Does anyone know the ideal ph of soil for av's?

I am thinking that I will change the water to distilled water as our farm land is 7.5 and the av growers in Corpus Christi (we get the same water supply that they do) say they have to use distilled water. i don't know personally.

I am finally meeting success with strep leaves in my wicking mix????
And................the seeds that SnowRose sent out from her variegated Canadian strep are still growing.........

My chirita leaves look very good also...............I am getting happier with my standards when I realized that i am over fertilizing and providing too much light................

The strep seeds are still alive and actually growing since I first posted them several days ago................entirely too energizing...........

**************I stopped by Lowe's today and found the fine vermiculite I have been looking for..............so can hardly wait to plant more seeds..............

Good looking strep babies Gail! I did some leaves like that but they look all wilty and yucky, must have done something wrong with them.

~Brenda

Gessiegail,

African violets prefer pH in the 6.4 - 6.9 range (slightly acid)

http://www.avsa.org/AVMFiles/pH%20RxForHealthyPlants.pdf

Is your water 7.5 or the "land" ? What is the water pH? Easy to check with pH test strips.

Your seedlings are coming along nicely but those are not variegated ones. I think some of the seedpods on Iced Canadian Sunset (variegated) are ready to harvest today with more being ready later.

Snowrose, thanks and I will test the water.................yes, you are right in that the farm land doesn't have anything to do with my avs except that the lady in CC thinks the water is just as alkaline.............i couldn't find the info. you provided about the ph of the soil of avs............

I have one of those little test things...............going to see this morning what it says for the water...............

Brenda, I have several strep leaves in vermiculite that i started later than the one I showed in the wicking mix.............will let you know if they have babies.

PS....I also took the vein out of a leaf of 'Spritual Corridor" and it is sitting in straight vermiculite............let you know if they produce babies...........

I hope I haven't messed up the kit............it was for soil and I am only using the green capsule and putting my tap water in it................now waiting 10 minutes to see what color it is............

************should I have put some wicking mix in the tube?????????

I just used the kit to measure (not the soil) but only the water and it is very green........almost as dark as the number 8 on the scale and much much darker than 7 on the scale.

*************Please help me to know what that means............

GG,
I need to know more about your kit and your procedures of what your are trying to determine the pH of. It sounds as if your water is alkaline? Correct? Do you have limestone in your area?

[1...2...3...4...5...6...(7)...8...9...10...11...12...13...14]

The pH scale. Neutral being 7, anything below 7 is acidic and anything above 7 is alkaline. The farther in either direction from 7, the more extreme the acidity or alkalinity.

This is the kit I used although it says it is for soil, I only used water with the correct capsule............the other capsules may not be in the right place (I haven't used them) as I dropped the three others and they got tipsy topsy.


***notice how dark the green is in the vial

I forgot to answer your question............yes, I am trying to determine how bad our water is..............(in terms of alkalinity as the lady from CC suggests that it is)...........i do know this.................we can't have well water as it is so alkaline that it actually kills what ever we water in the garden...........so we have shut the wells down except to use for the deer and cattle.

This message was edited Aug 1, 2007 11:36 AM

Just jumping in for half a second. What you need to know is the ph surrounding the roots, not of the water that gets poured into the pot. In other words, the water mixed with the potting mix and fertilizer and other additives that are regularly used.

Ok......................I may have messed up the kit, but will read instructions again............

Here are the results done like you told me, Keyring....................

****I followed the directions on the kit using the soil from an av....................Snowrose and Keyring.........what does this look like to you?????????

Should I be using a more balanced fertilizer...........have been using 12-36-10
No wonder they bloom all the time great guns but their foliage looks crummy.

Keyring,
I was heading in that direction round about step by step in trying to ascertain what gg has as far as water and how it relates to the soil mix she uses to come up with a solution that is in the correct pH range. To test water, right, she needs test strips for that and not a soil test kit.

Could be why she doesn't like vermiculite in her soil mix as it tends to be slightly alkaline?

You are right though, it's the total picture made up of each component that counts.

Gail - Good to know what your water is like and then make alterations to your soil recipe to bring the pH in range. Or alternately, if you change your water, then check it against the soil recipe you are using now. Some people that have hard alkaline water, use a reverse osmosis filter to remove dissolved solids. That would be easier than hauling jugs of purchased water. Anyway, many ways to accomplish the goal.

Another option might be using plain peat moss (which is acidic) and adding your perlite, vermiculite, etc. with your existing alkaline water and testing that to see if you come closer to the ideal.

I hope I didn't throw too much into the fan. Trying to keep it simple but effective.

I am personally a big believer in fertilizer rotation. I give a solution with a higher P once every 4 times I fertilize.. So 3 balanced watering 1 High P. My solutions tend to be half the recommended strength and I water once a week. Sure it may not force flowering as often but I find my foliage on all my houseplants benefits and the general health is good. This though is my treatment for my houseplants as I am new to AV's and don't currently have a theory on them but this will be my starting point. Others I am sure have better theories about African Violets based on actual practice.

Which vial is the one to look at?

the first one is the ph of the av soil, second one is nitrogen level, the 3rd one is phosphorous and the 4th one is potash.

*******I think you are on to something, SR...........the steps I bought that were grown in spaghnum moss..........i left the moss around the roots when I potted up look fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!
So, rather than doing more than one thing at a time, right now I am going to start adding peat moss to the mix.............Lowe's has never had it, but when I was there and picked up the real fine vermiculite, they had to the peat moss,too.

********Since that entails repotting everything which I just did...........what would you pick SR as another first move to make.............thanks so much
*******Then, anything I plant up from now on will get the peat in the mix also.......sound like a good idea????

What about aluminum sulfate?

