Hydrated Lime application

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blancolighter

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I got some hydrated lime to treat a calcium def and I've got one question before I give it to my girls. First off, I'll be adding dolemite lime to my soil in the future, jsut I didn't and my girls have a def now so I read hydrated lime is easiest to give in water to your plants for a def.

Well I mixed up 4 teaspoons per gallon like I've heard, but with this mixture, the ph is off ht echarts high. Should I bring the PH down to feed or is this the way of the lime and I should leave it be?

Also is this a one time fix?
 
Hydrated lime is calcium hydroxide, it is not terribly soluble - that's why you get a milky solution. It won't cause problems even though the pH seems very high; the plants will take up whatever they need. I didn't add it to water but scattered a teaspoonful over the top of a 5 gallon pot. After you continue watering normally the pH will return to the usual. I'd use just two teaspoons per gallon and see how they are with that - one plant first, as a test.
 
I'll never use hydrated lime again. Its been a while since this post, but it sent my plants into a downward spiral for some reason. I think the reason my plants screwed up after my lime application is I probably misdiagnosed the problem and the lime just intensified it. (I had a Ca def., but it was probably brought on by the soils PH being too high (i was using a crappy green 2 prong ph thing then), so thats why hydrated lime probably sent my plants into a quick downward spiral, as the lime probably rockets the already high PH way up.)
Anyways, knowing what I know now, I won't use hydrated lime in my organic grows cause hydrated lime kills most all beneficial microorganisms on touch. I would only use hydrated lime as a last ditch effort to raise PH in a non organic soil grow. It is definately fast acting though, I'll give it that.
 
Hydrated lime...BAD (my opinion).
 
Well, then it might work if my PH is way to low (5.2) or should I use dolmite??

I am switching over to Coco on my next run (my moms are already converted)
 
Yea it should work with a low PH like that, just be wary of it (its the most alkaline form of lime so a little goes a long way) and take its slow.
 
4 teaspoons to a gallon sounds like to much to me bro. i heard it was supposed to be more like 1 to a gallon? anyone else?

i've used epsom salt at i teaspoon per gallon, never the hyd. lime. seems to work fine. normally in diagnosing a problem, you will want to check the ph runoff first thing. most deficiencies stem from a high, or low ph problem, imho.
 

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