What's the Easiest Way to Measure soil?

Here is my situation, I need to add lime to my promix and have never had to measure out soil before. What's the easiest way to do this because I don't wanna use the whole 3.5 cf bail at this time.

Hey guys not tryin to be a dick but gonna bump in line till I get an answer. Looked all over and cant find any info on it

Use a bucket.. a 5 gallon or you can use a close hamper they have a wider top.

How big are the buckets you grow in?

ahhhhhh dude a 5 gallon bucket THANK YOU I didn't even think of doin that... Now I shouldn't pack that down real tight should I? I think my container are 2 gallon but to be honest with you I use the black ones and have never really asked what size there were.

Why are you adding lime to promix? It comes ph'd

yes you are right but about 2 weeks into flowering my ph dips down to 5.3 which in turn causes a mag lockout. My guess is that they don't put enough lime in there to last a whole cycle

Do you use CalMag?

Yessir I do, buuuuuut not working to well due to low ph of promix.. Here is a couple pics of the beginning of lockout but just progresses worse after time to the point where ALL fan leave were dead. I have been researching this problem for almost 2 years and have come to the conclusion (after finally buying a soil ph meter and it reading 5.3) all these problems are due to the low ph of the soil. Also from my reading is that lime not only nutralizes (sorry for the spelling) the peat (which is acidic) in soil and promix but also provides a source of magnesium.

LOL, I'll do it again, real sloooooooow.

Go to HD, or Lowes and pick up a 5 gallon bucket, ~$2.50. It holds an actual 5 gallons, not like nursery pots that are really smaller than the size stated. Like a 2gal pot is actually 1 1/2-1 3/4 gallons.

1 CuFt=~7.5 gallons Actually it's like 7.48, but 7 1/2 is close enough.

Fill the 5 gal bucket 3 times=15 gallons=2 CuFt, add 2 cups of lime and mix well. Repeat as needed.

Let us know how many 5 gallon buckets you get out of the bale of Promix. I'm curious and have never expanded a whole bale at once.

Wet

Wetdog said:

LOL, I'll do it again, real sloooooooow.

Go to HD, or Lowes and pick up a 5 gallon bucket, ~$2.50. It holds an actual 5 gallons, not like nursery pots that are really smaller than the size stated. Like a 2gal pot is actually 1 1/2-1 3/4 gallons.

1 CuFt=~7.5 gallons Actually it's like 7.48, but 7 1/2 is close enough.

Fill the 5 gal bucket 3 times=15 gallons=2 CuFt, add 2 cups of lime and mix well. Repeat as needed.

Let us know how many 5 gallon buckets you get out of the bale of Promix. I'm curious and have never expanded a whole bale at once.

Wet

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Sorry dude I asked that before I realized that you already posted that lol my bad..... " I'm not burnt out, i'm burnin bright" hehe

max316420 said:

Yessir I do, buuuuuut not working to well due to low ph of promix.. Here is a couple pics of the beginning of lockout but just progresses worse after time to the point where ALL fan leave were dead. I have been researching this problem for almost 2 years and have come to the conclusion (after finally buying a soil ph meter and it reading 5.3) all these problems are due to the low ph of the soil. Also from my reading is that lime not only nutralizes (sorry for the spelling) the peat (which is acidic) in soil and promix but also provides a source of magnesium.

View attachment 1574510View attachment 1574511

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Pro-mix is 6-7 ph and contains lime. Your probly not keeping track of your waters ph. ive never had a problem with it. I have the gh drop tester and ph up. I use 2 mil ph up per 1000ppm of gmb by advanced. When i add juice my water level drops to 5. then i add ph up and its in the yellow. Its 15 for the test drops and it last 100 times. Wait half an hour to see the color and look under white light. Lime wont do you any good. ph up is what you should be using. If your waters ph isnt right then your soillless will slowly go down. Here is what i do. I bring the water to yellow after i mix my juice. I give them that and the next watering i flush it out then move on to my next week when they need food. i let them dry out a bit and hit them hard. Out with the old and in with the new. My water brings the p.h to normal because its 6.5.. so even if my juice is 6 my water will bring the ph to 6.2-6.4. day 1 food day 4 flush day 7or 8 food. thats why it goes by weeks.

wow dude ph up are you for real?? I never thought of that lol sorry had to get that sarcastic comment outta the way but of coarse I use ph up and like stated probably a million times is that yes we know that it has lime in it but not enough to last the full cycle... And to answer your question I ALWAYS check my waters ph before and after food is added and I also tested my promix and ph is 5.3, so im thinkin that could be the problem... sorry for the sarcasim.. But i'm so sick of people on here saying that they " never check their ph " " don't worry about your ph " it's a scientific fact that fluctuations in ph can dramatically affect the way a plant uptakes its nutrients

dude, IDK why everybody always says to use regular buckets. The containers at the nursery are smaller because it is a whole different measuement than liquid gallons. We are not concerned with liquid gallons in our soil measurement but dry gallons. Correct me if I'm wrong, but yeah I just use the nursery pots to measure. I have 1 3 and 5 gallon containers.

I use the same containers but never asked what size they were when I bought them. How the hell can you tell what size ur pots are?? I'm stumped on that one lol

If you are positive that the ph later in the cycle is the problem I would recommend adding oyster shells instead of lime. Oyster shells take longer to breakdown than lime and since you already have enough lime in the Promix the oyster shells should take it that extra few weeks you need.
Lime is around 75% CaCO3
Oyster Shells is closer to 99% CaCO3
CaCO3-Calcium Carbonate is what buffers ph

i use gallon milk jugs with the top strategically cut-

to retain strength and still be wide mouth.

promix is absolutely acidic, and amending with dolomite works well. i have never tried oyster shells. but would be interested if they are fast acting enough.
i add 3 TBS per gallon of promix, and water through with 8.0-8.5 ferts, after a 5.5 water cycle.
it works great. the grower that turned me on to promix 3 or 4 years ago, had already figured it out.

anyway, i also supplement the calmag with epsom, on most strains, in flower.
ii add what amounts to 2-3 mL in a tube(dry) per gallon.

happy growing!

How the hell can i get 1.5 a light if im not doing something right. Read my post, its all there. I flush them hard after a feeding. and start over on the next week. That way it always corrects it. Of course nutrients are acidic BUT water is not and The saying OUT with the OLD and in the NEW isnt just a fancy term. It means the acid of the food is getting flushed out and replaced with a better solution. If your saying pro-mix doesnt have enough lime. Maybe you have a salt build up. Alot of people dont check ph in pro-mix because they know what they are doing. If i wrote a recipe i would include x amount of PH up to x amount of nutrient solution for the amount of water being used. Ive had the same problem as you have before. I didnt flush inbetween feedings.
You fail to include the amount of food your giving them. Where does the lime go?? Pro-mix can be reused you know. There is enough lime to last.

dude your growing in passive hydroponic system and your talking about lime lol.
Just raise your ph in your solution untill you read 6 on your metre. It could be off you know.

rainin on 'em eh?

sure, sure. flushin with 5.5, then feedin 2.5 [email protected].

every two days if i wanted. i gotta build a machine.
i have heard of others, with no probs. but most do.
adding the dolomite fixes it right up?
maybe its all the radiation. my garden is closer to japan than yours.

Murfy said:

rainin on 'em eh?

sure, sure. flushin with 5.5, then feedin 2.5 [email protected].

every two days if i wanted. i gotta build a machine.
i have heard of others, with no probs. but most do.
adding the dolomite fixes it right up?
maybe its all the radiation. my garden is closer to japan than yours.

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I think vancouver is closer