Hydrated Lime application

[blancolighter]

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?

 

[leafminer]

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.

 

[blancolighter]

Right on man, thanks for the help.

 

[yumyumbubblegum]

@ blanco

Did this solve your Calcium problem??

 

[blancolighter]

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.

 

[Yoga]

Hydrated lime...BAD (my opinion).

 

[yumyumbubblegum]

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)

 

[blancolighter]

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.

 

[IRISH]

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.