About PH. What is pH?
“Soil pH is the measure of the acidity (sourness) or alkalinity (sweetness) of a soil.” (University of Vermont Extension) Soil pH measures on a numerical scale that goes from 0.0 to 14.0. A soil pH of 0.0 is the most acidic while 14.0 being most alkaline. A soil pH of 7.0 is neutral.
How pH Works and What it Tells You
Soil pH measures how much hydrogen relative to how much calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, and aluminum are in the soil. (Garden Rant) When there is more hydrogen the soil is acidic (lower pH). Whereas the more of the other nutrients the more alkaline (higher pH) the soil will measure.
Soil pH influences plant growth through several factors. Those factors include soil bacteria, nutrient leaching, nutrient availability, toxic elements, and soil structure. These factors have equal importance. Yet, many gardeners tend to focus on nutrient availability.
A soil pH in the right zone for a plant will make nutrients available to that plant. If there are nutrients, but the pH is too high or low, the plant will not be able to absorb the nutrients. Or, it could mean that there are not enough nutrients like those mentioned above in the soil.
Almost every thing grows well in a neutral PH of 7. However for maximum production certain plants prefer either a slightly higher or lower PH. Tomatoes for example are happier at a PH of 6.2-6.4. Sort of like fine tuning an engine. It will work fine at factory settings but can be tweeked to milk some extra power out of it. This is only for soil based crops. If your are growing hydroponic then it become much more crucial to maintain a balanced PH.
For soil you can use cheap PH test strips. I also have several of the probes that test PH and moisture levels. I have tested them against my electronic tester and they are not very precise. If you are messing with hydroponics you really need a tester.
I use this one because my wife researched them and chose this. I think she like the name. Allprettyall. Doesn’t seem to be available now. Was $30 dollars at the time. Reviews on all these cheap testers are hit or miss. Mine has worked fine. I will probably invest in a more expensive tester. You also need something to calibrate the tester with.
This is just a small vestibule off the back of the boiler/wood heater room. Stays around 80 degrees when the stove is running. 18 inch by 36 inch shelves. $39 dollars. 8 barrina grow lights $60 dollars.
Started cool weather crops here in early February. Broccoli, beets, kale and pollinating flowers . Some tomatoes for the greenhouse. Once the cold hardy ones put on true leaves I move them to a semi heated room with bay windows.
I love the view out the window. I actually like your shelves too. I am really glad you posted that, because I was going to get some of those totes for my misting set up, and I just realized the tops may not work well because you need to drill out the holes for the net cups.
I line these 27 gallon totes with aluminum foil and put a heat mat in the bottom. There are 2 -2 foot grow light fastened to the lid. You grow a lot of starts in cells in one of these. I am using them to maintain my tomatoes until I can move them to greenhouse. They are kind of a perfect seed starting system IMO if you don’t have room for a shelf setup or a warm place to start seeds.
I have enough of the four foot lights to blanket my 10 by 20 greenhouse and feel like they were a reasonable priced investment, but I also stocked up on a bunch of 5000W 6000K 46 inch LED shop lights I got on sale at a box store for 10 bucks a piece. They work just as well as long as the Kelvins are above 4500. I recommend getting everything you can right now especially if you live on the East side of the Mississippi. That bridge collapse in Baltimore is a major deal. Those container ships from China won’t have anyplace to unload for quite a while on the east coast.
Oh! I wondered what you were doing with them. That is very clever, I might borrow that idea. Actually you can consider it stolen. I technically don’t need the aeroponics, for the cloning but I do need the mist and humidity control, and space is an issue, and I can use the water proof led strip lights and have more control over the light intensity.
You have no doubt seen this video Sean but for people that don’t know what aeroponics is, this is a build of a system. Different from other hydro systems in that the plant roots are not submerged in water. I have seen videos of potatoes grown aeroponically but I don’t think that’s doable for the home grower. For the past couple of years I have been planting much less in my traditional garden and experimenting more with hydro but this year I’ve had to reconsider just because of the volume of food I expect to grow do to the poisoning of all commercially grown foods. You all may think I’m exaggerating, but nutz is better than weak and sick. Anyway, the only downside to Hydro is despite a lot of research I have found no self made or organic nutrient solutions to give really good results. I have stocked up on enough Masterblend components to probably last me til I’m planted myself. Soil or solution, people need to be aware that they need to find an alternative to getting food from the grocery stores because by this time next year it probably will be iffy.
I think it is usually anywhere between 5-30minutes per hour. It depends on the plant. You typically are just trying to keep the roots wet, and then you want air to reach them. I don’t know if it matters as much with the pump system as the ultrasonic foggers but you have to be careful it doesn’t heat up too much like 85F is the cutoff as well.
I was going to build a similar system, but the ultrasonic foggers were cheaper then the pvc. BUT the ultrasonic foggers ceramic disks can break so I got two sets. I am trying to figure out how I am going to measure much water they disperse. (i looked up some similar ones. the 108khz 16mm disks output 50 ml/hr.)
Apparently, on my ultrasonic driver board, they have a PLC or microcontroller. It shuts off after 4 hours. It isn’t going to work for me like that. they also have a program on it, that cycles through them, which is kind of cool, for say a halloween display, but doesn’t help me much either. So I guess I have to fudge around with these a bit more then I was hoping.
Anybody here tried growing upside down tomatoes or cukes? I tried it a while back when they were selling these topsy turvy grow bags and then again last year. Didn’t get much out of it, a few cukes and tomatoes per vine but I can’t see why it shouldn’t work.
We tried two of them as well about 15 years ago, no great harvest but a harvest nonetheless. So if space in a greenhouse is a problem they have their spot but I am not sure other than that and a fun thing that I would recommend them.
However when we used those, it was more a fun thing on the porch before we moved to the farm so there was no serious attempt.
We tried two hanging bags systems also about 12 years ago. Mail-order bought.
Up in the air suspended no blight, and fewer bugs.
But the small retained moisture capacity, and with hand watering; really hurt the end yield.
By the second year the bought fabrics in these bought systems had UV deteriorated too weak to reuse a second year.
So too expensive to pursue.
I tried everything over the years but nothing for me works as good as the old fashioned in the ground method that has been done for centuries. “In the sweat of my brow shall I eat bread”.
we have tried all sorts of things to be more self sufficient. planted avocado and raspberries, citrus and sweet potato. lastest push has been mushrooms. Late last year I purchased spores for wine cap mushrooms, Phoenix oyster,and Tawaka. Im now selling $300 worth of oyster mushrooms each saturday at the farmers market and because Im emptying spent growbags into our bark gardens, now that autumn has arrived we have delicious gourmet mushrooms popping up all over the garden http/sporaddicmushrooms.com