If you were to try using peat moss, perlite, vermiculite as a soil-less recipe, I would mix up a batch and test it with your water and see if the alkalinity of your water compensates for the acidity of the peat moss and makes a mix in the 6.4 -6.9 range. Try before repotting everything. Even if it came out to 7, would be okay as peat when it breaks down becomes more acid. People that re-pot frequently don't need to worry about that though.

If you like the recipe you are using for wicking as far as porosity (not too wet) then substitute the peat moss for whatever bagged soil you are using with your usual amount of perlite, vermiculite, whatever. Test this with your water.

Peat moss is acidic - Perlite is neutral - Vermiculite can be somewhat alkaline at times

Before trying these suggestions, please confirm that your water is indeed hard, pH higher than 7, etc. Do you get scaly lime deposits around your sink and so forth?

you ought to see the reservoirs as far as scaly lime deposits. The reason I wouldn't get any thing but white on my kitchen sink is because the water leaves calcium deposits everywhere. I have a professional Rowenta iron that shouldn't have to be cleaned but every 10 ironings (and the directions say to never use distilled water) but I have to clean it every 5 times I use it. I really am positive that the water is very alkaline as my brother has lived out here forever and he is a farmer.

Thanks both Keyring and Snowrose...............I hadn't even thought about just trying a few repotted in the mix of av soil-less and perlite half and half.........and adding peat to it on a trial basis. I don't like a lot of standards avs that I have anyway.......so I will do that in a matter of days and see what happens.

Again, thanks so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Okay, calcium carbonate confirmed in a major way. Yes, try mixing up a batch of mix using peat moss and your other ingredients and try it as a test. You may be happy with it. Seems an easy way to solve the problem to start with as an option and maintain consistency. Good luck and let us know how it works for you.

howdy.

I need a little signature that automatically lets people know when I'm typing on a #&(@# cellphone "keyboard". I don't mean to be rude but sometimes it seems better to post sooner rather than later.

Sounds to me that you have water similar to mine. Regardless of the changes you make to the pH of the potting mix, you are still going to have problems with the solids in the water in the long run, so it would help if you can do something about the water. Some common options among orchid folk:
- collect rain water (don't forget to take steps against mosquitos)
- get an RO (reverse osmosis) system installed (there are negatives to this, like high % of waste water)
- haul distilled water home (obvious negative is the hauling, but you could consider it a work out - weightlifting is recommended for women to combat osteo)
- stopgap/temp/lazy persons alternative (this would be what I use) - run the water through a Brita filter.

My tap water through a Brita filter has a ph of about 6.8 (add fert. and it drops a little more) and a TDS (total dissolved solids) of 120-140, which is fairly decent but still not all that great (for orchids). I can't install an RO system and hauling distilled is totally out of the question (except for for the carnivorous plants who insist....), so it's my best bet.

If I use straight tap water, I need to repot the plants about every 4 months because of the crud, which is way too soon.....

I am going to at least start with Snow's idea...................and see what happens.............
My brother asked me how much water a day that I used on my av plant family. When I said about 3-4 gallons, toting the water is out of the question.

I have a Brita that I use for drinking water but it only holds 1 gallon. If adding the peat doesn't work and make things look better, I will devote a lot of space to about 4 Britas.

My brother and I discussed the possibility of putting gutters on the house so I could collect rain water but that just adds to the problem of mosquitoes that we already have. We have to use a giant sprayer after each rain and spray all the yard and under our houses...........such a pain...............

In a few weeks I will be reporting back on the peat..........thanks everyone

Most soil-less recipes using straight peat moss as the base have the addition of lime (dolomite) to bring pH up. Since you already have lots of lime in your water, no need to add it.

In natural habitat many gesneriads grow in moss on limestone rocks and outcroppings.

I am real excited to try just adding some peat moss to my wicking mix................

************I have had my 10 year old granddaughter with me all week. She has taken an unbelievable interest in the gesneriads. Later I will show you what all she is taking home. We have planted leaves together, made terrariums, groomed plants, watered, etc. She is bound and determined to not just grow from any leaves...............she wants to take the vein out of a strep leaf and try it. She already has stuck 4 strep leaves along with the av leaves.

Today we have to go find some gro-lights for her. (She got this interest in plants somewhat from her daddy.............he helped me last weekend do a lot around the house so I gave him my variegated Spath, my ZZ plant, etc.............)

Your Granddaughter will always remember this time you shared with her. So great to have wholesome positive activities with children. I'm sure she learned a lot besides having fun with you.

Maybe I should mention this in a separate thread, but I noticed in Plant Files that someone enthusiastically but erroneously added cultural details to the african violets such as pH and 'spacing' (not relevant), etc. Now what? How is all this to be corrected? Who has time to submit an error report for all of them? Not sure what to do. Some folks depend on Dave's Garden to be somewhat accurate.

Any ideas?

Since you are the most knowledgeable one this forum right now, why don't you dmail Terry and ask if you can make corrections..............they were done with good hearts ..............although I know that it would be very time consuming for you to do that.................I also wish that when people upload photos that they include foliage as well as the bloom.............in some cases their is a plantlet with no bloom at all.

I now have the CD from the AVSA with all the proper information. It sure helps me in getting good shots at a particular AV.

What i don't understand is that I attempted to add two names and photos of African Violets I bought from the president of the CC AV society and Dave's Garden would not accept them even though I provided the hybridizer, etc..............

Why don't you try and add a few names, SnowRose and see if they get accepted??

I checked the information 5 times over before submitting what was written on each plant that was rejected by DG.

I have submitted lots of photos to Plant Files and never had a problem. I don't know what could be the matter with your submissions, gessiegail.

Topic of Plant Files continued here -

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/756006/

I just wrote the question in Dave's forum. RainGazer led me step by step but they never appeared so I quit uploading photos.

I will try again with your link...............