up !!! If needed you can work in more dolomite lime , even if the plants are small and in the garden. You just can't work it in as deeply. But as you water it will break down and run deeper.

Peace,
P. Dreadie
 
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