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Offlineshroomer17
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50/50+ casing questions (RR's recipe) - 9.5 pH?!
    #9391002 - 12/08/08 09:19 AM (15 years, 3 months ago)

Okay I tried to make up some casing mixture following RR's recipe: 10 parts peat, 10 parts verm, 1 part gypsum, 1/4 part hydrated lime. 

I attempted to make 2L of casing material, so I used 1L peat, 1L verm, 100mL gypsum and 25mL hydrated lime.  Did i convert correctly from parts to volumes?  Does that sound like the right volumes of ingredients?  After mixing it up it had a weird smell to it, not very nice or soil-like... I'm assuming that's from all the gypsum I used (crushed drywall powder in my case - 100mL seemed like a lot). 

So I pasteurized it and applied it the other day.  I left a bit sitting around in a mostly sealed jar and decided to test it's pH today.  I put about 2 teaspoons of the casing mix into a shot glass filled with distilled water, mixed it up a bit and used my digital pH pen to test (i use it mainly for my plants).  As i stirred the soil/water around with the pen, the pH kept climbing and climbing... reaching a high of 9.5!  It did not fall back down, either, but remained at that level. 

So what did I do wrong?? I thought ideal pH for casing mix was between 7 and 8?  Why would the pH be so high?  Should I be using a different method to test the pH of the casing mix?  Did I screw up on calculating the volumes?  This is my first time making casing material.. any input would be much appreciated.  Thanks a lot

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OfflineRogerRabbitM
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Re: 50/50+ casing questions (RR's recipe) - 9.5 pH?! [Re: shroomer17]
    #9391020 - 12/08/08 09:25 AM (15 years, 3 months ago)

I recommend around a teaspoon of hydrated lime per cup of peat.  That will leave you around 8.5 for a day or two, when it settles down to around 7.5 or so.  I suspect your pH meter isn't calibrated, especially if you used gypsum at ten percent of the volume of peat.

You might try repeating the test after calibrating your meter in pH 7 solution.  Be sure to filter the material back out of the water and test only water, especially if you are using a bulb type pH meter.

You might also check your label against the picture below.  When using hydrated lime, it's important to use horticultural hydrated lime, not the type intended for masonry.
RR


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Re: 50/50+ casing questions (RR's recipe) - 9.5 pH?! [Re: RogerRabbit]
    #9391053 - 12/08/08 09:34 AM (15 years, 3 months ago)

Thanks for the quick response RR :laugh:

I actually had just completed calibrating my pH meter before testing this solution to be sure it was accurate.  However, I did not filter dirt or anything out of the water before testing (and yes I am using a bulb type handheld meter).  I will do this and try again.

Just did some quick math, and by using 1tsp per cup of peat, that equals about 20.7mL of hydrated lime.  Is it possible that the extra few mL's i used (approx 25mL total) could account for such a big difference?  I saw this recipe on your casing recipe video, RR, in case you are wondering.

Edit: whoops, didn't see you had added more to your response.  The lime I have is this stuff: http://store.mrswagesstore.com/mrswagpiclim.html ; Mrs Wage's Pickling lime.  I hope this is okay?

Edited by shroomer17 (12/08/08 09:36 AM)

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Re: 50/50+ casing questions (RR's recipe) - 9.5 pH?! [Re: shroomer17]
    #9391114 - 12/08/08 09:50 AM (15 years, 3 months ago)

Okay I just added some more distilled water and filtered the mix with a coffee filter.  I retested and it now reads 7.5.  I guess this is ideal?  Hopefully I did not screw things up by adding more distilled water... I could always re-test to improve accuracy if you think it would be a good idea.  Let me know what you think.  Thanks!

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Re: 50/50+ casing questions (RR's recipe) - 9.5 pH?! [Re: shroomer17]
    #9391129 - 12/08/08 09:53 AM (15 years, 3 months ago)

I'd skip the distilled water next time.  Use tap water, since that's what you hydrate the casing material and substrate with, as well as what you use for misting.

Distilled water really has no use for us other than spore syringe preparation and a few advanced lab tricks.  Use tap or spring water for growing mushrooms.

7.5 is perfect.
RR


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semper in excretia sumus solim profundum variat

"I've never had a failed experiment.  I've only discovered 10,000 methods which do not work."
Thomas Edison

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Re: 50/50+ casing questions (RR's recipe) - 9.5 pH?! [Re: shroomer17]
    #9393119 - 12/08/08 03:46 PM (15 years, 3 months ago)

Okay thanks.  The reason I used distilled water was because i wanted something pH neutral that I could put the casing mix in so I could test it's pH.  It's something I read about for testing the pH of the soil for my plants, so I figured it would be appropriate in this scenario. 

When hydrating the casing mix I did use tap water.  Thanks again

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